Crosstree Real Estate Partners and Bloom have bought a property in London for a newly created £200m (€239m) industrial real estate investment fund focused on the South East of England.
The joint venture has invested £30m to acquire the Fairview Business Centre in Hayes from A2 Dominion Group.
The asset, constructed in the 1970s and 1980s, comprises 106,901sqft of industrial space across five units, and is 70% occupied by four tenants.
The venture managed by Bloom will initially focus will be on London and the South East, but the investment strategy may be extended to regional cities with comparable favorable supply-demand conditions.
Liam Singh, managing director at Crosstree Real Estate Partners, said: “We are thrilled to have partnered with the experienced team at Bloom as we seek to take advantage of the attractive investment environment in the UK last-mile logistics sector which continues to demonstrate highly compelling fundamentals.
“Fairview Business Centre represents a strong first investment for the venture, and we look forward to bringing forward our plans whilst seeking further similar investment opportunities.”
Tom Davies, co-founder and managing partner of Bloom, said: “We are delighted to partner with Crosstree on this new joint venture which expands our brown-to-green urban logistics strategy, repositioning underinvested properties into modern, fit-for-purpose warehouses, suitable for a diverse customer pool.
“We believe the current environment provides an excellent buying opportunity, with industrial property values having appeared to have bottomed out and now trending upward, and with investor sentiment having improved, as inflation and the cost of capital have reduced.”
Sam McGirr, co-founder and managing partner of Bloom, said: “Fairview is a fantastic first asset for the joint venture. We have acquired it at below replacement cost. It is superbly located within a large regeneration area, where industrial property is being redeveloped into residential, leading to an undersupply of good quality industrial and logistics space.
“It is well let with a strong and diverse tenant base but also gives us the opportunity to improve its quality through a refurbishment and installation of sustainable products such as solar panels and EV chargers.”
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