Welcome to the 2022 IAS Awards Website
Welcome
Over 840 people attended the event and a huge thanks to everyone who took the time to submit their entries which continues to grow year on year. Well done to those that were shortlisted and congratulations to the winners of this years 15 awards.
Next year Industrial Agents Society Awards will take place on Wednesday 24th September 2025
The Categories
DC9 Exeter Logistics Park - Exeter
Kia Indurent Park - Derby
Unit 3 G-Hub - Crawley
Unit 1 Mammoth Drive - Wolverhampton
Point 36 - Goole
Unit 2 Catalyst Sheffield Business Park - Sheffield
Unit 3A London Brentwood Commercial Park - Brentwood
Unit 2 Mammoth Drive - Wolverhampton
Apollo II Ansty Park - Coventry
DC4 Prologis Park - Hemel Hempstead
Rolls-Royce Indurent Park - Derby
Unit 8 Ignition Park - Swindon
DC10 Prologis Park - Coventry
MPC4 Magna Park - Corby
Plot 4 Segro Logistics Park - Northampton
Plot 1 Tritax Park - Oxford
Crest Distribution Park - High Wycombe
Hillthorn Business Park - Sunderland
LOC8 - Maidstone
Velocity Point - Leeds
London Gateway Logistics Park - Stanford-le-Hope
Magna Park - Corby
Magna Park South - Lutterworth
Symmetry Park - Biggleswade
Mountpark Warrington Omega II - Warrington
Project Terrace Magna Park - Corby
Tera 40 - Greenford
Tritax Big Box Ltd and UK Commercial Property REIT Ltd
Greenland Industrial & Trade Park - Sheffield
Onyx 350 - Runcorn
Roebuck Park - Stevenage
Unit 13 Axis J9 - Bicester
Apollo II Ansty Park - Coventry - JLL
DC9 Exeter Logistics Park - Exeter - Knight Frank
LOC8 - Maidstone - CBRE & Caxtons
MPC4 Magna Park - Corby - Savills
PR2 - Park Royal
St Peter’s Wood - Swadlincote
Unit 2 Watchmoor Point - Camberley
Windrush Park - Witney
1. Ergo Real Estate
2. IPIF
3. Logicor
4. Prologis
5. Tritax Big Box REIT Ltd
Ergo Real Estate
Aver Property, a JV between Ergo Real Estate & NFU Mutual was set up in 2018 and currently has c.£300m of assets under management.
Aver is a sector agnostic property fund seeking opportunistic returns across the UK. Having made its debut in the industrial sector in 2021, Aver has since speculatively delivered over 2.3million sq ft of institutionally investable grade logistics space throughout the Midlands and North West. Working closely with chosen developers and tenants, Aver has provided best in class warehouse buildings.
Strong leasing performance has been underpinned through Aver working closely in collaborating to support some of the most innovative occupiers in the UK including Tesla, Hill Helicopters and FDL Food technology as well as driving business growth for institutionally recognised operators including UPS, DB Schenker, Boughey and Super Smart Service.
In February 2024, Ergo was delighted to find that Aver was again recognised by the MSCI as the strongest returning property fund on their index, with an AUM under £1.5bn. The recognition put Aver Property as the number 1 fund out of over 200 contemporaries on a three year basis for the third consecutive year. The MSCI award recognises the top performing funds across real estate investment with the awards based upon independently verified direct real estate investment performance. Funds listed on the MSCI include pension and life funds, unlisted pooled funds, property investment companies and other professionally managed real estate portfolios.
IPIF
IPIF is one of the largest Multi-let industrial Funds in the UK, established 26yrs ago in 1997, the current Fund value is £2.9bn. It comprises over 170 multi-let industrial estates across the UK, including 50+ trade schemes and 12 self storage schemes totaling circa 2,000 individual units. The Fund’s performance is delivered year on year by a dedicated and experienced Asset Management team together with the continued commitment and expertise of over 100 Industrial Agency teams across the UK, and our development partners.
The Fund currently has over 12 live development projects with partners including Panattoni, Canmoor, Graftongate, Primebox and Taurus, focused on creating urban logistics assets anticipated to experience strong occupational demand resulting from growth in e-commerce and last mile delivery requirements; multi-let and trade assets; and a small number of self-storage assets.
A significant proportion of these projects are pre-let and its speculative projects have seen strong occupier interest. Strong occupational interest is being reported and a significant proportion (over 90%) of the first two phases of the development programme are either currently let or under-offer.
As part of its ESG strategy, IPIF has a proactive rolling refurbishment programme to promote ESG/Sustainability/energy efficiency and achieve a minimum EPC B rating. IPIF has a dedicated ‘Green Team’ to promote and implement sustainability initiatives for all assets and at all lease intervention points using new technology solutions and software to create tenant engagement platforms and improve energy data collection.
Logicor
Over the past 12 months, the Logicor UK Team have successfully:
- Worked with 50 different Industrial and Logistics Agencies across the UK.
- Leased a RECORD 6.6m sq ft (a 27% increase on previous 12 months).
