Property developer and investor MEPC has completed a £430m deal to sell three of its UK business parks to a joint fund controlled by Oaktree Capital Management and Patrizia Immobilien.
The three sites now in joint US and German hands are the 1.2m sq ft Birchwood Business Park, near Warrington, Chineham Park in Basingstoke and Hillington Park near Glasgow.
MEPC, which is owned by Hermes Real Estate, says the triple sale is in line with its strategy to shift toward science and technology campuses. It will continue to manage its four remaining business parks, including the £500m technology park at Silverstone, Northamptonshire. MEPC is also in the process of expanding development at Wellington Place, Leeds.
Chris Taylor is chief executive of Hermes and chairman of MEPC. “These three relatively mature estates have been well managed by the MEPC team for many years, and their sale comes at a point in the cycle when we are seeking to redeploy capital and invest into estates that will benefit from what we regard as the emerging growth sectors of the UK economy.”
Although not the biggest of the three sites, Merseyside’s Birchwood Business Park has received the most investment since it was acquired from the Atomic Energy Authority in 1998.
The original 72-acre site has now been extended to 123 acres with the construction of the Cavendish Place and Bridgewater Place office blocks. Four existing office developments — Thomson House, Darwin House, The Centre and Chadwick House — were also refurbished along with several industrial units. A mix of 150 large blue chip organisations and new start-ups now employ about 5,000 people on the site.
Hillington Park, two miles from Glasgow’s International Airport, promotes itself as Scotland’s largest and most established business estate. Covering around 2m sq ft of office and industrial space, it is the base for 300 companies with more than 3,500 employees in the manufacturing, distribution, technology and the service sectors.
The third site in the sell-off package is the well-stablished and landscaped Chineham Park, situated within the M3 and M4 motorway corridor near Basingstoke. Incorporating the Hampshire International Business Park, it houses more than 50 UK and international companies from a wide range of industries who, between them, employ 3,500 people.
“This considerable acquisition adds three high quality assets to our expanding UK-wide portfolio,” explained Rob Brook of Patrizia Immobilien. “Each of the three parks provides significant development opportunities within growing regional markets, which, working alongside Oaktree, we aim to maximise over the next few years through additional investment and asset management initiatives.”
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