Cole Waterhouse has formed a Joint Venture to acquire a 136-acre logistical development site in Yorkshire, for £54 million.

11 Nov 2021

Cole Waterhouse has formed a Joint Venture with Henderson Park to acquire a 136-acre logistical development site in Kellingley, Yorkshire, for £54 million.

Contracts have been exchanged in an off-market transaction with Harworth PLC for £54 million.

Cole Waterhouse will manage the acquisition, development and leasing of the site, which will ultimately provide for 1.4 million square feet of prime logistics space.

The site is 20 kilometres from Leeds and has outline planning consent. Seven units are expected to be developed ranging in size from 40,000 to 735,000 sq ft, with single ownership of the site offering the rare opportunity to design and create a strategic estate that will appeal to a mix of tenants across a broad range of sectors.

The site has already been prepared for development and work is due to commence in April 2022, with the first units ready for occupation by spring 2023. Once operational, the asset will deliver significant new supply of much needed state-of-the-art, energy efficient warehouse space in a structurally undersupplied market with strong occupational fundamentals. Yorkshire and the North East currently has a logistics vacancy rate of sub 3% as a result of limited consented land availability and record take up by tenants.

Located on the site of a former colliery near Wakefield, the development is strategically located at the nexus of key transport infrastructure and will be the country’s only inland distribution park offering tri-modal connectivity to the U.K. and continental Europe via road, water or rail. The U.K.’s four major container ports are all within a four hour drive via the M62 and A1 (M) motorways, and the site offers direct access to the Strategic Freight Network with sidings that caters for trains up to 640 metres long. Immediate onsite access to the Aire & Calder canal waterway unlocks potential freight links to the Leeds and Humber ports.

Sustainability will be a key consideration at all stages of development, with the finished assets targeting BREEAM certification and other specifications desired by occupiers. The wider masterplan for the land surrounding the site also includes the Southmoor Energy Centre, offering a potential supply of low carbon energy to the estate in the future.

Damian Flood, CEO of Cole Waterhouse, commented:

“The acquisition of this superb logistics site demonstrates our continued commitment to developing in the industrial and logistics sector. This is our first project with Henderson Park and we are excited to be working with an experienced joint venture partner that shares our focus on sustainable development and creating value. We are actively looking for additional opportunities to bring forward in well located and connected logistics sites across the UK.”