45-acre logistics site sold at Airport City for £29m
Icon Industrial, a joint venture between TPG Real Estate and Stoford Developments, has acquired 45 acres of development land at Global Logistics within Airport City Manchester.
As one of the UK’s largest joint venture commercial development projects, Airport City Manchester has so far seen the creation of more than 2,000 new jobs and attracted substantial investment across the 821,000 sq ft developed to date.
The undisclosed deal means that 75 acres of a total 130 acres across Airport City Manchester has now been transacted by joint venture partners Manchester Airport Group (MAG), BCEGI, Carillion PLC and GMPF, since 2014.
Development on this 45 acre site could create 5,000 new jobs and a further 1 million sq ft of logistics space, according to MAG.
Lynda Shillaw, MAG Property chief executive, said: “This transaction comes at an exciting time for the Airport City Manchester joint venture as momentum is building around the first new offices and hotels planned to start on site.”
The development land at Global Logistics, which has outline planning permission for 952,000 sq ft of lettable logistics space, will be built with a total development value of around £100m.
Global Logistics has established itself as a prime North West logistics site following the arrival of significant international logistics operators such as Amazon and DHL.
In the past 18 months at Global Logistics, the DHL Global Logistics facility was sold by MAG Property for £7.68m to HPPUT and Amazon’s 654,000 sq ft fulfilment centre was being acquired by German investor Hansainvest from Mountpark for a reported £34.8m, achieving a yield of around 4.5%.
Simon Eastwood, managing director of Carillion Developments, said: “The progress we have made at Global Logistics has been strong and has set the pace for what will be delivered at Airport City Manchester. Across the site, we’re in advanced discussions with a number of potential major occupiers who require campus style offices and there continues to be strong interest from hotel operators, which on the back of the growth of the airport, see the clear benefits of this unique location.”
Infrastructure works are already underway within Airport City North with the delivery of the £15m Enterprise Way link road, which is currently under construction and is being delivered by main contractor, Beijing Construction Engineering Group International (BCEGI).
Enterprise Way, which will be completed by February 2018, will connect office and hotel development plots within Airport City North to the rest of the site and the wider transport network. This latest project is part of the £30m investment that has been committed by the Airport City Manchester JV partners into the development so far.
CBRE, JLL, Eversheds Sutherland and Slaughter & May advised Airport City Manchester. Stoford and Gateley advised the purchaser.
