Invesco Real Estate and Barwood Capital Ltd have joined forces to build a portfolio of urban/last mile high quality industrial and logistics warehouses across the UK. The strategic partnership will focus on creating sustainable industrial products through speculative development, asset management or re-positional opportunities, concentrating on locations with strong rental growth prospects and occupier demand.
Andy Rofe, Managing Director at Invesco Real Estate Europe, said: “With further pressure on global supply chains, we recognise the need for ‘edge of town’ distribution assets as many firms reshape their operations to address the challenges of the ‘just in time’ delivery model. Partnering with a logistics specialist such as Barwood Capital, with their extensive UK network, industrial development and asset management expertise provides us with direct access to the UK Industrial sector, with the potential to harness the considerable forecast growth.”
Hugh Elrington, Managing Director at Barwood Capital, added: “We are delighted to be teaming up with Invesco Real Estate, allowing us the depth of funding to take advantage of the UK’s continued growth in this sought after sector of the market.”
The partnership has already acquired its first two assets, which include a four-acre site adjacent to Manchester’s Trafford Retail Park in order to develop a multi-unit scheme as well as a consented 5.25-acre site in Coventry, close to Junction 3 of the M6, where construction is due to start in July. As part of Invesco Real Estate’s net-zero objectives, each scheme will be developed with the firm’s proprietary ESG checklist and criteria in mind including seeking relevant ESG ratings at the appropriate point of development.
Edward Henson, Director and Head of Transactions at Barwood Capital, said: “Demand for industrial space remains strong across the UK regions and our partnership with Invesco Real Estate allows us to use our combined expertise to unlock development and asset management opportunities and capture the supply/demand imbalance that exists in key locations.”
Rob Johnston, Head of UK and Nordic Real Estate Transactions at Invesco Real Estate, added: “Both the Manchester and Coventry sites are ideal schemes to kick-start the portfolio, given their prime locations. We have a strong pipeline of further opportunities as we work towards our aim to create a portfolio of 6-8 schemes, with an AUM of around €350.6m (£300m).”
