Burn in charge as Panattoni hits the North

Dan Burn has left his position as development director at DB Symmetry to lead industrial specialist First Panattoni’s Northern office.

Burn joined DB Symmetry in January 2017, having built a considerable reputation in North West industrial agency over 16 years with King Sturge and JLL.

First Panattoni is the UK development arm of Panattoni Europe, one of the continent’s largest developers of logistics facilities – it has built more than 30m sq ft of new build industrial space in the last two years, the group said.

In the UK, it has delivered projects for the likes of Amazon at Bolton and the Co-op in Mansfield, and said that it has allocated £525m to UK land purchases and speculative development in 2018. The firm also has UK bases in London and the Midlands.

Burn will be responsible for accelerating the company’s land purchase, build-to-suit and speculative build programme across both the North West and Yorkshire. First Panattoni is targetting a 1m sq ft Northern pipeline of projects.

He said: “First Panattoni has quickly established a market leading position in the Midlands and South with its bold and ambitious approach to speculative development. When offered the opportunity to replicate this in the North, I didn’t hesitate to accept.”

First Panattoni confirmed it would be making further significant announcements over the coming months.

At DB Symmetry, which is working on significant projects including schemes in Speke, Wigan and Middlewich, the company is already looking to add headcount and will continue to do so, it said.

Managing director Andrew Dickman told Place North West: “From our point of view, we’ve been engaged in an ongoing recruitment process for some time – we have been looking to add quality personnel to the business and that will continue. We wish Dan well with his new venture.”