The South Yorkshire Pension Fund (SYPF) is investing £54m (€64m) in a 770,000sqft industrial and logistics development, expected to be the largest speculative project in the north of England.

CBRE’s lending team, investing on behalf of SYPF, has issued the loan for the development of Panattoni Park Central A1 M near Doncaster, the largest single project investment for the fund since its establishment in 2019.

CBRE was appointed by SYPA in 2019 to manage the pension fund’s regional property investment fund. 

To date, the fund – which supports investment in South Yorkshire and the ongoing economic growth of the region – has allocated close to £200m across 11 loans to local projects.

George Graham, fund director at South Yorkshire Pension’s Authority, said: “The northern industrial and logistics market is one of the most resilient in the country, reporting growth in take up and decreasing availability of space.

“Market conditions are therefore not only favourable for this development, but it will also benefit greatly from its environmental credentials and excellent connectivity in an established region.”

Andrew Antoniades, head of lending at CBRE, said: “Our Lending platform has long supported development across the UK with debt, and always supported key regional markets. This new loan is a strong investment for our South Yorkshire lending programme to a best-in-class sponsor and will drive job creation and economic growth in the area.

“Providing flexibly structured debt finance is crucial to our offering and we continue to have strong appetite for loans across all key asset classes with similar attractive characteristics.”

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