Gillette UK has launched a search for a European packaging and distribution building and is eyeing Gazeley Properties’ Hemel Distribution Centre in Hertfordshire.
The company has appointed Knight Frank to look for a 9,290 sq m (100,000 sq ft) building in the south east. Gillette has already lodged a planning application with Dacorum Council for change of use on part of the larger of the two buildings at the site. It wants to secure a manufacturing consent for the 21,738m2 (234,000 sq ft) shed to allow a packaging operation.
If the deal goes ahead it will vindicate Gazeley’s decision to develop the 32,515 sq m (350,000 sq ft) scheme, the biggest ever speculative shed project in the UK.
A spokesman for Gazeley stressed that the transaction has not been completed. Gillette is also believed to be considering development sites on Slough Estates’ land at Aldenham, near Watford, and on Arlington’s Hatfield Business Park. The letting agents on the Hemel Distribution Centre are Strutt & Parker and Lambert Smith Hampton.
EGi News 23/01/97
