Hull shopping center has been acquired after a property developer struck a £4.47m funding deal

A Yorkshire property developer has completed a £4.47m funding deal to pave the way for the purchase of a Hull shopping centre.

Zahid Iqbal, who runs Z&F Properties, is using a multi-million pound facility from Reward Finance Group to buy the 5.1 acre Prospect shopping center in Hull city centre. Mr Iqbal, who also owns The Ridings Shopping Center in Wakefield, Packhorse Shopping Center in Huddersfield and Batley Plaza, plans to revive the retail site, which has high street tenants including Greggs and Specsavers and attracts around six million shoppers in every year.

The deal is one of the largest single loans offered by alternative finance lender Reward, which specializes in providing property investors and SMEs with tailored business finance loans and asset-backed solutions of up to £5m.

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Mr Iqbal said: “This new acquisition of Prospect Shopping Center underpins our commitment to invest in Hull and transform one of its most prominent shopping centers into a premier retail destination for local people. Despite huge competition from out-of-town retail parks, we strongly believe that inner city and town center shopping in Yorkshire and the Humber is still in high demand and is the lifeblood of many local economies.

“We turned to Reward as we needed a lender who has extensive property finance experience and was able to provide a quick and flexible finance solution that helped make a purchase of this size as simple as possible . We have set a clear vision for what we want to do with the center and look forward to sharing our exciting future plans with new and existing tenants and the millions of visitors who shop here every year.”

Dave Jones, founding director of Reward, added: “Zahid is one of the most respected real estate entrepreneurs and developers in the region and has a phenomenal track record of acquiring and transforming a growing portfolio of shopping centres. The ability to help finance a real estate transaction of this magnitude also demonstrates our expertise in providing solutions that are capable of fully financing acquisitions, using a real estate asset to generate working capital or simply ending a sales.

“It may also be a very small world as I was Zahid’s bank manager over 30 years ago during my early career at Yorkshire Bank. We have stayed in touch since then and having already helped them purchase Ridings at Wakefield, I am delighted that Reward can help again with another major purchase. We are proud to be part of this journey and look forward to supporting Zahid in his vision to transform the wider regional and city center retail landscape.”