Warehouses are replacing yesterday’s industrial buildings, changing the face of London’s northern boroughs. John MacRae looks at the implications.
Between the A10 Great Cambridge Road and the River Lee lies one of London’s biggest concentrations of industrial property – an area up to 1 mile wide and 5 miles long, from Edmonton to the M25, much of which is an Assisted Area with Objective 2 status.
Most of the big factories, such as Thorn EMI and Belling, have closed, with the best sites along the A10 going for superstores and retail warehousing. The older estates are cramped with fragmented ownership, but Enfield council has begun a programme of environmental and infrastructure improvements and wants cleared sites to attract modern distribution and industrial firms.
The council’s industrial land strategy is based on a 1995 report by Erdman Lewis (as was) which concluded that the borough had an excess supply of 92,900m2 (1m sq ft). The firm inspected 25 industrial areas and identified four primary, 13 secondary and nine surplus sites. It recommended that priority be given to the main industrial estates on the A10 and at Brimsdown, where Ford has an electrical components factory with more than 1,000 staff. Johnson Matthey is another major occupier.
Graham Ricketts, of King Sturge, comments: “There is not a lot of existing industrial space available now. There has been good take-up recently and if you’re trying to find a good-quality unit it doesn’t exist. Someone needs to go in there and do some speculative development.” David Robins of Glenny also considers that the warehousing market has improved considerably during the past year, although he says that demand is sporadic and lease terms relatively short.
In the past 12 months GLS Fairway, DTS and Tibbett & Britten have all taken warehouses larger than 9,290m2 (100,000 sq ft). And NFC subsidiary Pickfords preleased a warehouse of 20,902m2 (225,000 sq ft) in Southbury Road. The initial rent for the unit which was developed by Kingspark and funded by Standard Life is £56.50 per m2 (£5.25 per sq ft).
Good-quality, secondhand space is disappearing. David McCormack of Henry Butcher considers that, with relatively cheap space compared with west London and Hertfordshire, Enfield is comparatively buoyant as an industrial location. “Enfield is really picking up,” he says.
The largest site in Brimsdown is the 7.28ha (18 acre) former Ruberoid factory, off Stockingswater Lane. King Sturge & Co is marketing the site for Tarmac in plots from 2ha (5 acres) on a freehold or leasehold design-and-build basis. King Sturge’s Jim Frankis reports interest from both distribution and manufacturing businesses, including one or two major national warehousing firms.
Holley Blake & Cooper is marketing a site of just less than 2ha (5 acres) near Southbury Road and the A10 for Bridehall and BZW. Known as Focus North, it has outline planning consent for 8,918m2 (96,000 sq ft) and HB&C’s Keith Dowley reports having “almost too many options to choose from”.
He believes that take-up has occurred in Enfield because rental levels are in line with the expectations of distribution firms with contracts to fulfil. He forecasts that Focus North will show rental growth. “The rent will begin with a six”, he predicts.
One of the council’s strategies is to create northern and southern “gateways” to the borough – at Rammey Marsh near the M25 to the south, and at Edmonton in the north. The Edmonton Partnership Initiative aims to transform Edmonton Green shopping centre – the largest in local authority ownership in the country – and the surrounding residential tower blocks. Council head of urban regeneration, Mike Kinghan, says that bids from a shortlist of five consortia are due in September and that a preferred developer will be chosen towards the end of this year.
The area between junctions 25 and 26 of the M25 (Enfield, Cheshunt and Waltham Abbey) could see new development. Thames Water has outline planning consent for a 135,000m2 (1.45m sq ft) science park at the 40.5ha (100 acre) Rammey Marsh. The land is owned by the water company, but the council has been allocated £2.7m of Objective 2 money from the European Regional Development Fund for decommissioning the sludge works and site preparation. A management company comprising Thames Water, the council and Middlesex University is being formed.
Ideally, the council wants 80% of occupiers to be science based, a site density of 30%, and it has agreed that 40% of the space can be developed using existing roads. David Lock Associates has been appointed master planner for the science park, but the scheme has been referred to the DOE because it is a departure from minerals guidance policy and is in the green belt.
Full development will also require a new road into the site from junction 26, over 1 mile to the east, in the area of Epping Forest council. The DOE has indicated that it will not call in this link. Costing an estimated £16m, the road would cross Waltham Park, where British Aerospace and Trafalgar House, advised by Hillier Parker, are proposing a business park, residential scheme and golf course development on a site totalling 144ha (356 acres). Formerly occupied by Royal Ordnance, it is the largest development site within the M25.
At Enfield Lock, most of the former Royal Small Arms Factory – on an island in the River Lee – has been acquired by Fairview for residential development and the council is proposing a museum as one use for the former machine shop.
Shared football ground
Further along the A10, at the junction with Southbury Road, Berkeley Cap has been chosen as the council’s preferred developer for the former open-air swimming pool. THI and Clearwater Estates were on the shortlist. Outline plans, submitted jointly with Enfield Town Football Club, include a multi-screen cinema, themed restaurants, a swimming pool and leisure complex.
Since the planning application was submitted in January, Saracens RFC, headed by Nigel Wray of Burford Holdings, has announced that it intends to share Enfield Town’s ground, and work towards a larger purpose-built ground which would need additional land just north of the development site. As a result, the initial proposals may be revised.
The future of Enfield town centre is the subject of public consultation based on a study undertaken by Donaldsons in 1994. Standard Life’s Palace Gardens, anchored by Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, could be extended across Sydney Road to council-owned car parks. This depends on a new traffic plan, as well as a decision by Standard Life, or another developer, to press the button.
On Southbury Road, Tesco has submitted an application for 3,288m2 (35,393 sq ft) on the 2.4ha (5.9 acre) Cannon cinema site, mainly owned by Frogmore. Stephen Pulling of James Neilson puts top zone A rents in London Road at £753 per m2 (£70 per sq ft).
In Barnet, the £40m refurbishment and 4,654m2 (50,000 sq ft) extension to Brent Cross has created 14 new units, which lead directly to a new 4,000-space multi-storey car park. The centre, which opened in 1976, has increased its size to 78,036m2 (840,000 sq ft). But retailing in the borough’s High Street is in the doldrums, says Rob Lewis of Lee Baron. The office market is also quiet, and he reports several instances of change of use to residential.
Key transaction
Interlink 100, Mollison Avenue, Enfield: Industrial. Tibbett & Britten has taken a 7,943m2 (85,500 sq ft) warehouse with 1,171m2 (12,600 sq ft) of office space and is paying £48 per m2 (£4.50 per sq ft) for a 10-year lease with a break at years three and five. Henry Butcher & Co acted for the freeholder, County of Avon Pension Fund.
