Network Space sells £93m portfolio

Network Space has sold a 1m sq ft portfolio of 25 industrial holdings to InfraRed Capital Partners, in a deal worth £93m that also includes two North West development sites.

The portfolio is located throughout the North and Midlands. Both the 25 income-producing assets and development sites will continue to be managed by Network Space for InfraRed, which is acting on behalf of InfraRed Active Real Estate Fund IV.

The development sites are at Raven Locks in Salford and Carruthers Street Liverpool and will deliver a combined 200,000 sq ft.

At Raven Locks, the intention is to speculatively develop 170,000 sq ft of warehousing across seven buildings ranging between 10,000 and 60,000 sq ft, with delivery targeted during 2019 and 2020.

Carruthers Street is to see the build-out of a speculative self-contained 23,000 sq ft warehouse building, to be delivered during 2019.

Richard Ainscough, chief executive of Network Space, said: “A core part of our strategy has been to grow operational capacity without necessarily relying on our own balance sheet, and the partnership with InfraRed fulfils this perfectly.

“When we decided to sell these properties, most of which we had developed ourselves, we sought to form a partnership that would see us continuing to add value rather than openly market them as we did with the Network North portfolio.”

Network North was a 630,000 sq ft multi-let industrial portfolio which was sold in December 2017 for £42m. In June this year, Ainscough completed the buyout of Network Space and its subsidiaries from other members of the Ainscough family.

The other regional sites are a unit at Oldham Broadway Business Park; a building in Wellington Employment Park, Liverpool; LFIVE Liverpool, Platinum Court Knowsley; Venture Point West in Speke; Chalon Way St Helens and Agecroft networkcentre in Swinton.

InfraRed’s real estate director James Cooper said: “We look forward to working with Network Space. InfraRed has a 25-year track-record of investing in the industrial sector having acquired and managed over 16m sq ft of assets.

“This portfolio fits our value-add strategy and our conviction in the growth prospects for the North West. The urban cluster of Manchester and Liverpool represents the second largest conurbation in the UK after the London and the South East.

“We expect the portfolio to benefit from ongoing trends towards urban densification, relocation of service businesses into urban fringes and surging demand for last mile logistics.”

Dowley Turner Real Estate, Taylor Wessing and Malcom Hollis acted for InfraRed. Network Space was represented by Knight Frank and FDR.