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Industrial/Warehouse News
The East Midlands industrial development market has kicked off 2013 in style with the sale of a large-scale strategic development site in Nottinghamshire for employment use.
Tim Gilbertson, a director in the industrial team at the Nottingham property consultancy FHP, has secured a deal on behalf of Clowes Developments for the sale of the prime 13-acre site just off the A38 at Sutton-in-Ashfield.
The deal is one of the biggest industrial land transactions in the East Midlands in the last 12 months. It is thought the site will be used to help an established local employer bring a range of different facilities on to one site, but precise details of the development have yet to be revealed.
The land forms part of the wider Gateway 28 development on Oddicroft Lane. It forms part of the industrial corridor on the A38 which connects the M1 motorway at Junction 28 with the MARR – Mansfield-Ashfield Regeneration Route – road. It was surplus to requirements for Clowes, which is currently focused on the successful development of the much larger Castlewood site
Tim Gilbertson marketed the site on Clowes’ behalf, and says such prime industrial land might normally have been broken up into smaller plots for a series of separate sales. But he already knew of a long-established local business which had been looking to consolidate its separate locations for some time.
He commented: “The economic climate of the last few years has made the disposal of large sites quite a challenge, and it hasn’t been unusual to see them parcelled up into bite-sized chunks which it’s easier for a cautious market to buy into.
“In the end, though, we effectively concluded the sale of the entire site off market because we had known for a while that there was a business in the area which was looking to being a number of different operations into a single, well-connected location. There’s no question that Gateway 28 met their criteria, and it is only a five-minute drive from the M1. They were as enthusiastic about the site as we were.”
Gilbertson says that the transaction was also bought to a swift and smooth conclusion by the hard work of all the professionals involved. “A deal was agreed within a matter of days and the legal work concluded in a very short period, which is a testament inarticulate to the dedication of everyone involved – Simon Griffiths of Flint Bishop Solicitors, who acted for the landlords alongside FHP, and Peter Sutherland of Andersons, who acted for the buyer.”
Gilbertson added: “Deals of this magnitude have been pretty thin on the ground over the past few years and it is incredibly encouraging to see not just a major land sale but such a prominent site go for employment use. This is a great way to start 2013, and I’m hopeful that this is going to encourage yet more activity in an area which has seen some very significant deals over the past 12 months.”
James Richards, of Clowes Developments, acknowledged that the site’s disposal could have been a lengthy process. He said: “Tim Gilbertson has done us proud here, securing a sale in a remarkable quick time and doing so at a price which suits us and the purchaser. It’s meant that we have been able to focus our efforts on the Castlewood scheme, where we have achieved some major successes with FHP over the past year.
“I also want to place on record my thanks to all the solicitors and agents involved because they ensured that what could have been a complex transaction was both swift and simple – allowing us all to kick off 2013 with a major success.”