Construction work is now underway on Ludlow’s delayed M&S Food store on Sheet Road, after planning permission was granted in January last year.
Now, the site has been bought by property investment firm Londonmetric Property as part of a £77 milllion deal for five properties across the UK, complete with a long-term lease in place to Marks & Spencer.
In an update to the London Stock Exchange, Londonmetric said it had purchased the 21,000 square feet site for £7.6m, adding that it had been pre-let to M&S on a 15-year lease with five yearly rent reviews, linked to inflation.
The Ludlow site now forms part of the FTSE 100 real estate company’s £7 billion portfolio of assets, which brings in contracted rent of over £400 million each year.
At the same time, the firm also acquired five Premier Inn hotels in the south of the country, and a large logistics warehouse in Wolverhampton built by Shropshire developer Morris Property.
The firm said the acquisition of M&S’ Ludlow site would “solidify and improve the granularity of our assets” across the company’s key sectors, adding that it would explore further, similar opportunities in the near term.
The M&S supermarket project in Ludlow was first put forward in January 2023, but the first application by developer Avonbury Properties was withdrawn several months later for “procedural reasons”, following complaints about the design of the proposed store.
A revised scheme was put forward in October 2023 with fresh designs for the building, which was given the green light by planners in January 2024.
The development is set to house an M&S Food Hall, which is expected to generate an annual turnover of approximately £14 million. The store will feature a 1,400 square metre trading area, along with a 180-space car park, including facilities such as disabled parking bays, parent and child spaces, electric vehicle charging points, and cycle racks.
According to documents submitted with the approved application, around 70 jobs are set to be created when the store opens for business.
The area has remained mysteriously dormant despite the approval of the application until late last year, when initial preparation and survey work appeared to be taking place on the site.
Images posted to social media last week appeared to show machinery being moved onto site, after planners at Shropshire Council agreed to the store being moved several metres to the northeast to avoid a large gas pipe, after a mix-up with the original plans
Marks & Spencer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.