The owners of a key North Tyneside industrial yard have put the site up for sale as an investment package with a £15m price tag.
Hadrian Yard in Wallsend has played a pivotal part in the region’s industrial past and present, housing a host of businesses involved in shipbuilding, oil and gas and the offshore wind sector.
Now home to Belgian steel firm Smulders, the site has been put on the market by owners Hadrian Industrial Holdings (HHIL) Ltd in what has been described as a rare opportunity to snap up a strategic industrial investment.
Property agents Avison Young have been instructed to sell the freehold interest of the site, and are looking for offers in the region of £15m, subject to contract and excluding VAT.
Tenants Smulders, which uses the site as a wind turbine foundation factory, recently renewed its lease for a further two years at a passing rent of £1.5m a year.
The Hadrian Yard extends to 30 hectares (75 acres) on the North Bank of the River Tyne. It has 461,128sqft of industrial, warehouse and office accommodation, plus 1km of waterfront, a 25-acre reinforced concrete assembly pad and a yard power capacity of 5000 KVA through 10 substations.
Simon Beanland, principal and head of investment at Avison Young’s Newcastle office said: “The property is currently used as a manufacturing and assembly yard for jacket foundations for use in offshore wind turbines, a growing alternative energy sector.
“The site is one of a very limited number of yards capable of handling this type and volume of work in the 海角视频, as well as elsewhere in Europe.
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“In particular it is able to meet the larger construction requirements which are needed under new tenders. The yard has previously been used for the offshore oil and gas industry.
“The site is exceptionally well-placed to benefit from developments in the North Sea, within easy reach of key offshore energy locations such as Dogger Bank, Hornsea and other North Sea developments, as well as oil and gas related uses, large scale manufacturing, storage and distribution uses and advanced manufacturing.”
The site’s sale comes two weeks after it was announced that more than 200 jobs will be created after the Port of Tyne was chosen to be the maintenance base for the world’s biggest wind farm at Dogger Bank.
Norwegian firm Equinor will have its onshore base at the Port of Tyne for the life of the wind farm and it is hoped the development could be the catalyst for a larger offshore cluster on the Tyne.
Mr Beanland added: “The North East has been chosen as one of four regions that will form part of a new Offshore Wind Growth Partnership, following the announcement of a £250m bespoke agreement between Government and industry.
“With slowing and delays in the nuclear power station development programme and the greater emphasis placed by Government on alternative sources of energy, including the construction of offshore wind farms, Port of Tyne is well placed to secure further activity within this key sector.”
Hadrian Yard has a long and distinguished history in the industrial heritage of the North East.
It was the site of the construction of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, home to leading oil and gas firm OGN and, decades before HHIL Ltd took possession, the yard was home to the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, best known for building the engines of the Mauretania in the early years of the 20th Century.