Octopus Real Estate has agreed to provide a €12.5m (£10.6m) refinancing loan to Blackacre Limited to transform an industrial site into a 27-acre business and logistics park. The site itself is split into two plots - one will be used to develop two large distribution units with a combined space of 369,000ft² over 10.95-acres, whilst the other will provide a further 450,000ft² of industrial space over 16.60-acres. The refinancing of the site will allow Blackacre to execute a long-term land assembly strategy and complete pre-letting negotiations with several potential tenants.
The site, near Great Blakenham in Suffolk, benefits from having excellent road connections, with direct access on to the A14 arterial trunk road, and is only 20 miles from the port of Felixstowe, one of the UK’s most important container ports and one of the largest in Europe.
James Nunn, Commercial Fund Manager, Octopus Real Estate, said: “With great links to one of the UK and Europe’s busiest container ports, the Blackacre development makes good commercial sense. Blackacre has a robust track record and the scheme will help satisfy strong local demand. The industrial and logistics market has shown consistent strength and significant outperformance through turbulent times in the market, so we are pleased to have supported the borrower and made this loan.”
Larry Isherwood, CEO, Blackacre (Great Blakenham) Ltd, commented: “This is a great development for us delivering over 800,000ft² of high spec commercial space suitable for general warehousing use. A further land purchase could increase this to circa 1.5 million ft². We look forward to continuing our working relationship with Octopus Real Estate.”
