Carphone Warehouse tycoon Charles Dunstone has teamed up with a group of businessmen to buy a 380,000 sq ft development opportunity near Southampton.
The consortium, Allied Developments, beat rivals to buy five of six parcels of land being sold by pan-European fund and developer Catalyst Capital at Solent Business Park.
The 130-acre park, located off junction 9 between Southampton and Portsmouth, is the M27 corridor’s principal out-of-town business park.
Both parties refused to discuss the price but it is thought that Allied paid around £9.45m for 14.5 acres of Catalyst’s 18-acre Solent 2 business park.
Sources said Dunstone, 40, was part of the Allied consortium.
He co-founded Carphone Warehouse in 1989 with David Ross, using £6,000 of his savings.
Last year he was 87th in The Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated personal fortune of £550m.
The remaining 3.5 acres of Solent 2 have been pre-sold to Leeds-based Business Homes for a 55,000 sq ft office scheme.
Catalyst picked up the site in 2003 in partnership with Schroders Property Investment Management and Deutsche Property Asset Management as part of the £168m acquisition of Sainsbury’s development portfolio.
They recently secured detailed planning permission, and infrastructure works are due to start at the end of January.
Allied said it was masterplanning a 380,000 sq ft B1 development flexible enough to house headquarter requirements as well as smaller buildings, for sale or to let.
Howard Crews, director of development at Catalyst, said: “Solent 2 can only add to the area’s prosperity.”
Solent Business Park is also home to Prudential’s 398,000 sq ft Forum 2-12, and Arlington’s Solent Business Park, which has consent for 250,000 sq ft.
Hughes Ellard and Palmer Fry acted for Catalyst; John Bird Associates acted for Allied Developments; Business Homes acted for itself.
References: EGi News 23/01/06
