November 15, 2021
Fiera Real Estate UK (“FRE UK”) and Wrenbridge are pleased to announce the forward funding sale of two urban logistics schemes in Houghton Regis and Dartford to IM Properties for a combined price of £34million.
The 5-acre site in Houghton Regis is in a prime location 3 miles from the M1 motorway and at the gateway of a new sustainable 7,000 dwelling urban extension of Houghton Regis. Planning has been approved for a speculative 100,000 sq.ft Grade A scheme over six units, with completion due in Q3 2022.
The 1.8-acre site in Dartford also benefits from outstanding accessibility to the M25 motorway and is is in an established location for urban logistics and distribution operations with nearby occupiers including Sainsbury’s, DHL, IKEA and Amazon. Planning for a speculative 40,000 sq.ft Grade A scheme across two units has been approved, with completion due in Q3 2022.
Sustainability and environmental considerations were at the forefront of the design process for both schemes, which are targeting BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and EPC ‘A’ rating. The units will offer all the latest sustainable features including photovoltaic panels and energy-efficient lighting, air source heat pumps, photoelectric sensors and electric panel heaters will be installed to encourage reduced energy consumption.
The forward funding agreement represents the first industrial sales for the Fiera Real Estate Opportunity Fund V (“FREOF V “), the fifth fund in FRE UK’s programmatic venture series with CBRE Investment Management.
Stonehill acted on behalf of FRE UK and Wrenbridge and Springer Nicolas acted on behalf of IM Properties.
Chris Button, Fund Manager at Fiera Real Estate UK, commented “The forward funding of these schemes highlight the continued strength of the investment market for prime industrial locations. The schemes are underpinned by excellent occupier demand, reflecting the quality and specification of the units and limited supply in the local markets. Urban logistics remains one of our key investment strategies and we have significant funding for more speculative industrial and logistics developments in major urban locations across the UK”
Jeff Wilson, Director at Wrenbridge commented “We have now done four deals with IM Properties in the last year totalling over £50m of sales. We remain hungry for more sites in strong urban logistics locations where we can take planning and speculative development risk to deliver a Grade A highly sustainable end product.”
John Hammond, Investment Director from IM Properties commented “These two schemes align with our wider business strategy for investing in and delivering best in class product, designed with a sustainable future in mind and provide a perfect fit for our ongoing ambitions for our investment portfolio to gain greater weighting in prime, new build, last mile logistics developments in the South East.”