Ascona acquires leases of two forecourts in Gloucester

The rapidly growing Top 50 Indie Ascona has acquired the leases of two forecourts in Gloucester.

The deal was handled by business property adviser Christie & Co, which was acting on behalf of Heritage Automotive.

The directors of Heritage Automotive decided they wanted to lease the forecourts to a third party shortly after they acquired Blade Motor Group earlier this year. They now operate 19 car dealerships across the South West.

One of the forecourts is located on the A40 Bypass, adjacent to Blades Honda dealership, and the second is just under a mile away, in the village of Twigworth on the A38 and adjacent to a Skoda dealership.

The A40 Bypass forecourt is supplied by Spar, AF Blakemore and Shell, with the Twigworth forecourt supplied by BP.

The directors of Heritage Automotive commented: “Following our recent acquisition of Blade Motor Group we were keen to lease out these two forecourts and contacted Dave Morris of Christie & Co, who helped us sell a forecourt site in 2016. We are delighted with the outcome here and are pleased that Ascona are our new tenants.”

Duncan Morris, group property director at Ascona said: “Ascona are delighted to announce the completion of a deal to take on two forecourts in the Gloucester area. This is just the first of a number of planned multi-site acquisitions expected to be completed in the near future. The Gloucester sites, which adjoin the highly successful Blade Motor dealerships, will give Ascona excellent representation in the area. Ascona plan to invest further in the two sites to create strong local and transient offers.”

Ascona Group Holdings has rapidly expanded over the last two years and this acquisition takes it to 18 operational forecourts.

Dave Morris of Christie & Co added: “The forecourts attracted strong interest from independent and corporate operators who identified that the opportunity allowed an incoming tenant to acquire two forecourts very close together and so would give additional operational benefits. It was great to work again with the directors of Heritage Automotive and we look forward to seeing the changes that Ascona have planned for both forecourts.”

The leasehold interest in both sites sold for an undisclosed sum.