Commercial property firm UK Land Estates has re-acquired significant chunks of three North East industrial estates in a major multimillion-pound deal.
The landlord and developer, which now has about 600 tenants across its properties, has bought parts of North Tyneside’s New York Industrial Estate, Cramlington’s Nelson Park and Boldon Industrial Estate in an undisclosed deal. In a move described as a "substantial reinvestment" in the region, the firm will boost its portfolio by about 410,000 sqft, acquiring the majority of land across the three estates.
UK Land Estates had previously owned the sites until a sale in 2017 when it decided to concentrate investment on its three core estates of Team Valley, Tyne Tunnel and Teesside. Speaking to BusinessLive recently, the firm's managing director, Keith Taylor said UK Land Estates was experiencing high occupancy rates and was targeting growth through acquisition and speculative building.
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On news of this most recent deal, Mr Taylor said: "We are delighted to have completed the re-purchase of these three estates, each of which are located in prime sites across the North East. Over the past few years, we have invested heavily in upgrading our stock and developing new speculative sites at Teesside and the Tyne Tunnel, and with market conditions improving, we’re now turning our focus to bringing more space to market.
"But we’re not naive and while we’d like to buy – as well as develop – more sites, we know that there is a fundamental shortage of high-quality industrial stock being marketed across the region, so we’re delighted to have got the deal over the line."
Recent successful speculative buildings include the £4.5m L6 building at Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate which will be home to Elanders' new logistics brand, Bergen Logistics. UK Land Estates has also talked about the £3m refurbishment it has planned for the historic St George's House premises - one of the first units to appear on the Team Valley Trading Estate.
Mr Taylor added: "Like the old adage says, ‘build it and they will come'. The North East is home to an incredibly skilled workforce; it has easy access to global markets and is one of the nation’s largest net-exporters.
"And with more businesses than ever considering ‘North-shoring’ operations, there’s no reason why we should take our foot off the accelerator. We have some of the world’s largest offshore wind farms being built just off the coast in the North Sea, two planned battery giga-factories and one of the nation’s largest advanced manufacturing clusters.
"There’s so much going on here that despite the uncertainty surrounding the global economy, it’s fantastic that the North East is continuing to buck economic trends by holding its own on the global stage and we’re proud to be playing a part in the region’s resurgence."
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