- Agreed terms on a FURTHER 3.6m sq ft of leases.
- Signed 215 new leases and regears.
- Signed our 2000th lease to date in January 2024.
- Completed over 50 Rent Reviews.
- Spent in excess of £17m on refurbishments and ESG projects.
- Deployed an additional £1m directly on solar, with a further £4m in pipeline.
- Started onsite building over 1.8m sq ft of brand new high quality warehouses.
- Acquired 507K sq ft of grade A space in February 2024.
- Sold 5 assets (sold or under offer).
- 1000+ hours of volunteering completed through all-staff Environmental Volunteering Day.
- Donated over £55k to charities in last 12 months.
- Helped 460 students’ improving their transferrable employment skills through Logicor’s logistics real estate workshops. 300+ hours of volunteering from Logicor employees, striving to make a positive change for more diversity, accessibility and inclusivity in the industrial real estate sector, for future talent.
- Recorded social value creation as part of all new developments.
- 300+ colleagues attended our all-staff conference in Rotterdam in September.
- Rolled out new rebrand and refreshed website.
- Created new intranet and new CRM system.
- 30 Logicor employees competed the JLL Triathlon, donating and supporting World Wide Fund for Nature.
Prologis
Prologis has £6.0b AUM and an operating portfolio of 32.8m sq ft. Average occupancy is 96.0% and Net Operating Income has grown to £280m. £240m of capital has been deployed.
Prologis’ flagship development at DIRFT saw several milestones:
- Opening of Royal Mail’s Midlands Super Hub, following multi-million pound automation fitout. The facility is capable of processing 90,000 items an hour and benefiting from an integrated rail link.
- Leasing of DC628, a 628,000 SF development national distribution centre for a well-known European clothes retailer. LED lighting, Mezzanine & Sprinklers installation by Essentials.
- Opening of 130 bay lorry park, with facilities to support driver welfare and free to all park users.
- Creation of Shenley Park & The Green, two new amenity areas for the benefit of park customers and the surrounding neighbourhood as Prologis’ latest PARKLife offer.
Further highlights include: -
Completion of a £425m development pipeline, providing 1,100,875 sq ft of prime space across the
following schemes:
- Apex Park DC9 for Hankook : 354,000k SF
- West London DC5 & DC6: 196,000 SF & 144,000 SF
- 1000 Discovery Drive: 103,000 SF
- Brooklands DC1: 124,000 SF
- Midpoint DC6: 163,000 SF
Full occupancy achieved at 1000 Discovery Drive at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, a five storey, 103,000 SF, state-of-the-art life science building.
Launch of market-first flexible warehouse as a service offering, Flexxtra at Prologis Park Wellingborough West DC4, providing agile warehouse capacity on an pallet by pallet basis.
15 year lease to IFCO of Prologis Park Coventry DC10, a 328,305 SF refurbished unit. 15 year lease to Food Services Logistics of Prologis Park Hemel Hempstead DC4, a 161,134 SF refurbished unit.
Planning permission granted and development underway for five unit scheme at Prologis Park Hemel Hempstead, covering 280,000 SF.
Planning permission granted & development underway for a four unit urban logistics scheme at Prologis Park Beddington, covering 93,000 SF.
Tritax Big Box REIT Ltd
Ten years on from our ground-breaking IPO, Tritax Big Box continues to pioneer sector change.
Making the news – with a bold move to satisfy shifting customer demand: In May 2024, we created headlines with the completion of our all-share offer for UKCM – to create a combined £6.3b logistics- focused portfolio, and the UK’s fifth largest REIT (by EPRA NTA). This enhances our urban logistics offer to complement our big box portfolio, and meets evolving customer needs – specifically, the growing e-commerce-driven demand for last-mile logistics. As well as significantly increasing our scale and urban offering, it will take Big Box to the cusp of FTSE-100 entry.
Delivering a strong performance: In December, we achieved the milestone of a decade of 100% rent collection. This reflects the quality and resilience of our investment portfolio, and calibre of our clients – with £4.9m added to annual contracted rent from rent reviews and asset management initiatives in FY23, and £2.4m in Q1 2024. We control the UK’s largest land portfolio for logistics, aligning
development activity to market conditions. In FY23, we delivered 1.7m sq.ft of development starts, with 2.2m sq.ft of development lease completions adding £13.6m to passing rent (and £7.4m from 0.8m sq.ft in Q1 2024).
Creating stakeholder value: The quality of our portfolio, benefits of our development programme and prudent approach to risk resulted in a well-covered, progressive dividend (+4.3%). We’re making good progress on our ESG objectives, including our 2030 target of net zero carbon for developments and 2040 for standing assets.
We’re also committed to having a positive social impact. Working with the newly launched Tritax Social Impact Foundation, we agreed a £2m five-year plan in January 2024 to positively impact the lives of 250,000 young people through education and skills building – signing a new partnership with The Prince’s Trust in June.
