The industrial market in the Midlands is showing signs of significant improvement, with high quality buildings being snapped up by new occupiers.
The industrial team at leading independent property adviser, GVA has completed the letting of two units totalling almost 175,000 sq ft in just over a week.
The team completed the letting of the 126,000 sq ft unit at Legal & General’s Fradley Park near Lichfield to third party logistics supplier Geodis, while a 46,805 sq ft unit at Nexus Point Witton, Birmingham was let on behalf of Columbia Threadneedle to Complete Business Solutions, which has relocated from Aston.
Quoting rents at Fradley Park are £5.75 per sq ft and £6.00 per sq ft at Nexus Point.
David Willmer, National Head of Industrial and Distribution at GVA, said: “Both of these deals have gone from agreement of heads of terms to completion of lettings in less than two weeks.
“Whilst we’ve seen a relatively steady start to the year, we are currently experiencing a more marked uplift in enquiries. Speculative development has picked up again since last year’s EU referendum, but with increasing demand it’s likely that existing good quality stock will be snapped up relatively quickly. Our research confirms that for Grade A units over 100,000 sq ft, there is still less than six months stock currently available.
“There are still a number of opportunities available at Fradley Park, including a high quality 108,000 sq ft industrial/warehouse unit available for letting from July and design and build opportunities from 30,000 up to 230,000 sq ft.”
Rob Watts, Senior Surveyor in the Industrial and Distribution team, who completed the letting to Complete Business Solutions, said: “To have this deal completed in less than a fortnight is great, but to have two is exceptional.
“Within the Midlands and particularly around Birmingham, there isn’t a great deal of high quality stock available in the mid-size range of between 20,000 – 80,000 sq ft. Combined with the rising interest in urban logistics, we received substantial levels of interest in this unit at Nexus Point and had a number of interested parties.”
GVA is joint agent at Fradley Park with LSH, and Knight Frank at Nexus Point.