Steve Ferris and Richard Saint, former vice-presidents of Prologis Kingspark, have tied up the first deal between their new company Astral Developments and their ex-employer.
ProLogis has acquired 8ha (20 acres) of the 21ha (52 acres) at Hams Hall near Birmingham which Astral purchased from PowerGen last September.
Astral sold the land to release funds for future projects in the Midlands and the South-East and because the site was surplus to requirements. Prologis has paid around £141,645 per ha (£350,000 per acre) for the site.
Prologis plans to speculatively build two distribution units totalling over 30,657 sq m (330,000 sq ft) on the land. Simon Spencer, partner at Knight Frank, which advised both Astral/AXA and Prologis, said: “Prologis recognises the trend for occupiers to secure sites quickly. Hams Hall is a strategic site and this is a bold development programme.”
Meanwhile, Astral and funding partner AXA Reim UK will speculatively develop distribution units ranging from 3,251 sq m to 16,722 sq m (35,000 sq ft to 180,000 sq ft) in the first phase of development on its remaining land at Hams Hall.
Both projects will bring around 55,740 sq m (600,000 sq ft) of much needed speculative space on to the market next summer. Although the schemes will compete in rental terms – £59 to £64 per sq m (£5.50 to £6 per sq ft) they will attract different occupiers in terms of size – with Astral providing a range of smaller units as well as larger ones.
Ferris and Saint set up Astral Developments last March and purchased a total of 21ha (52 acres) from PowerGen at Hams Hall, for over £18.2m.
Knight Frank and DTZ Debenham Tie Leung advised Astral, while FPDSavills and Knight Frank advised Prologis.
EGi News 08/12/00
