Bolsover Land Limited (‘BLL’), a joint venture between ALMCOR (formally known as iSec) and St. Francis Group, has sold over 80 acres at its 1.4 million sq. ft. Horizon 29 warehouse and logistics development to BentallGreenOak (‘BGO’) and their development partner, Equation Properties for £39.9 million.
BGO and Equation will develop up to 1.2 million sq. ft. at Horizon 29 across the 140-acre strategic brownfield site located adjacent to Junction 29A of the M1 and Markham Vale.
Horizon 29, formerly the Coalite works, was acquired by BLL in 2012. The site has been remediated and core infrastructure constructed to allow for development to further consolidate Horizon 29 as one of the East Midlands’ premier industrial and logistics location.
BLL retains over 33 acres for further development which will be brought forward alongside the BGO development.
Rupert Wood, Head of Strategic Land at ALMCOR, said: “This is an excellent deal for the JV having bought the site in 2012. It will drive forward the delivery of Horizon 29 while allowing ALMCOR to release capital to recycle it into other substantial projects that we are bringing forward, such as Thames Enterprise Park in Thurrock. Working with our JV partner, St Francis Group, we have delivered a warehousing and logistics site into an increasingly constrained market at the right time demonstrating our credentials as strategic land specialists.”
Gareth Williams, Development Director at St Francis Group, said: “This sale highlights the expertise within the Group and the wider Joint Venture to unlock technically challenging brownfield sites, and to complete significant highway and service infrastructure to create a development ready site capable of immediate development. Having jointly invested significant funds to achieve this in time to capitalise on rising demand for serviced land, we are delighted to have completed this sale to BGO and to have secured a programme of speculative development at Horizon29.”
Gareth Purcell, Managing Director at BentallGreenOak, said: “We are delighted to have closed on the acquisition. The first phases of the site already benefit from Reserved Matters planning consent and we will be commencing speculative development works on site during Q2 with the first units completing by year-end. This deal, which completed on Christmas Eve, closes out a very busy year for BGO’s UK logistics platform, with us having acquired land to deliver c. 5m sq.ft. of new logistics space with our partners at Equation Properties in addition to a further 3.7m sq.ft. of standing assets across a total of 12 separate transactions.”
BLL was advised by JLL and Clyde & Co and BGO and Equation were advised by Burbage Realty and Taylor Wessing.
