The 23-acre Hewlett Packard Enterprises UK head office site in Bracknell has been sold to a joint venture (JV) which plans a 350,000 sq ft business park.
The JV, between a fund managed by Credit Suisse Asset Management Global Real Estate, Chancerygate and Hines, was set up specifically for one of the largest land deals within the M4/M3 corridor this year. A planning application is due to be submitted in early 2020 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise UK will move out in early 2021.
The proposed business park will be promoted for industrial, warehousing and logistics uses as well as bespoke data centres, serving London, the western home counties and the south east. Both leaseholds and freeholds will be available.
Anthony Leonard, head of UK real estate at Credit Suisse, said: “We are delighted to form this joint venture with Chancerygate and Hines. Investing in and developing high quality warehouse space is a key part of our UK strategy.”
Chancerygate managing director, Richard Bains, said: “This is a significant deal which will enable us to deliver much-needed industrial space within the M3/M4 corridor.
“Many larger scale office occupiers who have traditionally favoured campus style offices in edge of town locations are moving back into city centres.
“This change provides clear commercial opportunities for us to implement our plans to deliver new urban centric logistics facilities and business units to satisfy the high volume of demand we are experiencing for our product. We look forward to delivering this outstanding project with our joint venture partners.”
The proposed business park will bring Chancerygate’s development pipeline up to 2.6 million square feet across 20 UK sites. Hines UK has created an industrial portfolio of around two million square feet within the past year.
Ross Blair, senior managing director and head of Hines UK, said: “This deal is our sixth to date with Chancerygate and presents a great opportunity in a supply constrained market. The scale allows us to deliver a variety of unit sizes to appeal to a wider occupier base. We are delighted to be working with Credit Suisse as we increase the range of our activities in this sector.”
BNP Paribas and JLL advised the JV on the deal and CBRE acted on behalf of the vendor.
© Thames Valley Property No 190 (tvproperty.co.uk)