Having been engaged to run Discovery Park in Kent and manage the asset on a day-to-day basis, the Maritime Capital team then spent almost a year transforming the acquired business into an efficiently run property company.
One major challenge was that more than 150 businesses and organisations on the site were being charged all-inclusive rents.
Service charges were bundled in the rental price, making it difficult to assess the true capital value of the park.
We set to work formulating properly structured service charges, calculating for the first time how much was being spent delivering each service.
Discovery Park’s tenants were then all transferred to rent-only contracts, with separate service charge agreements.
The implementation of efficient management systems, as well as lease restructures and educating existing employees on property knowledge, all allowed for much more accurate data to be gathered and recorded on a regular basis.
This transformation allowed for lending parties to understand the asset in greater detail, making the site much more saleable and leading to a £20m loan facility being made available.
This was a demanding, engaging project that greatly expanded our capabilities - and from an initial capital value of £20 million, Discovery Park was valued at more than £75m at the end of our two-year engagement.