St Modwen has bought a £180m urban logistics portfolio from Argo Real Estate as it seeks to expand its footprint in Greater London and South East England.
The portfolio will increase St Modwen’s exposure to urban warehousing and includes seven facilities in London as well as one in Manchester, totalling 717,000 sq ft of space. Its average unit size is 23,000 sq ft, with a primary purpose as last-mile facilities for a mix of sectors.
Polly Troughton, managing director at St Modwen Logistics, said: “We conclude this year with successful delivery across three key areas: building out our pipeline, delivering new warehousing space and growing our income portfolio.
“This recent transaction boosts our exposure to Greater London and the South East market and leaves us strongly placed for growth in 2022 and beyond.”
Argo was an early cycle investor and has built up a portfolio of urban industrials, last-mile retail warehousing and supermarkets. The sale comes after it offloaded two properties to Supermarket REIT for £73m last week and bought a city office building for repositioning.
Crispin Gandy, chief executive of Argo Real Estate, said the properties “achieved strong rent collections and both significant rental and capital growth despite the challenges presented by both Covid and Brexit”.
He added: “We are looking to reinvest the proceeds and are considering a number of new opportunities.”
St Modwen, which is owned by funds managed by Blackstone, has delivered 900,000 sq ft of logistics space in recent months across five UK logistics parks.
The business said 72% of its 1.5m sq ft pipeline for 2021 is prelet or under offer. It has also secured planning permission for more than 1m sq ft of space in six locations this year, capitalising on a circa 19m sq ft landbank to deliver big box and urban logistics warehouses.
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