1. Barberry Group
2. Chancerygate
3. Trebor Developments
4. Wrenbridge
Barberry Group
Barberry is a privately-owned leading property development and investment company, based in the West Midlands. Barberry has a 2.5 million sq. ft industrial/logistics development pipeline with a Gross Development Value of more than £400 million. The company has over 515 acres of strategic residential and employment development land across 17 sites, and a growing income-producing commercial and residential portfolio.
Between July 2023 – June 2024 we: -
- Completed the sale of two units at Central Park, Avonmouth. The 44,500 sq. ft. unit was forward sold to the Hill Company for their bespoke storage facility. The 13,238 sq. ft speculative unit was pre-let to Vertical Aerospace, a global leader in aerospace and technology. The property was sold following PC and Tenant fit out for an impressive £3.25 million.
- Completed a £40 million aerospace manufacturing and design facility for Moog Controls in Gloucestershire. This 208,000 sq. ft centre of excellence is carbon-neutral, designed to BREEAM Excellent and EPC A+ standards and is set to drive innovation and create numerous highly skilled jobs.
- Unconditionally completed the acquisition of a 15-acre site in Worcestershire, with scope to deliver an impressive 225,000 sq. ft of built-to-suit, industrial and logistics accommodation.
- Acquired a prime site at Ansty Business Park, Coventry to develop a 50,750 sq. ft high-tech advanced manufacturing hub, with a GDV in excess of £10 million. This will help address the critical shortage of new, high-quality manufacturing spaces in the West Midlands.
- Secured the last plot at the highly sought-after Tournament Fields Business Park, Warwick, where we are set to deliver an 84,000 sq. ft best-in-class distribution and logistics unit, redefining industry standards.
- Completed an off-market acquisition of the final plot at Quinton Business Park, Birmingham, J3 M5. This prime location will soon boast a 73,000 sq. ft logistics and distribution unit, further solidifying our leadership in the sector.
Chancerygate
Chancerygate is the only developer focusing on the speculative development of multi-unit urban logistics and industrial estates on a nationwide scale for the SME market.
The business’s speculative acquisition strategy saw its development arm invest £34m to purchase five new sites across the UK. During the period, we also delivered 1,000,000 sq ft of industrial space across seven schemes.
Following a successful year, we have around 1.2m sq ft of urban logistics space under construction, or ready for development, across nine sites. These range from Edinburgh to Croydon, highlighting the significant footprint of Chancerygate across the UK.
Three of the seven properties completed in the last 12 months have been fully divested of, concluding successful ‘cradle to grave’ development projects and delivering strong profit to the company.
In the last year, we have: -
- Obtained nine planning consents for over 1.2m sq ft of new development
- Placed seven build contracts with a value in excess of £38m
- Disposed of 69 individual units totaling 595,000 sq ft
With UK offices in London, Birmingham, Warrington and Bristol, our regional knowledge has been key in enabling the growth of the business and facilitating some of its biggest ever development deals this year.
We have built on this by this year successfully expanding beyond the UK and into Europe. We now have a presence in Ireland, Spain and Portugal after launching offices in Dublin, Madrid and Lisbon.
Trebor Developments
Trebor Developments is an established market leading industrial developer. We have carried out a wide range of industrial developments across the UK during the past 12 months, delivering multi-let industrial developments in several locations, which has become one of our trademarks. Our Lightning Park scheme in Huntingdon is an excellent example, consisting of 2 units of 126,650 sq ft and 32,841 sq ft, originally proposed on a speculative basis, but the larger building being pre-let to DHL prior to commencement on site.
Access@Eastern Gateway, Ipswich, was developed during the year, consisting of a 5 unit scheme ranging from 12,897 sq ft to 52,491 sq ft, making a total sq ft of 160,782. It was developed entirely on a speculative basis and aimed at regional and local occupier market, to BREEAM Excellent certification. Both schemes were undertaken with our long term funding partner, Hillwood, and post completion are being marketed for tenant lettings.
Both the development sites were acquired in off market deals, representing Trebor’s ability to source potential multi-let sites and bring these forward rapidly for development. We have continued to achieve strong letting results on our multi-let industrial estates and have seen significant rent increases taking place during the last 12 months. The letting to DHL in Huntingdon being a new rental record for the area.
Trebor has also been active in bringing forward further sites which will deliver multi-let industrial schemes during the coming 12 months period, with 2 further schemes due to commence on site in Q3, 2024.
Trebor deserves to win this category for the quality, sustainability and financial success delivered from our multi-let development projects, building on the previous year’s success such as at The Ridge at Haverhill.
Wrenbridge
Wrenbridge has been one of the most active developers in the UK over the past 3-5 years and even more notably in the last 12-18 months.
We have completed over 1m sq ft of projects, have 1.7m sq ft of projects currently under construction, have acquired a further pipeline of 1m sq ft of future projects as well as having another 5 new projects under offer amounting to a further 500k sq ft of pipeline.
With one exception, all of these projects have been acquired off market, demonstrating our ability to consistently transact.
Our sustainability credentials are unquestioned, delivering the best product into the market time and time again. An example of this is our recently completed project at Nova, Oxford, which achieved the only 100% BREEAM rating that has ever been achieved in the UK.
