A London retail park has been bought by a leading warehouse company with long-term plans to redevelop the site for online sellers.
Ravenside Retail Park in north London’s Edmonton had been owned by M&G, the investment firm that last month banned withdrawals by investors from its property fund.
M&G has sold the site for £51.4m to Prologis, whose customers include Amazon, Argos and John Lewis.
The retail park consists of seven units, including one that is vacant and another occupied by Mothercare and earmarked for closure following the UK business’ collapse into administration. The others are occupied by Argos, Carpetright, Wren, Tapi Carpets and Wickes.
Prologis said the site would continue to operate as a retail park with a view to redevelopment for online fulfilment in the longer term.
“The UK retail market is changing, as more and more people order goods online,” said Robin Woodbridge, Prologis head of capital deployment UK.
“Because of this, our customers need logistics facilities close to where people live and work, so they can fulfil deliveries of goods ordered online efficiently.
“As a leading provider of logistics parks, we need to ensure we have the locations available for our customers so they can deliver goods to consumers as quickly and sustainably as possible. Around London this means, amongst other things, having sites available for customers where they can operate electric delivery vehicles and where employees can get to work via public transport rather than by car, thereby reducing congestion and pollution.”
Prologis also recently acquired Bow Yard, an east London warehouse, and plans to repurpose part of the site for multi-storey logistics.
M&G banned investors from taking money out of its £2.5bn property fund in December following a surge in withdrawals. The investment firm extended the ban on 2 January after selling £70.4m in property assets to raise cash.
It said the suspension would continue until “cash levels have been sufficiently restored”.
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