aberdeen, on behalf of the Standard Life Pooled Pension Property Fund, has agreed a 15-year lease with healthcare wholesaler and distributor Alliance Healthcare at Gravelly Industrial Park. It is one of the largest urban logistics assets in the UK and is managed by aberdeen on a discretionary basis.
The largest Grade A speculatively developed warehouse in Birmingham over the last decade, Gravelly Point is a 285,158 sq ft warehouse developed using in-house expertise at aberdeen.
The building benefits from 18m eaves height, 24 loading doors, offices with roof terrace, MUGA pitch and 285 parking spaces. The warehouse, which cost just under £25 million to build, has an EPC A+ rating and has achieved a BREEAM Outstanding certificate. ESG features include EV charging points, PV solar panels with battery storage provisions and rainwater harvesting. Gravelly Industrial Park is situated at J6 of the M6 (spaghetti Junction). The 80-acre Industrial Park has over 70 units of various sizes ranging from 2,000 sq ft to over 100,000 sq ft.
David Stewart, Manager, aberdeen for the Standard Life Pooled Pension Property Fund says: “We are delighted to have attracted such a high quality tenant as Alliance Healthcare to Gravelly Point within months of completion of the building. This is testament to our high conviction in the location, the exceptional quality of building we have produced and alignment on the importance of ESG. The project is set to deliver an attractive return on cost for our investors, and we look forward to an enduring relationship at the park with Alliance Healthcare.”
The original development of the estate in the 1970’s was funded by Standard Life (now Phoenix Life Ltd) who have retained ownership of the asset ever since. Tenant retention at the park has been extraordinary due in a large part to the strategic location, ongoing investment and the carefully managed environment.
The Gravelly Point project comprised the demolition of the existing 220,000 sq ft unit 38 on a 16-acre site and was previously home to the Carlsberg Group, who occupied the unit for 43 years. Having considered various options for the existing building, aberdeen concluded that it had eventually reached the end of its economic life, and the decision was taken to redevelop the site to deliver a new logistics warehouse future fit for another long term period of occupation.
Dan Berry, International Real Estate lead from Alliance Healthcare says: “We’re really pleased to be planning significant operational expansion through our lease acquisition of Gravelly Point. We are making a substantial investment in this state of the art building with truly impressive facilities. We selected this location as it complements our current UK network and customer base while allowing for potential growth opportunities.”