St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, has sold its 50 acre Heartlands Park site for the HS2 project for the proposed Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot (RSMD). The transaction comes shortly after the Government reaffirmed its commitment to the delivery of HS2.
The site, accommodating over 880,000 sq ft of industrial accommodation, will continue to be run as a managed estate prior to commencing works on the proposed RSMD which will serve phase one of the planned high-speed railway linking London and Birmingham.
Heartlands Park was acquired by St. Modwen in 2002 as part of the Alstom sale and leaseback transaction, whereby approximately 19 properties were acquired from the electronics company across 500 acres of land. When Alstom surrendered its lease in 2012, St. Modwen continued to lease the estate to a range of tenants including BEKO, PHS Group and Network Rail.
Ian Romano, Senior Development Surveyor for St. Modwen, commented: “Following the safeguarding of the site for the proposed depot, we have worked with HS2 to reach an agreement for this important UK infrastructure project.
“Heartlands Park perfectly illustrates St. Modwen’s proactive approach to asset management. Since taking ownership of the site 15 years ago we have transformed it from an underlet property into a thriving industrial estate with 15 tenants leasing over 800,000 sq ft of space. In line with our business strategy, we have concluded that no additional value can now be added to the asset and we will reinvest the proceeds from this transaction into new opportunities in the region.”