Phase three of major speculative industrial scheme moves forward
The third phase of St Modwen’s planned 1m sq ft development Burton Gateway has been submitted for planning.
The move comes as the steelworks for phase two are now going up. Phase two has two buildings with a total of 120,000 sq ft while the third phase, if approved, would see a 101,000 sq ft building constructed.
Hellman Worlwide Logistics last year moved into the 87,000 sq ft building that was built as the first phase on the site.
Rob Richardson, senior development manager at St Modwen, said: “Our decision to submit planning on our third phase was driven by our strategy of increasing our industrial development programme but reinforced by the very encouraging levels of interest we have in these new buildings.”
St Modwen has shifted its development strategy away from retail and into industrial and logistics. It has recently sold big sites at Longbridge Shopping Park and Wembley Central, which together were more than one-quarter of its retail portfolio, and has recouped around £95m from all of its retail asset sales in 2018.
The Birmingham-based developer plans to increase its industrial and logistics development activity by up to 25% per year by 2020.
Burton Gateway is being transformed from a 280-acre wasteland into one of the largest warehouse developments in the Midlands and a key employment hub in East Staffordshire.
James Clements of Knight Frank said: “The location and size of the units combined with the acute lack of buildings on the market has generated a lot of interest and we don’t expect they will be available for long.”
