Henry Boot beefs up investment portfolio with two acquisitions

The Sheffield-based firm has bought Allied Business Centre, a 150,000 sq ft industrial estate in Skelmersdale, Lancashire from West Pimbo Limited for £4.75m.

It has also secured a prominent 2.6 acre city centre site in Birmingham's popular Jewellery Quarter with a view to delivering a £100m residential-led mixed use scheme.

HBD, the group's property development business, said the Allied Business Centre is in a strategic location adjacent to Junction 5 of the M58 motorway and has 117,800 sq ft of warehouse space plus serviced offices spanning over 30,000 sq ft.

The three warehouse units are let to Messenger Express Warehousing, which has been in occupation for over 15 years and the serviced office space is multi-let to 13 tenants. The estate generates a total rental income of £303,000 a year, with the purchase price reflecting a net initial yield of nearly 6 per cent. The 10.7 acre site has low site coverage of around 30 per cent which offers "excellent" redevelopment potential in the future.

The 2.6 acre city centre site in Birmingham was previously occupied by a Sytner BMW dealership and the site was acquired with vacant possession from the joint vendors, King Edward 's School and Sytner Group.

Ed Hutchinson, managing director of HBD, said: "These two deals are the latest in a series of acquisitions by HBD, which include a key site in Manchester's St Johns district and the purchase of 60,000 sq ft in Mabgate, Leeds.

"All of these latest acquisitions have significant future redevelopment potential and are an excellent strategic fit for our business."

The acquisitions form part of the group's core development strategy targeting industrial and logistics, residential and urban development schemes.