Coffer Corporate Leisure has advised David Lloyd Leisure on the forward commitment with abrdn for a new purpose-built racquet’s health & fitness club in Shawfair, Edinburgh. The club is David Lloyd’s third in Edinburgh and provides the opportunity to maximise their already strong membership penetration across the city.

The price of £20,370,000 reflected a Net Initial Yield of 4.80%.

Once completed, the c.62,500 sq ft health club will comprise premium facilities including a state-of-the-art gym, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a 3-court sports hall, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, as well as an indoor spa and an outdoor spa garden. The Club will also benefit from a 245-space car park. The property is to be let on a new commercial lease for a term of 30 years with indexation.

The club is to be situated in Shawfair Park, a new commercial hub within the new town of Shawfair with approximately 25,000 sqm of office and ancillary space. The site was strategically selected to take advantage of the new Shawfair development, which will turn the Edinburgh suburb and the surrounding areas into places of vast residential and commercial activity, benefiting from a core catchment population of over 200,000.

Mark Sheehan, Managing Director at Coffer Corporate Leisure, said “We received strong interest in this opportunity. David Lloyd is a resilient business operating a model that is excellent. By investing in the best facilities, the clubs are very attractive to members, including families, and retention of membership is extremely strong. The shift in habits towards more working from home, has fuelled demand for new David Lloyd memberships which are currently at record levels. Many members work part of the week from the clubs. David Lloyd are to continue expanding in the UK and have a pipeline of future sites to develop.”

Mark continued, “These assets are particularly interesting to institutions. We have acted on a number of sale and leasebacks or forward fund transactions for David Lloyd over the past few years. Their new club opening model is well refined and demand for assets of this nature is very strong.”

Coffer Corporate Leisure acted for the Vendor, David Lloyd Leisure, CBRE acted the Purchaser, abrdn.

David Lloyd Leisure is Europe’s No 1 health club operator in Europe with 128 clubs including 100 in the UK. Membership numbers are at record levels.