Shedloads of jobs expected in £40m deal for warehouses
A PROPERTY investment company has agreed a £40 million deal to buy 375,000 sq ft of planned warehousing that could pave the way for up to 400 jobs.
Urban Logistics REIT is buying 10 proposed sheds in Nottingham, Leicester, Castle Donington and Rochdale.
The warehouses are being built by Wilson Bowden Developments, the commercial division of Leicestershire’s Barratt Developments.
Wilson Bowden, represented by property specialists FHP, has agreed a two-phase sale to Urban Logistics, which had been advised by M1 Agency.
Detailed planning applications have been submitted for the 10 warehouses at four sites at Blenheim Park in Nottingham, Willow Farm in Castle Donington, Optimus Point, just outside Leicester, and Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale. The buildings will range in size between 18,000 sq ft and 81,100 sq ft.
It is anticipated the first phase of buildings will provide job creation potential for 200 to 250 new jobs, with the ultimate portfolio likely to provide between 350 and 400 job opportunities.
Richard Moffitt, chief executive of Urban Logistics REIT, said: “The development programme, which we have sourced off market, will add further high quality new assets to the portfolio at a time when smaller urban logistics warehouses are in short supply.
“Given the strength of demand for space from occupiers seeking representation in the East Midlands market, which has been under-supplied for some time now, we expect to demand to be strong.” Nick Richardson, managing director of Wilson Bowden Developments, said: “Our relationship with ULR is an ideal partnership which enables us to deliver our development skills to bring forward and develop much needed new warehouse space on a number of our existing sites and provides Grade A first class new warehouse opportunities in locations which fit ULR’s specific and dedicated investment criteria to deliver units which satisfy the last mile logistics sector.
“We hope this is the starting point from which we can deliver not only the second phase of the package later this year but we can also look forward to working with ULR on other projects.”
John Proctor of FHP Property Consultants said: “The growth of e-commerce has been one of the driving factors behind the continued strengthening within the logistics supply chain sectors of the market. We have seen major large scale units of between 100,000 sq ft to 1,000,000 sq ft being increasingly delivered to satisfy the larger scale demand.
“ULR recognised that there is equal demand within the mid-sized sector of the market and have targeted in particular delivery of units in prime strategic locations in the size range of 20,000 sq ft to 200,000 sq ft to satisfy the shortage of supply in this sector of the market.
“The delivery of the buildings will provide much needed stock into the Nottingham, Leicester, Castle Donington – which is adjacent to East Midlands Airport – and Rochdale markets”.
Sarah Galvin at Gowling WLG Solicitors advised Wilson Bowden and Brendan Walsh and his team at Gunnercooke acted on behalf of ULR.