"Industrial property is the most exciting market bar none," says managing director of Gent Visick

“INDUSTRIAL property is the most exciting market bar none,” said Rupert Visick, managing director of specialist property agent Gent Visick and a self confessed ‘shed nerd’ (along with business partner Andrew Gent of course.)

The firm is moving on to big things, after having delivered 12.2 million sq ft in units over the past 13 years, and more 100,000 sq ft units than any of their competitors. It has today unveiled a rebrand as it updates its offering, with further investment in its growing divisions.

With Mr Gent on board as well, a man “who knows more about sheds than anyone, and is more passionate about them than anyone” the team at Gent Visick is a force to be reckoned with.

“We’re polar opposites in some ways,” Mr Visick said, but after 13 years the business partners are still going strong with a team of 12 behind them.

Since the upturn in the property sector Gent Visick has been behind high-profile developments such as the Haribo factory , and Harworth’s acquisition of Temple Green , and there are more “seismic” deals going on in the region with TK Maxx signing a lease for 635,000 sq ft at Cross Point in Wakefield as well as Burberry’s move to Leeds’ Southbank .

Even though some retailers such as BHS and Austin Reed have not been able to withstand the growing pains in the retail sector, discount and online retailers are taking full advantage of the changing habits of UK shoppers, and the industrial property sector is along for the ride.

“Retail is fast moving, nowadays shops are sheds and sheds are shops,” said Mr Visick. “We’ve become sophisticated buyers; going to browse in store and then buying the best deal online. You can get most things delivered next day or even on the same day.”

Gent Visick team

The growth of shopping in this way means that is less and less necessary to have what Mr Visick called “a dirty great distribution centre”.

“This sophisticated process is being taken to the nth degree. For it to work products can’t be too far away from the consumer. Previously everyone had a shed in the ‘Golden Triangle’ in the Midlands, but next-day or even same-day delivery makes logistics from these big hubs difficult.

“Companies are now establishing a last-mile plinth, effectively a parcel depot, and the industrial market is thriving on the back of emergence of convenience as a culture.

“To satisfy that demand they need a network of smaller sheds. Existing stock isn’t always fit for purpose. For last-mile or fulfillment hubs, you need a great big yard, loads of doors, it doesn’t even have to be very high as goods aren’t going to stay in there for long.

“The demand is there, the supply needs to keep up. With rental growth continuing, developers prick their ears up. The only issue is that banks are nervous, they got their fingers burned last time and lenders are nervous about speculative development in particular.

One of those is Muse Developments’ Logic Leeds, a 1.4 million sq ft site on the “crown jewel of Leeds’ industrial market”, Cross Green, which will be home to Amazon as well as John Lewis. Mr Visick said it was “brave” undertaken the speculative project, but is expecting to see more like it.

On a tour into the industrial heartland of Leeds, strange to say it was hard not to get as excited as Mr Visick about the growth of the industrial market in the city. His enthusiasm is so infectious that we can even forgive the number plate on his excellent Porsche: ‘VII SICK’

“Leeds is a scrapper,” he said. “Though Leeds struggles with not being Manchester, I think that’s our biggest strength. Even though we don’t collaborate in the same way, we have a fantastic identity.”

 

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