Awards

Stoford and BlackRock secure top industry award

L-R: Dan Gallagher, Joint Managing Director, Stoford; Matthew Wheeldon, Director Black Rock Real Assets; Andrew Pilsworth, Director of Finance, Segro; Simon Evans, Comedian and Ben Wiley, Senior Director, BNP Paribas Real Estate

Leading asset manager BlackRock and its development management partner Stoford Developments have clinched a top industry award for their ‘Carbons’ project at the Unipart site on Siskin Drive, Middlemarch Business Park, Coventry. 

The companies won the Best Asset Management Initiative award at the Industrial Agents Society (IAS) annual awards event in London.

On acquisition in 2013, the property comprised of a 280,000 sq ft warehouse on a 32-acre site held on two head-leases from Coventry City Council (CCC); the entire property was under-let to Unipart Logistics to December 2026.

Given the low site cover, the Unipart lease was re-geared to release two development plots to facilitate the speculative development of Carbon 103 and Carbon 207 whilst leaving Unipart fully operational in its existing premises. The ‘Carbons’ were developed to a high specification and let shortly after practical completion to World of Books and Zooplus, respectively. Contemporaneously, the two head-leases were re-geared with CCC to provide three separate head-leases to enable individual plot liquidity in contemplation of future sales.

Stoford joint managing director Dan Gallagher said: “It’s great to win recognition from our peers in industrial property for what has been a very successful project in Coventry. It is well known that the demand for high quality warehouse and distribution accommodation in the West Midlands is outstripping supply. This new Grade A logistics space in one of the Midlands’ top locations appealed to businesses across a broad spectrum and we secured two excellent tenants.”

Matt Wheeldon, director at BlackRock, said: “The delivery of this AMI represented a fantastic result for BUKPF, both in terms of the successful development of two high quality logistics warehouses sited within one of the region’s premier locations, but also in terms of a collaborative approach not just with the team at Stoford, but also with our incumbent tenant and landlord in delivering a highly accretive project return to the Fund.”

Middlemarch Business Park lies within the Midlands’ ‘Golden Triangle’, adjacent to Coventry Airport and accessed directly from the recently improved A45/A46 intersect at Tollbar End. It is a strategically well-located distribution park extending to more than 100 acres with occupiers including Unipart, Volvo, Walkers Crisps, Gist and Parcelforce.

The 2018 IAS Awards luncheon took place at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square. The event was a huge success, with a record attendance of 554 guests.  This year the IAS is supporting The Faraway Children’s Charity and the Henry Angell James Memorial Trust.

The awards are one of the most important events in the IAS calendar and are staged to showcase the best of the sector by providing examples of profitable deal making and showing where solutions can be found in often challenging circumstances.

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