Fairview New Homes has agreed to acquire the headquarters of graphic equipment manufacturer Heidelberg in Brentford, west London.
The housebuilder has signed a purchase agreement to buy Heidelberg’s 3.2-acre site on Brentford High Street for £21.4m (€25m), in a deal expected to complete in the last quarter of this year.
Heidelberg has a 140,000 sq ft office dedicated to its customer services on the waterside site. Earlier this year the company established a new logistics centre in Leighton Buzzard, and it aims to relocate the west London operations to this facility before the end of the year, bringing together all sales, service and back-office functions.
The site neighbours Ballymore’s Brentford Project, which comprises 879 homes and 280,000 sq ft of commercial, retail and leisure space. It sits opposite Brentford County Court and the Morrisons site, which has consent for a 221-home build-to-rent scheme with a new food store and retail space.
Brentford is set to undergo wider regeneration, with notable large scale schemes from Berkeley Homes, L&Q, and EcoWorld London at the football ground.
Fairview has launched pre-application engagement with Hounslow Council ahead of a planning application.
Heidelberg’s chief executive, Rainer Hundsdörfer, said: “The disposal of the vacated property in Brentford is an important step in the ongoing adjustment of our structures. By using space more efficiently, we will save considerable costs at Heidelberg in the future.
“We will use the funds thus freed up to strengthen our liquidity and continue to drive forward strategic investments for the future on the path of our digital transformation.”
Global printing business Heidelberg has around 160 employees, serving around 1,400 customers in the UK and Ireland.
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