David Keir’s Roxhill Developments has ended talks with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership to fund what would have been the largest speculative shed since the onset of the downturn.
The industrial developer called off a potential £25m funding deal with SWIP last week to develop the 310,000 sq ft warehouse at Brackmills Industrial Estate in Northampton.
Roxhill is instead in advanced talks with German logistics provider Dacsher to build it a 200,000 sq ft shed at the site in a turnkey deal.
A source said: “SWIP is not best amused. The shed they were in talks over would have been the largest in the UK without a prelet for at least five years.”
Roxhill won outline planning permission in February for as much as 420,000 sq ft of warehousing at Brackmills.
The application had been opposed by local farmers, who wanted the 26-acre site reinstated as a cattle market.
Roxhill was set up by Keir in January 2010 with Paul Hodge, a former finance director at Goodman, and Kate Bedson, a former vice-president for development at Prologis.
All parties declined to comment.
nick.whitten@estatesgazette.com