We have consistently returned projects with IRR’s of 20%+, as well as the profits exceeding the business plans generating 30-50% profit on cost outcomes. We also pride ourselves on our relationship with Fiera Capital who have funded numerous projects, being a shareholder in Wrenbridge, but also our Blue-chip partners that include Morgan Stanley, Railpen, Bridges, Legal & General, M&G and others.
We are passionate about our product which has an unrivalled vacancy rate, mostly at 0% at or shortly after practical completion. We repeatedly deliver high quality product with blue-chip funding partners for household name occupiers.
1. GLP
2. Graftongate
GLP
Leasing activity over the past year has been brisk, with GLP signing leases and agreements for lease on over 2.5m sq ft of space from Crawley in the South to Castlewood in the North, to a diverse range of occupiers including Nike at Corby, Bunzl at our Stevenage scheme, and CEF in Lutterworth.
It was especially satisfiying to see repeat customers, with Alloga taking their second building at Castlewood (developed by Clowes & Funded by GLP), and Bleckmann taking 587k sq ft at Magna Park Corby, in addition to two buildings they already lease from GLP at Lutterworth, a testament to the strength of customer relationships forged over the last few years.
By far the largest individual building GLP are currently working on is ‘Project Terrace’ a new 1.3m sq ft UK HQ for Nike at Magna Park Corby. The building is being funded by Legal and General and is the result of several months of complex tripartite negotiations between GLP, L&G, and Nike.
At Magna Park Lutterworth, MPS 9 (now let to CEF) has achieved a UK record BREEAM Outstanding score (97.8%) for an industrial building and Lutterworth Community Fund donations are now closing in on £950,000.
The planning team have been active over the last year, securing permission for a data centre in the Docklands and an additional building at G-Park Swindon on a site originally intended to be a Park & Ride, delivering best value for investors.
In May this year, all three of GLP’s graduate surveyors, Emily, Alex, and Spencer, were successful in passing their Assessments of Professional Competence to become RICS members. GLP once again hosted the popular agents forum, this time on site in Corby, with around 100 guests joining us for lunch, a business update, and a diverse panel of speakers.
Graftongate
Graftongate is an owner-managed business with 4 front office staff. The company is proudly independent, with no external investors and no aligned capital.
Over the course of the past 12 months Graftongate has grown exponentially, acquiring a series of development opportunities as well as land options throughout the UK. Having called the bottom of the market with the acquisition of Nursling 135, the company has proceeded to obtain a further 6 sites through on and off market transactions. These span across sites in Reading, Fareham, Daventry, Southampton, Evesham, Birmingham and London.
New investor partnerships have been established and joint ventures formed.
The company has grown its land bank from 600 acres to over 2,000 acres in the past 12 months. In the last year, Graftongate has secured detailed planning consent for over 1.6 million sq ft across 7 sites.
Watch this space.
How to Enter
- There is no charge for entering any of the categories
- All entries are to be made through the on line form by clicking on the relevant section under the categories
- Entries submitted by any other method will not be considered
- In addition to the detail provided on the form, entrants have the option to upload one single supporting document in PDF format of no more than 4 pages. This document is to include all photographs, site plans and any other images to be considered by the judges. The supporting documentation is to be no larger than 5MB. If any PDF is more than 4 pages long, only the first 4 pages will be considered by the judges
- If your entry is shortlisted, you will be contacted by one of the committee to arrange a high-resolution photo to be provided
- The final date for submissions is 5pm on Friday 28th June 2024
Conditions of Entry
- Organisations / individuals may enter more than one scheme into a category and can enter as many categories as they like, provided that each submission is individually submitted via the online form
- Entries will be judged solely on the information provided. Please be as thorough as possible in your entry
- Additional supporting material is restricted to the single PDF document of 4 pages. Any additional material supplied will not be considered
- Nominations must relate to activities between July 2023 and June 2024
- The Judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
- Entries must relate to schemes within the industrial property sector and be located within the United Kingdom
- Any entry relating to a transaction must have completed by 21st June 2024. In the case of pre-let transactions, the requirement is an unconditional exchange of contracts with detailed planning permission having been secured before 21st June 2024.
Voting
Everyone who votes will be placed into a draw for two chances to win a £150 John Lewis voucher. The names will be drawn at random by the IAS Chair.
Logicor
In the past 12 months which saw Logicor celebrate its 10th anniversary, the UK team have continued to work tirelessly with our Customers and our Agents and since June 2021 have achieved the following:
• Completed over 236 deals totalling in excess of 4.4m sq ft.
• Signed over 100 new leases totalling 1.4m sq ft and 136 regears totalling 3m sq ft.
• Worked with over 50 different UK industrial agencies.
• Welcomed new customers including Dunelm, Next, DFS, Intertape Polymer Group, UPS, British Harlequin Plc, Deponti and IG Group.
• Secured new longer-term commitments with existing customers including GXO, DHL, B&Q, B&M, Great Bear, Bakkavor, Syncreon, and Williams Lea.
• Acquired and onboarded assets totalling 2.2m sq ft, with over 60 acres acquired and planning submitted for 650k sq ft.
