Investors remain keen to snap up regional assets promising high returns, and this has allowed companies looking to condense or overhaul their portfolios to benefit hugely. One such company is developer St Modwen, which has this week agreed a deal to sell its Telford business park for a total of £5.25 million.
Brockton Business Park, located just to the south of Telford town centre in the West Midlands, will now pass to the ownership of TGPM Developments, with existing tenant CMLF & L (Telford) expected to remain as sole occupier of the 200,000 sq ft business park for the duration of its lease. The logistics provider delivers a range of products including ambient, chilled and frozen goods on the behalf of discount supermarkets.
CMLF & L chief executive Tim Middleham thanked St Modwen for the strong business relationship developed between the two companies over the course of several years.
He said; “We have a long relationship with St Modwen having moved to Brockton Business Park from its scheme at Audley Avenue in Newport.
“St Modwen has worked hard to aid our expansion by accommodating us within our existing location.
“We have also improved the site by installing dock levers, cold stores, chill and freezer facilities and creating a state of the art storage and distribution hub.”
CMLF & L first took up space on Brockton Business Park in 2008, when it leased a portion of the site’s Building 2. However, due to the rapid growth of the discount supermarket sector, it was necessary for the firm to then fully lease Building 2, along with a portion of Building 1, shortly afterwards.
Continued demand meant that more space was required for the firm to meet growth targets, so the logistics company renegotiated its lease in order to fully occupy Building 1 in 2011. Since then, it has been the sole occupier on the site.
According to St Modwen, the £5.25 million deal price is a strong indicator of the continuing upturn in Telford’s commercial property market. However, it conceded that the presence of the sole occupier, which has been buoyed by the strength of the discount sector, also played a major role in achieving a very good return on the initial investment cost.
Development surveyor at St Modwen, Jonathan Green, said; “We always set out to understand the needs of our occupiers and we work hard to see that these are met.
“In the case of CMLF & L we have worked with them to ensure that the business grows in a sustainable way and that they meet all their business aims and aspirations.
“Prior to CMLF & L’s move to Brockton Business Park we had a number of tenants at the scheme, and we worked hard to keep it occupied throughout the recession – as the logistics company has grown, it’s employed more local people and contributed to Telford’s local economy.”
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