Feldberg Capital and HBD have secured a £54 million development loan from BGO, for their new UK focused industrial and logistics platform Origin.
Origin is immediately well capitalised and will own and develop next generation, ESG compliant I&L assets, predominantly in the mid box market, across the UK.
The loan will fund the acquisition and development of the Origin venture’s initial portfolio of seed assets – three sites from HBD’s pipeline with a combined GDV of c.£100m.
The three initial sites have the potential to deliver approximately c.450,000sq ft of prime I&L space, with construction on each due to commence in H1 2025 for delivery from H2 2025. All developments will target market leading ESG credentials, including BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and an EPC ‘A’ rating. The seed assets comprise:
SPARK, Walsall (phase one), a 13 acre development site with a £53m GDV, just off the M6. Spark has full planning consent for phase one, which comprises two units totalling 270,000sq ft.
INTER, Welwyn Garden City, a three acre development site with a £27 million GDV on Tewin Road near Junction 4 of the A1(M). The site has detailed planning consent for a 71,000sq ft I&L scheme.
ARK, Markham Vale, a nine acre development site with a £19 million GDV and planning consent for four units totalling 107,000sq ft. This marks the second phase of HBD’s 200 acre flagship I&L scheme at Markham Vale.
James Lister, Director at Feldberg Capital commented: “BGO’s financing of Origin’s three seed assets is a testament to the quality of the strategy, assets and sponsor. With a short timeframe to arrange financing for an intricate structure, it was a strong team effort to get this over the line. This facility will allow us to implement our business plan, whilst we look to grow the Origin portfolio and fulfil our aim of Origin becoming a market leader in the industrial and logistics mid box space.”
Hamer Boot, Executive Director at HBD, said: “The financing from BGO frees up equity to invest in future projects, supercharging the ambitious strategy for Origin as we target circa £1 billion high quality I&L schemes within the next seven years. We have confidence in the occupational story and rental growth in these locations and expect to see improving supply and demand dynamics.”
Jim Blakemore, Managing Partner and Global Head of Debt at BGO commented “BGO are delighted to have the opportunity to support Feldberg and HBD in bringing forward the first developments in their new I&L platform. This deal represents a continuation of our strategy of lending on high quality assets in strong locations across the UK and Europe with best-in-class sponsors. We hope to build on this new relationship with Felberg and HBD and work together on further projects in the future.”
Going forward, the Origin partnership will draw on both HBD’s development pipeline as well as acquire sites from third parties for further pre let and speculative I&L development to deliver c.£1 billion of high quality I&L schemes across the UK over the next seven years. Feldberg holds a 75% share of the JV and HBD has a 25% share. Feldberg acts as the investment manager and HBD as the development manager.