• Commenced 58 refurbishments, totalling £13.2m.
• Welcomed 88 new joiners across Europe, with the UK team growing to 13.
• Formed a new internal mentorship programme with 43 Logicor employees involved.
• Supported colleagues in partnership with MYNDUP and HeadSpace
• Become a member of “Real Estate Balance” campaigning for a more balanced and inclusive real estate sector.
• Created new employee Diversity and Inclusion committee “Space To Be Me” offering employees support, webinars and activities during International Women’s Day, Pride Month and Black Inclusion Week.
• Grown our commitments to ESG including identifying a pathway to net carbon zero
• Initiated a new Biodiversity Programme across 14 of our sites including; bird boxes, bug hotels, hedgehog houses and bat boxes, working with The Green Organisation.
• Joined the BPF, with our CEO joining the Supply Chain board.
• Formed new European-wide charity partnership with TreesForCities, planting a tree for every Logicor employee.
• Worked closely with LandAid as Strategic Partner raising £41,100 through Steptober, SleepOut, LandAid 10k, and additional donations.
• Raised £3000 for MIND through Liam Lewis’s London marathon, & £1000 for Movember.
Bridges Fund Management
Bridges is delivering a portfolio of 17 low-carbon multi-let logistics schemes across the UK, working in tandem with seven different joint venture development partners. This new-build portfolio will comprise 4.5m sq. ft. across 195 units, with a GDV of circa £850m.
These will be some of the most sustainable industrial schemes ever built in the UK, including several that will be Net Zero Carbon in construction and operation (including Wallingford, Basingstoke, Stevenage, Frimley, Tolworth).
These schemes don’t just help to reduce carbon emissions and support the transition to Net Zero. They are also perfectly suited to the needs of corporate occupiers, who are increasingly looking to future-proof their logistics portfolios from an ESG perspective and reduce their running costs and reliance on fossil fuels. More than 50% of the portfolio has been pre-let or sold by way of forward sales off-plan to investors, with the sales generating an average IRR in excess of 60%.
Bridges is working with 18 different letting agents on these 17 schemes, which are located across the UK from Edinburgh down to Havant on the South Coast. We have already achieved some major pre-lets and pre-sales to occupiers including Bunzl, Oxford Biomedica, Toolstation, Travis Perkins, Lok ‘N Store, Screwfix, Wolseley and a Global Technology Company. All the pre-lettings were achieved at rents 10% in excess of the original underwriting.
Prologis
£6.3b of assets under management
Operating portfolio of 28.3m sq ft, including 22 Prologis Parks.
Maintained average core occupancy at 99.5% over the past year
Grew core Net Operating Income from £185m to £205m
£1Billion capital deployed, comprising: -
- Building acquisitions £235m
- Development starts £625m
- Land acquisitions £150m
In January the UK Logistics Venture, a JV formed to develop £1 billion of logistics assets, was wholly purchased by Prologis. The portfolio compromised 7.6m sq ft across 40 units and in line with strategic geographic priorities in the Midlands, South East and London.
Flagship Midlands development at DIRFT saw several significant milestones:
Completion of “The Hub at DIRFT”, a facility dedicated to logistics training in an industry first.
Practical completion of base build at the Royal Mail’s new 840,000 sq ft parcel hub.
10-year lease of 189,000 sq ft DC4 unit to Dunelm Group prior to practical completion of the speculative build, creating 170 jobs.
Ground breaking at Eddie Stobart’s build-to-suit development totalling 538,000 sq ft across two units with shared yard.
Further highlights:
Dynamic tripartite agreement to purchase a Makro store in Croydon and simultaneously enter agreement to lease converted unit to a prominent online retailer as a last-mile logistics facility.
Full leasing of Prologis Park Pineham, Hams Hall & Midpoint – in many cases with contracts in place prior to project completion.
Completion of Jaguar Land Rover’s Logistics
Operations Centre delivering 980,000 sq ft warehousing space on a 50-acre site adjacent to their manufacturing facility.
Finally, Prologis started construction on a speculative life science development at Cambridge Biomedical Centre of multi-let laboratory & office space.
A growing portfolio and robust financial performance allowed Prologis to make a number of high profile senior appointments – bolstering experience in areas as diverse as planning, communications and urban high density logistics.
Mirastar
In just 3 years, Mirastar has established itself as a leading investment manager and developer in the UK and Europe, achieving exponential growth and phenomenal leasing success. Despite the challenges of the last few years, Mirastar tripled its headcount during the pandemic period as well as growing by 70% every quarter over the same 2 year period.
With a solid working relationship established between the companies, it was during the first Covid lockdown when a deal was agreed for KKR to take a majority stake in the business, paving the way for further growth and success.
In the past 2 years, Mirastar has a assembled a UK portfolio of 20 prime logistics facilities, with a combined end value exceeding £1.1 billion through a mixture of investment and development transactions, including landmark deals such as the acquisition of Icon Harlow from TPG/ Stoford earlier this year.
Since July 2021, Mirastar have also transacted secured over 1.1 million sq ft of new lettings in their UK development portfolio. This alone is far in excess of most property companies.
