St Modwen adds Speke warehouses to portfolio

St Modwen has acquired Southern Gateway, a multi-let industrial estate off Speke Boulevard in Merseyside, from asset management group Gresham House for £7.25m, reflecting a yield of 11.89%.

The 368,000 sq ft industrial estate, a former GlaxoSmithKline manufacturing and distribution facility, covers a 17.3-acre site in Speke. It is multi-let to a range of tenants including Shop Direct and Nerudia and generates £917,000 of rent each year.

David Nuttall, development manager for St Modwen, said: “This investment typifies our ongoing strategy of acquiring assets that demonstrate excellent potential for further value generation and in turn, growing our commercial development pipeline.

“Southern Gateway is close to Jaguar Land Rover and Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is on a major arterial route and has around a third of a kilometre of road frontage. It will therefore provide a variety of options for St Modwen moving forward.

“As part of our ongoing strategy, we are actively looking for further opportunities in the region, including both land and income producing assets, in order to grow our pipeline of commercial and residential development sites.”

Southern Gateway is approximately seven miles south of Liverpool city centre off the A561 dual carriageway.

GVA and Pinsent Masons acted for St Modwen. JLL acted for the vendor.