Confidence in the commercial property market and client demand for flexible work spaces have driven the Guernsey-based property company to make new acquisitions.
Polygon Properties owns Forum 3 and Forum 4 on Grenville Street as well as Heritage Hall and Hadsley House in St Peter Port. The company recently completed a refinancing deal with ABN AMRO worth more than £15m, which will enable them to purchase properties.
Martin Belcher, Polygon Properties’ Chairman said: “We are focused on acquiring more commercial property, particularly in Jersey where there is considerable demand. We have a list of interested parties and our current tenants are growing and so need more space. The deal with ABN AMRO puts us in a position where we can act quickly when the right property becomes available.”
According to Mr Belcher, a previous refinancing deal fell through earlier this year after they found out, “…there wasn’t much appetite from many banks to lend against commercial property as they have to follow a UK-set formula which doesn’t work for the islands.” ABN AMRO “refreshingly” understood the unique commercial property market conditions in the Channel Islands.
Stefano Finetti, ABN AMRO Senior Private Banker, said the bank had a different approach to traditional lenders. “This deal shows ABN AMRO (CI) Limited’s confidence in the commercial property industry across the Channel Islands and we are actively looking to take real estate assets as collateral and utilise our balance sheet,” he commented. “There has been concern about the lack of availability of lenders, but we hope this deal shows that we do want to lend on both commercial and high end residential property. We know some banks have reservations about lending on commercial property but ABN AMRO is keen to look at new opportunities.”