AIPUT (Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust) managed by abrdn, has completed the freehold acquisition of the multi-let Fleming Business Centre, located in the heart of Manor Royal, Crawley, to the south of Gatwick Airport. The freehold site (4.5 acres) was acquired from Lothbury Investment Management for £22.4m at a yield of 4.2%. This latest acquisition follows AIPUT’s purchase just last month of a 75-acre strategic land development site in West Heathrow which represents the largest strategic land transaction in terms of acres in the area for over 20 years.
The Fleming Business Centre, located along Manor Royal’s prime industrial pitch, situated just off the A23, has a GIA of approximately 95,000 sq ft divided across seven units, one of which is currently vacant. Existing occupiers include the British Red Cross and Chemigraphic Ltd. The average rent is about £10 per sq ft. The new campus increases AIPUT’s industrial floorspace in the area by 80%, adding to and broadening the type of warehouse product it can offer to the recovering occupier market. The fund’s existing assets at Viking House (on-airport) and Gatwick Gate (off-airport) are single let warehouses, occupied by Gate Gourmet and World Duty Free respectively.
AIPUT’s latest acquisitions are in line with the Fund’s strategic goal to invest £150 million in new high-quality assets that will enhance returns and diversify our prime airport industrial portfolio, both geographically and across a wider range of occupiers and growing business sectors that support the nation and local populations. The high level of competition and extensive bidding process to secure the site shows as much about AIPUT’s tenacity for the right asset as the strength of investor demand for multi-let industrial estates – especially in supply-starved South East conurbations within the radar of nationally important transport hubs boasting excellent ground surface connectivity and highly consuming populations.
