THE Port Arcades shopping centre in Ellesmere Port will go under the hammer next week with a guide price of £3m.

The town centre retail facility, which currently has a net income of just under £500,000, is due to be sold at an online auction on Tuesday, September 29.

Owners FREP (Ellesmere Port) Ltd, which is a company within London-based Frogmore Group who specialise in real estate investment and management, have been in administration since November 2016.

Property specialists Arron Kendall and Simon Thomas, of Moorfields Advisory, were appointed administrators over the company and the shopping centre has continued to trade as normal while a 'disposal strategy' was developed.

Digital property investment platform BidX1 is holding the online auction next week with The Port Arcades lot number four and requiring a bidding deposit of £19,000.

It describes the shopping centre, which has a total of 76 retail units, a centre management suite, office space and seven residential apartments, as comprising the 'heart of the town centre' and being an 'important strategic site'.

Chester and District Standard:

The Port Arcades shopping centre.

The property summary adds that the gross contractual rent is more than £1.5m per year with a net operating income of £498,735.

The Port Arcades is currently held on six long leasehold interests from Cheshire West and Chester Council, which have 92 years unexpired and a combined annual head rent of £88,000.

According to BidX1, an agreement in principle was reached to re-gear the headleases into one headllease for a term of 250 years at a fixed ground rent of £100,000 per year.

This agreement was subject to the demolition of the former B&M unit.

The Port Arcades, which is a part covered, part open air shopping centre which adjoins an indoor market, was originally constructed in the mid-1980s.

It is currently 64% let by floor area.

Oliver Childs, head of commercial auctions at BidX1, said: "We noted a clear window of opportunity for sellers following our summer sales, and we continue to leverage the flexibility of our digital platform to allow clients to take advantage of that pent-up investor demand.

"This month, that means multiple auctions dates, and we're pleased to be acting on behalf of several new clients, a trend we expect to continue into Q4 as increasing numbers of vendors of all stripes seek to maximise return using best-in-class online methods."