Bridges Fund Management, the specialist sustainable and impact investor, has teamed up with leading commercial property developer, Graftongate, to acquire a six-acre site near Southampton, with a view to developing one of the UK’s most sustainable logistics buildings.
Bridges and Graftongate have submitted a planning application to develop a new 135,000 sq ft industrial/logistics unit at Nursling Industrial Estate, near Junction 3 of the M27.
The new development is expected to have a value of £40 million. It will be net zero carbon in operation and will also target EPC A+ and BREEAM Outstanding – which would make it one of the UK’s most sustainable industrial buildings.
In the last three years, Bridges has developed a platform of highly sustainable urban and last-mile logistics facilities across the UK, working with a range of expert joint venture partners.
This is Bridges’ first development in partnership with Graftongate, which has developed over 10 million sq ft of high quality industrial/logistics accommodation in the UK to date.
Henry Pepper, partner at Bridges, said: “We’re excited to work with Graftongate to build out another net zero carbon development in Nursling. There continues to be strong demand for logistics space on the South Coast, with relatively little supply – and we have seen from our previous developments that sustainable developments are becoming increasingly attractive to corporate occupiers.”
Alex Thomason, director at Graftongate, said: “We are very pleased to be working in partnership with Bridges to develop a site with enormous potential. We will be bringing forward plans for an industry-leading industrial development in a strategic location within Southampton’s prime distribution centre.
“Nursling has an established reputation within the UK logistics market, due to its proximity to national road networks and the international docks at Southampton, and we expect there to be significant interest in this development.”
JLL advised the vendor, while DTRE and Gowling WLG acted for Bridges and Graftongate.