As well as an investor in standing assets, Mirastar have been successful in delivering 1,504,243 sq ft of speculative development since July 2021 which is either complete (765,399 sq ft) or under construction (738,844 sq ft). Mirastar have adapted their approach to secure investment opportunities which include the land purchase and self-development of 21.2 acres at Arterial Park, Rayleigh, as opposed to the Forward Purchase structure which has been favoured at our Axis J9 Bicester, Gorsey Point Widnes, Air Logistics Speke and Catalyst Sheffield developments.
Since July 2021, Mirastar have also transacted over 1.1 million sq ft of new lettings in their UK development portfolio. This alone is far in excess of most property companies.
Kier Property
Over the last 12 months Kier Property has completed on the sale of 4 new spec built multi-let investments to capitalise on the buoyancy of the market:
1. Trade City Maidenhead, A 55,000 sq ft scheme that was 60% prelet to Furniture Village with 3 of the 6 trade units also under offer. The investment was sold to Royal London Asset Management in December 2021, just 2 months after practical completion. LSH acted for Kier Property on the sale.
2. Trade City Gravesend, A 35,000 sq ft multi-let scheme let to the likes of Screwfix, Toolstation and Cubico. The scheme was sold in December 2021 to Legal and General for £11.85m. Savills acted for Kier Property on the sale.
3. Trade City Winsford, A 125,000 sq ft 13 unit multi-let scheme and let to an outstanding tenant line-up including Toolstation, Screwfix, British Red Cross and Gemco. The scheme was 83% let and sold for £22.8m in June 2022. B8 Real Estate acted for Kier Property on the sale.
4. Trade City Luton, A 123,000 sq ft 13-unit scheme let to a strong tenant line up including Dnata, A&A Financial, Premier Exports, Etherworldwide, Grant and Stone and Evolution Ceramics. The development reached practical completion in August 2021 and was sold to Aberdeen in June 2022 for £37.9m. Savills acted for Kier Property.
Kier Property also entered into a new joint venture with PGIM Real Estate, to develop a portfolio of light industrial and last urban logistics warehouses across the UK. The venture has £400 million of capital to deploy and will build on Kier’s successful Logistics City and Trade City brands.
We have already acquired industrial sites in Bognor Regis, St Albans, Knowsley and Milton Keynes, with additional sites in the pipeline equating to more than 650,000 sq ft.
Wrenbridge
Over the past year, Wrenbridge has worked on several multi-let schemes in Waltham Cross, Houghton Regis, Bedford, Dartford, and Aylesford. Owing to the high-specification, stellar location and leading sustainability credentials of each scheme, the majority are fully let less than one year post-PC.
Waltham X, London
- Fully let to four investment-grade tenants 9 months post-PC
- Six modern and high-specification units, ranging from 5,000 sq ft to 85,000 sq ft totalling 132,000 sq ft
- BREEAM Excellent, EPC A
- High-grade internal specification provides modern and efficient open warehouse space, supported by office accommodation. High levels of glazing to the entrance cores and office accommodation
- Site sits adjacent to the M25, providing instant access to the motorway network
- The scheme’s most significant letting was to Getir, the ultra-fast delivery pioneers, who agreed to take 110,900 sq ft (1/2) of the scheme. The remaining units were let to A&A Financial Consultancy, Paragon Projection and a final confidential occupier.
Arc, Aylesford
- Fully-let 3 months post PC
- 125,000 sq ft, four-unit scheme
- Ecology park
- BREEAM Excellent, EPC A
Ho11A, Houghton Regis
- Six-unit, 101,000 sq ft Grade A scheme under construction
- Forward sold to IM Properties for £22m
- Targeting BREEAM Excellent and EPC A
- 3 miles from J11A of the M1
Dartford X, London
- High-spec, five-unit scheme ranging from 11,000 sq ft to 66,400 sq ft, totalling 185,000 sq ft
- BREEAM Excellent, EPC A
- Modern and naturally well-let warehouse units with leading sustainability features such as PV panels, EV charging points and water-saving fixtures
- 1 mile from J1A of the M25
- Largest letting to date was to Leathams for the 25,900 sq ft unit
- After being impressed with the quality of Wrenbridge’s Waltham X scheme, A&A Financial Consultancy took 13,090 sq ft of space at Dartford X
- One unit under offer, leaving only one vacant unit
Trebor Developments
Trebor is an established market leader in the Industrial Logistics Sector and has, in the last year, implemented a number of multi-let projects which have seen strong letting uptake across its UK locations.
Projects have included Portside Park, Avonmouth, Bristol, delivering a range of 6 units from 15,000 sq ft to 88,000 sq ft and subsequently sold as investments to NFU Mutual. The Ridge at Haverhill, a development of 5 units ranging from 22,120 sq ft to 100,060 sq ft with the largest unit pre-let to Tait Industries and all other speculative units let prior to Practical Completion to a wide range of quality occupiers. Central Approach, Bristol, representing 2 larger industrial units of 107,660 and 113,573 sq ft, with the first unit pre-let to Oxford Instruments for their new Head Quarters and the second unit available as a speculative development which will complete in July 2022.
