Shopping centre sells at auction for £3.02m

Sailmakers shopping centre is home to retail and food chains

A town centre shopping centre has been sold for £3.02m at auction.

Sailmakers in Ipswich town centre first went under the hammer via an online auction in March, also selling for £3.02m, but the takeover fell through.

Seventeen offers were made by three different bidders during the most recent auction, hosted by Allsop.

The new owner has not yet been announced.

The first sale in March fell through because the prospective buyer could not get the money over from Turkey, according to the Ipswich Star.

Sailmakers covers 8,040 sq metres (86,500 sq ft) of floor space and is home to Boots, River Island, Morrisons, Poundland, HMV and more.

The centre opened as Tower Ramparts in 1986 and marked its 25th birthday in 2011.

Recently it had a mural of Suffolk popstar Ed Sheeran painted on the wall of its upper-floor concourse.

It is believed all the units inside the centre will remain unchanged.

More recently Ipswich Borough Council approved plans to create 26 new homes above the centre and the proposals are unchanged by the auction.

The centre was previously owned by Nottingham-based property firm ALB Group.

The firm said it was "determined to rethink the way High Streets are managed" at the time of buying the site in 2022.