Brakes’ Omega deal agreed, shed forward sold

Omega Warrington, the joint venture between Miller Developments and Royal Bank of Scotland's KUC Properties, has completed the deal to bring the first occupier to the 575-acre site.

Brakes will take around one quarter of Omega North, the 80-acres developable portion to the north of the M62 for a 200,000 sq ft shed.

The grocery & fresh food supplier has signed a pre-let with Omega Warrington, which has in turn forward funded the development with the Northern Ireland Local Government Offices' Superannuation Committee, clients of LaSalle Investment Management. No price was disclosed but the deal is understood to have generated a yield of 6%.

Planning permission was granted earlier this year and work has already started on a £7m access road and associated services.

Asda and Travis Perkins have also lbeen linked with shed deals at Omega North.

Andrew Sutherland, joint managing director of Miller Developments, said: "After months of speculation in the market place we are delighted to be able to confirm both the occupier and investment deals for Brakes at Omega North. Coming out of a very challenging economic period, OWL, with our partners at the Homes & Communities Agency and Warrington Council, has been working hard to find solutions that would ensure development could go ahead quickly once the market was showing signs of recovery. At a time of shortage of high quality logistics space in the North West, Omega North is now a leading destination and very much open for business. This latest announcement is very much testament to that."

Nick Smart, Brakes supply chain director, said: "The decision to build this new site in Warrington fits with our long-term strategy to meet our growth projections by investing in our network, ensuring that we are in a healthy position to meet growing demand in the North West and continuing to provide our customers with the market-leading levels of service they have come to expect from Brakes. The new site will be home to a state of the art multi-temperature food service distribution centre, enabling us to operate a full-service distribution network to service the area from Warrington."

Landowner the Homes & Communities Agency invested £42m in junction 8 of the M62 and associated carriage works in 2002.

Deborah McLaughlin, North West executive director of the HCA, said: "It's fantastic that through successful partnership working, we've signed up Omega North's first major occupier. Local people will benefit from a significant number of new jobs and that's good news for us all. We know that there is strong demand for commercial space at Omega; the site is highly attractive and well located and we are delighted by the level of interest so far that should translate into even more employment opportunities, supporting the economic growth of Warrington."

Practical completion for the Brakes premises and associated infrastructure is scheduled for August 2013. Chetwoods is the architect and Jones Lang LaSalle and GVA are joint letting and funding agents.