The charity which owns a business park on the site of the former Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in Berkshire, will go to the market this summer for finance for the next 200,000 sq ft phase of development.
Greenham Trust is looking to raise more than £20m for the expansion at the 150-acre business park, which currently houses 690,000 sq ft of largely industrial, mixed-use space and is home to more than 165 businesses, including food manufacturer Yorkshire Provender, IT company ROC Technologies, a Jaguar car retailer and bike shop The Bike Whisperer. It is currently marketing its first speculative building, the 33,000 sq ft Altitude warehouse and office building
Chief executive Chris Boulton, who is driving the expansion, said: “We currently have just over 200,000 sq ft of prelet or design-and-build opportunity here. We have some existing occupiers that want to expand, and we have a good track record of keeping occupiers here as they grow.”
The trust was set up in 1997 by Sir Peter Michael, the British engineer and founder of radio company Classic FM, with the objective of supporting local charities and organisations in west Berkshire and north Hampshire.
Rental income has enabled the trust to give away more than £75m to support more than 5,000 local good causes since then. The trust gave away £3.5m in 2020, a record £5m in 2021 and just under £3m last year. It has just awarded £500,000 to the Ark Cancer Charity for a refurbishment of the chemotherapy unit at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.
The 200,000 sq ft expansion could increase the trust’s charitable giving by £2m over five years, Boulton said.
Planning at the park has been streamlined thanks to a local development order for up to 1.6m sq ft.
Greenham Trust raised £25m in 2019 in an inaugural private placement with Abrdn to help fund the development of five commercial properties on the site and repay existing bank loans. Boulton said it would need to take a different approach this time due to the changed market conditions.
“We will probably have to put in place some sort of short-term revolving facility with a view to regearing it at some point, because interest rates are nowhere near as advantageous as they were back in 2018/19,” he said.
For more on how Greenham Trust is using real estate to drive philanthropy, see this week’s EG interview.
To send feedback, e-mail julia.cahill@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGJuliaC or @EGPropertyNews