The quality of these investments in multi-let development speak for themselves, often developed as a combination of speculative and pre-let developments in a range of unit sizes in order to be attractive to a wide range of occupiers.
Trebor has also secured a wide range of further sites which are now coming forward for development in 2022, ranging from 2-unit schemes to multi-let development schemes, which will deliver a range of over 20 units, all commencing on site during 2022 and a number of sites secured in off-market transactions.
Chancerygate
Chancerygate is the first and only company focusing on the speculative development of multi-unit urban logistics and industrial estates on a nationwide scale for the SME market. We experienced another positive year, completing 12 new developments throughout the whole of the UK.
We had significant success in de-risking our development pipeline with two significant portfolio sales comprising of 11 development projects to two investors for a total consideration of £272m.
All developments completed in the year have been fully divested of concluding successful ‘cradle to grave’ development projects and delivering strong profit to the company.
The business’s speculative acquisition strategy saw its development arm invest £53.2m to purchase 10 new sites across the UK during the period and also deliver 1,270,000 sq ft of industrial space across 12 schemes.
We have also made our European debut, acquiring a site in Dublin, Ireland, in May this year. Subject to planning, we will speculatively develop 114,000 sq ft of Grade A urban logistics and warehouse space across 14 units.
In the last year, we have:
• Grown a pipeline of 4.3 m sq ft over 30 sites
• Obtained 8 planning consents for over 950,000 sq ft of new development
• Placed 10 build contracts with a value in excess of £55m
• Disposed 138 individual units totalling 1.05m sq ft
With offices across London, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Warrington, our regional knowledge has been key in enabling the growth of the business and facilitating some of its biggest ever development deals this year. With this, we have committed to further expanding into the regions and have opened a Bristol office in September 2021 allowing further penetration of the South West market.
This has enabled us to spread our geographical reach and over the past 12 months have invested in development sites in Scotland and Ireland, becoming the 1st UK national developer to do so.
SEGRO
SEGRO achieved a truly outstanding financial performance in 2021 powered by its development programme.
In a record year, SEGRO completed 839,200 sqm of development across 47 projects, with 93% of the new space already leased, as well as setting new standards in sustainability (see ESG) and leading the market in delivering the UK’s first urban multi-level warehousing (see Differentiators)
SEGRO is looking to the future and is well-positioned to sustain its growth through the delivery of its current and future pipeline.
At its Full Year results, the company reported it could exceed £1bn in annual rental income, with current development activity set to secure an additional £257m per year and its future land options forecast to deliver a further £390m.
In 2021, SEGRO completed a number of strategic acquisitions unlocking land for development.
Stoford
Stoford have had another exemplar year. In the last 12 months we have:
- 2,380,527 sq ft under construction
- Secured £500m funding
- Agreed 12 national pre-lets
- Secured more strategic land to take our landbank to 1,800 acres of commercial development pipeline across the UK
- 23,150,000 sq ft of future floor space capacity across UK
This work has helped the wider business deliver a 75% increase in turnover across the Group.
Key highlights: -
Icon Harlow – 3 lettings and £160m investment sale.
Stoford exchanged contracts with Amazon in December 2021 and subsequently received detailed consent for the bespoke last-mile logistics facility (Unit D) and a 112,000 sq ft speculative unit (Unit E). Unit D achieved PC at the end of July 2021, representing only a 7-month period between exchange and building completion. Contracts were exchanged with Wincanton (Unit E) within 2 months of PC, with the lease completing on 1 April 2022. Stoford subsequently sold the fully let 4-unit scheme to Miristar/KKR in April 2022 for £160m, representing a NIY of 3%.
Pets at Home, Stafford - Despite challenging Covid-19 conditions, the scheme (770,000 sqft and creating >800 jobs), was prepared, submitted, and determined during lockdown. The unit completes in August 2022. The scheme end value was £98 million.
Additionally, Stoford have secured a further 570 acres of strategic industrial land across the UK, capable of delivering a further 12 million sq ft of space, with an end value of £2.1b that can deliver up to 12,000 new jobs.
We continue to heavily invest in allocated and strategic land across the UK whilst continuing to be a market-leading pre-let developer.
The company has expanded to appoint 5 new team members - two in our Land & Planning Team, a new project manager, a graduate development manager and a new accounts team member.
Firethorn Trust
Firethorn Trust is a privately-owned and highly ambitious, but relatively young, real estate investor and developer, that has become a market-leader in the UK logistics space since its inception in 2018.
Firethorn’s rapid expansion in the past 12 months to build a best-in-class national logistics portfolio is a marker of its drive, sharp focus and commitment to creating high-quality industrial accommodation that goes the extra mile.
Key milestones include:
*Acquiring four new sites including a 37-acre scheme in Leeds (August 2021) and a 24-acre site in Barnsley (November 2021).
*Completing work at its first logistics site Northampton Cross and, three months prior to completion, letting the entire 354,000 sq. ft. scheme to a single occupier, MH Star UK - an e-commerce retailer - under a 15-year lease (August 2021).
