UK Land Estates reacquires three sites
The industrial specialist has boosted its portfolio by 410,000 sq ft in picking up the trio of estates, all of which it formerly owned, in North Tyneside, Cramlington and Boldon.
For an undisclosed sum, UK Land Estates has bought “the majority of land and units” at North Tyneside’s New York Industrial Estate, Cramlington’s Nelson Park and Boldon Industrial Estate.
UKLE previously owned all three sites before selling them in 2017 to focus on enhancing and expanding sites at its flagship estates at Team Valley, Tyne Tunnel and Teesside.
However, the firm said that with market conditions improving, it has brought the siters back into its fold as it looks to capitalise on the growing number of businesses looking to ‘North-shore’ their operations by investing in the region.
Keith Taylor, managing director, said: “Over the past few years, we have invested heavily in upgrading our stock and developing new speculative sites at Teesside and the Tyne Tunnel, and with market conditions improving, we’re now turning our focus to bringing more space to market.
“But we’re not naive and while we’d like to buy – as well as develop – more sites, we know that there is a fundamental shortage of high-quality industrial stock being marketed across the region, so we’re delighted to have got the deal over the line.”
The company said that demand for prime space remains strong, evidenced by global print specialist Elanders snapping up the speculatively built £4.5m L6 development at Tyne Tunnel.
“Like the old adage says, ‘build it and they will come’,” added Taylor, who continued: “The North East is home to an incredibly skilled workforce; it has easy access to global markets and is one of the nation’s largest net-exporters.
“And with more businesses than ever considering ‘North-shoring’ operations, there’s no reason why we should take our foot off the accelerator.
“We have some of the world’s largest offshore wind farms being built just off the coast in the North Sea, two planned battery giga-factories and one of the nation’s largest advanced manufacturing clusters.”
Existing tenants of the three estates will be unaffected by the sale.
