Birmingham Business Park sold to Canmoor
COMMERCIAL property group Canmoor has bought a pair of business parks in Solihull and Leeds for £70m, allowing the previous owner to pay off £46.5m of debt.
According to Property Week, Arlington Business Parks Partnership, a specialist fund for business parks that was launched by Goodman and Legal & General Property in 2003, has sold its remaining stake in Birmingham Business Park to Canmoor.
Canmoor has also bought 150,000 sq ft of office space at Lawnswood Business Park in Leeds, which too was owned by Arlington.
At Birmingham Business Park, Arlington’s stake consists of 350,000 sq ft of offices, 18 acres of consented land and 50 acres of unconsented land.
The sale includes 4060 Lakeside, a vacant 36,000 sq ft office that was refurbished by Goodman last year.
The partnership developed Birmingham Business Park in the 1980s and it is now home to more than 100 tenants, among them Orange, Beiersdorf, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu.
There are extensive plans to redevelop the areas around Birmingham Business Park. In June, consultancy Arup drew up a masterplan for redeveloping the area between Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre, which includes the business park and a proposed railway station for HS2.
The masterplan aims to encourage investment in green infrastructure and increase the region’s revenue to up to £19.5bn a year by 2040. Last year, Solihull Borough Council said it would support the expansion of the park.
Canmoor has formed a joint venture with private investment fund JCAM to invest in business parks. In August, the pair bought multi-let industrial estate Saxon Way near Heathrow from M&G Real Estate for around £20m.
Tudor Toone acted for Canmoor on the deal.
