Warehouse developer acquires Warrington site in £7.5m deal
Tungsten Properties, one of the UK’s main mid-box industrial and warehouse developers funded by British Airways Pension Trustees, has acquired a Warrington site for £7.5m.
The land is a prominent distribution development site at Lyncastle Road, Appleton Thorn Trading Estate, previously belonged to Travis Perkins.
The Lyncastle Road site totals 11.03 acres and, following the relocation of Travis Perkins earlier this year to its new, larger facility at Omega Warrington Distribution Centre, houses an outdated warehouse.
It is an allocated employment area and preferred distribution location within the local plan.
Pegasus Group is to prepare the planning application.
Subject to planning, Tungsten Properties will redevelop the site to build a new commercial warehouse totalling 243,000 sq ft, including office space, 18 dock-levellers and a 229-car park with new access, which will host more than 200 jobs.
Lyncastle Road is within one mile of junction 20 of the M6 motorway and junction nine of the M56 motorway.
Warrington town centre is within four miles to the North. Warrington lies midway between Manchester and Liverpool and benefits from easy access to Manchester Airport (14 miles) and Liverpool John Lennon Airport (21 miles).
Tungsten Park Warrington occupies a high-profile distribution location within the Appleton Thorn Trading Estate and other businesses include Eddie Stobart, DPD, Stretton Green Distribution Centre and Shred-it.
Subject to planning, demolition works will start later this year with the unit available from late Summer 2021.
Colliers and Moriarty & Co have been appointed letting agents.
This purchase is Tungsten Properties’ third acquisition during lockdown following recent announcements of its Yorkshire acquisitions of Super B in Bradford, a new 230,000 sq ft warehouse development, and the former B&Q in Sheffield for a new 170,000 sq ft warehouse along with roadside uses.
Tungsten Properties’ total warehouse space currently under construction totals 600,000 sq ft, out of a committed pipeline of 1.65 million sq ft with a gross development value of £186m.
Ian Dunckley, development director, Tungsten Properties, said: “Our latest acquisition in Warrington, which is our second funding partnership with British Airways Pensions Trustees, responds to the lack of new logistics stock in the North West and demand from businesses for new, state-of-the-art expansion space.
“Savills recently reported that the North West has a logistics market vacancy rate of just 5.48%, the lowest level ever recorded, and with the development pipeline in the area below one million sq ft, they calculated that the region has just 1.07 years’ supply.
“Therefore, our investment aims to meet market demand to create workspace, jobs and solutions for business and, ultimately, consumers.”
Nathan Khanverdi, associate director at Colliers International, said: “We are delighted to have acted on behalf of Tungsten acquiring a prime logistics site which is located on arterial routes from the South of England to Merseyside, Greater Manchester and North Wales.
“Subject to planning, this speculative 243,000 sq ft building will be one of the only new developments of this size to be delivered in 2021.”
Colliers acted on behalf of Tungsten Properties and British Airways Pension Trustees Ltd; Avison Young and B8 acted on behalf of Travis Perkins plc.
