Warehouse REIT plans to sell its 1.8m sq ft Radway Green site in Crewe as it focuses on active asset management.
The £811m REIT has been assembling the 102-acre Radway site since 2017. In 2022 it entered into a development agreement with Panattoni for the entire scheme and secured planning for the final 1m sq ft. Under its original plans it would have funded and retained ownership of the completed scheme.
Chair Neil Kirton said: “Radway Green is an outstanding development opportunity but in the current environment our focus is on extracting value from it in the near term.”
He added: “A consensus is emerging that interest rates will remain higher for longer and we are managing our business accordingly. Key to this is delivering value for shareholders at Radway Green, which is a highly attractive development but not one we will undertake alone.
“We have therefore launched a process for a sale of the whole, or a majority, of the asset, which will enable the business to focus on what it does well – active asset management. This is also the most effective way to deliver sustainable earnings growth over the long term.”
Kirton added that the focus of the business would remain on multi-let industrials, “where demand is resilient and supply is tight,” adding that this had supported further leasing momentum.
Over the six months to the end of September, 48 lease events over 500,000 sq ft secured £3.4m in contracted rent, including £700,000 from 23 new lettings, 21.5% ahead of previous contracted rent. Fifteen renewals pulled in £900,000, 36.7% ahead of previous contracted rent. A further £1.8m was brought in from 10 rent reviews, 32.4% ahead of previous contracted rent. There was a 1.7% like-for-like growth in contracted rent.
A further 14 lease events over 700,000 sq ft were 20.5% ahead of previous contracted rent, taking like-for-like growth in contracted rent to 3.4% for the first seven months.
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