Healthcare wholesaler strikes deal for £25m central hub
A £25m logistics site in Birmingham will become the central hub for Alliance Healthcare, as it looks to relocate operations from the East Midlands and cut almost 500 jobs.
The healthcare wholesaler and distributor has taken a 285,158 sq ft warehouse at Gravelly Industrial Park – the largest Grade A speculatively developed warehouse in Birmingham over the last decade.
It’s proposing to close two Midlands distribution centres: one on the Boots Nottingham estate, causing up to around 150 job losses and another on a site in Hinckley. 110 jobs will be axed at its South Normanton centre.
A 15-year deal for the site has been struck with aberdeen, on behalf of the Standard Life Pooled Pension Property Fund. It is one of the largest urban logistics assets in the UK and is managed by aberdeen on a discretionary basis.
For 43 years the 220,000 sq ft unit at Gravelly Point was occupied by the Carlsberg Group. Once the drinks giant vacated the property, aberdeen decided to demolish the unit and redevelop it into a new logistics warehouse.
The building has offices with a roof terrace, 285 parking spaces an EPC A+ rating and a BREEAM Outstanding certificate. ESG features EV charging points, PV solar panels with battery storage provisions and rainwater harvesting.
The original development of the estate in the 1970s was funded by Standard Life (now Phoenix Life) who have retained ownership of the asset ever since.
David Stewart , manager of aberdeen for the Standard Life Pooled Pension Property Fund says: “We are delighted to have attracted such a high quality tenant as Alliance Healthcare to Gravelly Point within months of completion of the building. This is testament to our high conviction in the location, the exceptional quality of building we have produced and alignment on the importance of ESG. The project is set to deliver an attractive return on cost for our investors, and we look forward to an enduring relationship at the park with Alliance Healthcare.”
Dan Berry, international real estate lead from Alliance Healthcare said: “We’re really pleased to be planning significant operational expansion through our lease acquisition of Gravelly Point. We are making a substantial investment in this state of the art building with truly impressive facilities. We selected this location as it complements our current UK network and customer base while allowing for potential growth opportunities.”
