RPMI Railpen (Railpen) has announced a significant addition to its property portfolio, with the acquisition of a new nine acre site with Wrenbridge in Dartford.
Purchased from Dartford Borough Council and Prologis, the new asset is situated at The Bridge, a 1.8 million sq ft mixed-use development which currently provides commercial accommodation for occupiers such as Mercedes, DHL, Sainsbury’s and Network Rail.
The acquisition follows recent news of Railpen’s purchase of 5.85 acres in Waltham Cross. Wrenbridge is acting as development partner for the two sites, to develop both into high quality schemes for speculative warehouse and logistics use.
The Bridge in Dartford is easily accessible from Central London and other areas of Kent via major railway links, and benefits from close proximity to the M25 corridor and City Airport.
Railpen and Wrenbridge are preparing a planning application for a new development of five high quality detached warehouse units totaling over 180,000 sq ft. The new development is expected to create approximately 400 new jobs and will have excellent sustainability credentials targeting BREEAM Excellent.
Alastair Dawson, Senior Asset Manager at Railpen, commented: “This acquisition reflects the strategic and informed approach which we take to increasing development exposure in our property portfolio. We look forward to working closely with Wrenbridge on our Dartford and Waltham Cross sites, the combined 14 acres of development will deliver the future returns for our 350,000 members.”
Jeff Wilson, Director at Wrenbridge, added: “We are delighted to announce this major acquisition in Dartford which grows our warehouse development pipeline with Railpen. This will be a highly sustainable development with renewable energy from photovoltaic arrays, electric vehicle charging points and highly efficient insulation, lighting and lifts.”
The Bridge in Dartford and Waltham Cross join a wide range of real estate assets owned and managed by RPMI Railpen, the investment manager for the £30bn railways pension scheme.
