Council puts £4m price tag on Ystrad Mynach industrial unit
One of the biggest industrial sites in south Wales has been brought to market. Caerphilly County Borough Council has instructed property advisory firm GVA to market the 166,878 sq ft Unit 5 at the Dyffryn Industrial Estate in Ystad Mynach, with a £4m asking price.
The council has been using the facility for storage, including grit.
The site, which is already attracting strong interest and which could be leased, was the former site of printing firm St Ives.
As well as 144,440 sq ft of warehouse/distribution space, the unit has 22,432 sq ft of two-storey office accommodation.
Tom Merrifield, at the Cardiff office of GVA, said: “A unit of this size comes to the market rarely in south Wales now, following a prolonged period where much of the stock has been bought up as occupiers seek to take advantage of lower capital sales figures.
“As a result, it provides the opportunity for a regional business to expand its distribution or manufacturing facility, or indeed for inward investment into the region.
“The location, north of Caerphilly, is excellent for an occupier – a short distance from the M4 so easily accessible, and in an established employment area where nearby occupiers include the likes of NuAire, Catnic, GE Aviation and PHS Group plc, underpinning the attraction the area offers to both regional and national businesses. With limited stock on the market, we are confident demand levels will be strong.”
Meanwhile, the industrial agency team of Knight Frank in Cardiff has brokered the sale of three properties for fast-expanding life sciences firm BBI Group.
It has sold Units 6 and 15 at Gilchrist Thomas Industrial Estate in Blaenavon to GOS Tool & Engineering Services for £600,000, and an office and laboratory at Golden Gate, Llanishen, for £730,000.
BBI Group, which has manufactured products for some of the world’s leading diagnostic and healthcare organisations for more than 25 years, is investing £14m to centralise manufacturing from the three sites into a single new global headquarters to boost capacity and long-term growth at Pen-Y-Fan Industrial Estate in Crumlin.
Ceri Phillips, global head of supply chain at BBI, said: “It was essential that we disposed of our south Wales facilities in a timely manner and in line with our overall project plan.
“Knight Frank was great in terms of delivering the leaseback option for us.”
Neil Francis, who heads the Knight Frank industrial agency team in Cardiff, said: “BBI identified last year that sales of their properties would be required by Quarter 1 2018.
“We targeted those purchasers who were willing to consider a short-term leaseback arrangement to give BBI the flexibility they required – a satisfactory result on both sides.”
GOS Tool & Engineering, which is buying the two units totalling 36,694 sq ft at Blaenavon, specialises in converting vehicles such as excavators and commercial lorries to run on rail lines for the railway industry.
Director Neil Gregory said: “We have been in Blaenavon for 50 years and employ 110 people in the town, and the new units, which are close to our existing manufacturing site, will enable us to continue to expand.”
BBI’s 10,917 sq ft Golden Gate building in Llanishen, Cardiff, has been sold to a private investor, which was advised in the transaction by Savills.
BBI intends to lease the building back for an initial period while it finalises its move to its new location in Crumlin.