Industrial

Tenants and Corporate Occupiers

We act for a number of clients who have a variety of industrial premises as part of their mixed portfolio, including retailers who operate their own distribution centres, and those who manufacture products to serve their operational and retail requirements.

Examples include: –

Dixons Carphone – Both the acquisition and due diligence through to the disposal and dilapidation negotiations on a number of distribution centres throughout the UK.

TJX Europe – Under their TK Maxx brand we have been involved in the exit from two substantial distribution centres in the UK. In Rochdale we negotiated the works arising from an original Landlord’s claim of £1.1 M to achieve full sign off at a spend of £350,000. More recently we have implemented Dilapidations at a substantial distribution centre where again works are implemented to a cost of almost £2M, to provide a saving of over £1.5M.

Toolstation – We undertook the Acquisition Survey of a second national distribution centre in Redditch which lead to the £2M fitout of the installation. More recently we have been involved in the acquisition and fitout of a third proposed distribution centre in the North West of England.

Mamas and Papas – We were instructed to prepare a Vendor’s Survey of the substantial manufacturing and Head Office facility in Huddersfield which included over 400,000 sq ft of space. We prepared a Vendors Survey and an extensive Schedule of Condition which formed part of a sale and leaseback of the site.

Landlord and Owner Occupants

We have advised a number of Landlord’s, property companies and owner occupiers on the purchase and refurbishment of industrial sites throughout the UK. Acting for The Skelton Group we undertook a substantial refurbishment of some older industrial premises in Birmingham as part of an Agreement to Lease to Unipres, who were developing a bespoke manufacturing facility for the production of pressed car body parts. A fast-track contract was adopted to meet the Tenants tight timescale and the project was delivered on time and in budget.

Dilapidations on older industrial sites can often be difficult and lengthy disputes can arise. Acting for the Landlord of a dilapidated factory in Birmingham we were able to utilise a “self-help” provision in the Lease which allowed the Landlord to serve a Repairs Notice within the last year of the Term and forced the Tenant to implement works. This approach lead to an early surrender of the Lease with a substantial monetary sum to cover Dilapidations which allowed the Landlord the flexibility in disposing of the site.

We have acted for a number of industrial clients looking to acquire premises for owner occupation including a 15,000 sq ft office and manufacturing unit for Salts Healthcare and a substantial dilapidated factory premises in Birmingham for Abstrakt Packaging.