Less than three weeks after it announced the acquisition of the 20-acre “First Street” site in Manchester, PATRIZIA has confirmed it is to build three new warehouse units at its jointly owned business park 20 miles away in Warrington.
The German-headquartered PATRIZIA Immobilien, which owns Birchwood Park as a joint venture with Oaktree Capital management, says the speculative units will provide a total of 53,018 sq ft industrial space and should be completed by the end of the year.
To be built on the estate’s Cavendish Avenue, all three units will be targeted at small to medium-sized businesses. They will contain up to 15 per cent of office space and be designed to support companies ranging from research and development to production.
“This is the first SME development in Warrington since the recession and we are excited to be leading the way as we meet the needs of our occupiers,” said Birchwood Park managing director, Jonathan Walsh.
“We are seeing a rise in demand from companies who need an industrial space that creates the right impression for their clients and has the best environment to attract and retain the best possible staff.
“This new development brings together flexible use, high quality infrastructure and secure facilities, maximising the usability for a range of businesses,” he added.
PATRIZIA is an owner-managed company that prides itself on staying independent of banks and other financial institutions. Its UK managing director, James Muir, added: “We have been carefully implementing our strategy of investing in high-growth locations across Britain and our property assets under management in the UK now amount to more than £1bn.”
Earlier this month PATRIZIA UK, whose parent company is listed on the German stock exchange Deutsche Borse, acquired the partly developed “First Street” site in the centre of Manchester from Ask Real Estate.
The 20-acre site has an 180,000 sq ft office building — let to prestige tenants such as Ford, Auto Trader and Jacobs Engineering — and the capacity for the development of up to one-million square feet of office space and 500 new apartments.
At the time of the sale Ask managing director, John Hughes, commented: “As a Manchester-focused development company, we are looking forward to continuing our work on First Street with PATRIZIA UK to deliver the next phases of development.
“We are very proud of having brought the first phase of this major transformational scheme to completion in partnership with Manchester City Council, and we look forward to continuing our excellent working relationship with Manchester City Council and forging a new one with PATRIZIA.”
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