*Securing three tenants (May 2022) at Ascent Logistics Park within three months of site completion. The 25.5-acre Leighton Buzzard development is constructed to net-zero carbon and offers 466,860 sq. ft. of Grade A logistics accommodation.
*Making its London last-mile logistics debut with the acquisition of a 4-acre scheme in Erith (January 2022) and a 4.3-acre development in Rainham (May 2022).
Indicative of its sector expertise, the quality and scale of Firethorn’s portfolio has not gone unnoticed. This year, global investor Cain International approached Firethorn off-market to purchase & forward fund its entire UK logistics portfolio for £550m, with the transaction completing in April 2022. The Grade A logistics assets comprised seven UK sites, totalling 3.25 million sq. ft. across 22 assets, including two newly built developments and five consented land sites.
Both parties are now committed to working in partnership to grow the UK logistics platform to over £1bn of value over the next 12-18 months. For Firethorn, the spark of ambition that first ignited the business is still burning bright.
GLP
GLP has had an exceptionally busy 12 months across all regions in the UK, committing to and developing 3,100,000 Sq Ft of speculative space and a further 1,000,000 Sq Ft of BTS development as well as committing to or completing the funding of a further 1,700,000 Sq Ft of space being delivered by partners.
The letting of the final building at Magna Park Milton Keynes (represented by Savills, Burbage, and JLL) to Woodmansterne, marking the completion of the 5,740,000 Sq Ft park which is now 100% leased, though the completion of 2 units (117,000 and 140,000 Sq Ft) at Willen House has enabled us to maintain our customer offering in MK market.
GLP has successfully leased the first phase of speculative development at Magna Park North in Lutterworth (1,000,000 Sq Ft) with no void (represented by DTRE and Burbage Realty).
Another highlight was securing the leasing of all three units at G-Park Bedford Wixams to a single occupier, MH Starr, ahead of PC (represented by JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, and Savills).
Handover of Solidor’s new bespoke factory at G-Park Stoke brought the site to 100% occupancy.
To replace the land used to deliver these schemes, GLP has made several key acquisitions including a new 195-acre Magna Park site in Corby, East Midlands, a nine-acre site on Trafford Park, the North West’s premiere logistics and industrial location, and a new pipeline of urban locations across London.
ESG and sustainability has been a consistent theme across all these projects. Mammoth 602 in Doncaster was built to Net Zero in construction, replicating the success of Magnitude 314 in Milton Keynes, while the Centre for Logistics Education and Research at Lutterworth, will provide excellence in Logistics education and career opportunities, on-site at one of Europe’s most established logistics parks.
The Judges
Petrina joined Tritax in 2007 and is responsible for the Group’s Asset and Property Management service, incorporating ESG and insurance functions. Within her role, she is focused on the strategic management approach, procedures and processes that unlock and create value enhancing initiatives to protect and maximise investor returns. She has developed the capabilities of the team to extend the skill sets in logistics and industrial operations, integrating ESG and power considerations into analysis and reporting. Prior to joining Tritax, Petrina was a Partner at Knight Frank, managing the Trophy Asset Management team. She began her career at Carter Jonas in 1996 where she qualified as a chartered surveyor, subsequently moving to King Sturge (now JLL) to gain experience in institutional industrial portfolio management.
James has 15 years experience in the property market and is responsible for expanding the business in the South East region. James’s role at Panattoni is to originate and deliver both large scale speculative and build-to-suit projects. In the last three years, James has delivered over £350 million of new build projects, including some of the largest logistics build-to-suit projects in the market.
Tom is a Development Director at Canmoor, with responsibility for the sourcing, securing and delivery of development opportunities across the Southeast and Midlands industrial markets. Tom graduated from Birmingham University before qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor. He spent 8 years working for Stutt & Parker within their industrial/Logistics team, before moving to Canmoor Developments in 2012. Since joining Canmoor he has been involved in over 2 million sq ft of high-profile schemes including Mustang Park in Daventry and Midas in Harlow.
Richard has worked at St. Modwen since 2007 and leads the delivery team for St. Modwen’s industrial and logistics construction nationally. He is responsible for all aspects of project assembly, procurement and delivery, and currently leads on product development. Richard has also been instrumental in the design and engineering of St. Modwen’s industry-leading Swan Standard design code for its scalable industrial and logistics units. Richard has over 30 years’ experience in the construction sector and has successfully worked on many major industrial & logistics, residential and commercial projects.
Matt has worked in logistics real estate his entire career in a range of occupational and agency roles. His current role is Regional Head of Industrial Real Estate - Europe at Maersk, overseeing a rapidly expanding portfolio in support of Maersk’s integrated growth aspirations. Prior to joining Maersk, Matt was employed at DHL as Regional Head of Real Estate Solutions, an in-house development/investment trading entity. Matt began his career in 1995 at National Freight Corporation (NFC), the role included estate management of NFC’s ownership in St Pancras basin, a very different environment to now.
Winners 2023
Mole of Tungsten Properties