A huge North West site previously occupied by Travis Perkins has been acquired by Tungsten Properties for £7.5m.
The site at Appleton Thorn Trading Estate in Warrington will now see a 243,000sq ft warehouse built, which will house more than 200 jobs.
The acquisition of the 11-acre site by the mid-box industrial and warehouse developer was funded by British Airways Pensions Trustees.
It follows Travis Perkins' relocation earlier this year to a new larger facility at Omega Warrington Distribution Centre.
Ian Dunckley, development director at Tungsten Properties, said: “Our latest acquisition in Warrington, which is our second funding partnership with British Airways Pensions Trustees Ltd, responds to the lack of new logistics stock in the North West and demand from businesses for new, state of the art expansion space.
"Savills recently reported that the North West has a logistics’ market vacancy rate of just 5.48%, the lowest level ever recorded and with the development pipeline in the area below 1 million sq ft, they calculated that the region has just 1.07 years’ supply.
"Therefore, our investment aims to meet market demand to create workspace, jobs and solutions for business and ultimately consumers.”
Nathan Khanverdi, surveyor at Colliers International, who acted on behalf of Tungsten Properties said: “We are delighted to have acted on behalf of Tungsten acquiring a prime logistics site which is located on arterial routes from the South of England to Merseyside, Greater Manchester and North Wales.
Most Read
Don't miss a thing - sign up for your free North West newsletter - and follow us on LinkedIn
Email newsletters
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the North West- and you can stay in touch with all the latest news from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive daily morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
For all the latest stories, views, polls and more - and the news as it breaks - .
"Subject to planning, this speculative 243,000 sq ft building will be one of the only new developments of this size to be delivered in 2021.”
The Lyncastle Road site is an allocated employment area and preferred distribution location within the local plan.
Pegasus Group is to prepare the planning application, which will include the warehouse containing office space, 18 dock-levellers and a 229-space car park.
Subject to planning, demolition works will start later this year with the unit available from late summer 2021. Colliers and Moriarty & Co have been appointed letting agents.