Royal Mail (RM) is investing well over £52m in two new automatic processing centres in Birmingham and Wolverhampton. It has also signed up for a 1,300 sq m (14,000 sq ft) letter delivery office in Tyseley, south east Birmingham, and has a requirement for another 2,787 sq m (30,000 sq ft) unit in central Birmingham.
The 18,859 sq m (203,000 sq ft) automatic processing centre (APC) planned for Sun Street in Wolverhampton will replace RM’s existing facilities in Horseley Fields, on the edge of the town.
RM bought the 6.5 ha (16 acre) site in Sun Street for an undisclosed sum from the Black Country Development Corporation. BCDC provided some grant assistance as the site, a former railway depot, is derelict.
A 6ha (15 acre) site close to Birmingham city centre – rumoured to be in Newtown Row – is also under offer to RM. It is taking a pre-let on a 26,941 sq m (290,000 sq ft) scheme for an APC to serve the Birmingham market.
At Tyseley, RM is paying over £43 per sq m (£4 per sq ft) for a 1,300 sq m (14,000 sq ft) design and build unit at Redfern Industrial Park. RM plans to use the unit as a letter delivery office (LDO).
King Sturge acted for Royal Mail in the Wolverhampton and Birmingham acquisitions and for Kingspark Developments in the letting at Redfern Industrial Park. Lambert Smith Hampton advised BCDC on the Wolverhampton deal.
EGi News 17/10/96
