Fiera Real Estate UK and Wrenbridge have agreed a £34m forward funding sale of two urban logistics schemes in Houghton Regis and Dartford, to IM Properties.
Planning at the five-acre Houghton Regis site has already been approved for a speculative 100,000 sq ft Grade-A scheme over six units, with completion due in Q3 2022.
The 1.8-acre site in Dartford includes approved plans for a speculative 40,000 sq ft Grade-A scheme across two units, with works also set to complete in the third quarter next year.
The forward funding deal marks the first industrial sales for the Fiera Real Estate Opportunity Fund V, the fifth fund in FRE UK’s programmatic venture series with CBRE Investment Management.
Chris Button, fund manager at Fiera Real Estate UK, said: “The forward funding of these schemes highlight the continued strength of the investment market for prime industrial locations.
“The schemes are underpinned by excellent occupier demand, reflecting the quality and specification of the units and limited supply in the local markets. Urban logistics remains one of our key investment strategies and we have significant funding for more speculative industrial and logistics developments in major urban locations across the UK.”
Jeff Wilson, director at Wrenbridge, said: “We have now done four deals with IM Properties in the last year, totalling over £50m of sales. We remain hungry for more sites in strong urban logistics locations where we can take planning and speculative development risk to deliver a Grade-A, highly sustainable end product.”
John Hammond, investment director from IM Properties, said: “These two schemes align with our wider business strategy for investing in and delivering best-in-class product, designed with a sustainable future in mind, and provide a perfect fit for our ongoing ambitions for our investment portfolio to gain greater weighting in prime, new build, last mile logistics developments in the South East.”
Stonehill acted on behalf of FRE UK. Wrenbridge and Springer Nicolas acted on behalf of IM Properties.
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