IM Properties — owned by Lord Edmiston, Britain’s 22nd richest person — has agreed to buy Solihull’s Fore Business Park for £21m.
Developed by BAM as a speculative build in 2009, the West Midlands’ park is adjacent to Junction 4 of the M42 motorway and currently has 66,000sq ft of office accommodation. It is 85 per cent let with tenants that include the US-owned Goodrich, Arcellor Mittal, green deal software company E-tech and BAM’s own regional headquarters.
The site includes six acres of development land, with planning consent for two more office buildings which would give the business park and additional 90,000sq ft. IM immediately confirmed it would now attempt to alter the existing planning consent to attract more occupiers needing larger floor plates.
“Fore Business Park offered us two high quality buildings with existing income streams from four very good tenants, with the majority of leases extending over 10 years,” explained the Coleshill-based company’s investment director, John Hammond.
He said the M42 corridor had witnessed a dramatic turnaround this year resulting in a shortage of good quality, landlord controlled offices. “The market is currently starved of buildings that offer larger floor plates, so we will be looking to remodel the existing planning consent in order to ensure we are delivering a desirable, cost-effective solution for commercial occupiers,” said Hammond. “Whether we develop speculatively or wait for a pre-let will be dictated by the market.”
Martin Hill is development director at BAM Properties. “It speaks volumes about the strength of the M42 market that IM Properties has chosen to take the whole of Fore Business Park,” he said.
“They inherit some remaining letting potential in Phase One and a superb consented site. It’s both an excellent investment for IM while proving BAM’s speculative development strategy.”
The addition of the Solihull site to its holdings continues IM’s preference for not just the ownership of business parks but also the West Midlands area. It already owns the nearby Solihull Business Park — which has outline permission for 150,000sq ft of office space and will soon be home to the first John Lewis customer fulfilment centre — and last year IM acquired the neglected Mell Square shopping centre in Solihull town centre for £44m.
Other business hubs within its investment portfolio include the 400-acre Birch Coppice further up the M42 at Junction 10 and the recently refurbished One Kings Court office building not far from Worcester city centre.
Lord Edmiston is reportedly worth in excess of £400m and was listed number 22 in the Sunday Times 2013 Rich List. He also remains permanently among the UK’s top ten philanthropists with donations to his charity Christian Vision.
In 2012 his company scooped two spectacular deals with the design and build of a £22m logistics hub for vehicle giant BMW — IM Properties biggest contract on mainland Europe so far — and the clinching of one of Britain’s largest retail deals when Oak Furniture Land took the whole of its 302,000sq ft distribution warehouse, known as DC2, on South Marston Park, Swindon, on a 15-year lease.
Previous Post
Segro snaps up three Hams Hall Distribution Assets
