Tungsten Properties completes final phase of £70 million 14-unit Witney industrial development
Developer Tungsten Properties says it has practically completed the final phase of its £70 million, 14-unit scheme which totalled 470,000 sq ft (43,664 sq m) of new industrial space at Tungsten Park Witney in Oxfordshire, all of which has been fully let or sold to 13 different businesses.
Tungsten Park Witney is a 24-acre site located on Downs Road and was acquired with preferred equity provided by Mattioli Woods Private Investors Club.
Phase 1 construction started in 2019 which was initially funded through Tungsten’s £50m Revolving Credit Facility with Cain International and was subsequently leased and sold to BP Pension Fund.
Phase 2 totalled 167,800 sq ft (15,589 sq m) across four units and was forward funded by NFU Mutual.
The completed project is now home to businesses across automotive, defence, medical and logistics sectors such as Certikin International, the country’s largest swimming pool and wet leisure equipment manufacturer, Meech International, one of the world leading manufacturers of static control equipment, web cleaning systems and energy efficient compressed air technology, and Venture Engineering which has customers in Formula 1.
The project has employed circa 500 jobs during the construction phase and circa 1,000 jobs in the occupation phase.
Warwick-based MCS Build Ltd has been the main contractor throughout the build. The buildings have been constructed to enable low carbon occupation and have achieved BREEAM Excellent and EPC A.
Read more: Tungsten Properties sells four Witney warehouse units to BP Pension Fund for £26 million
David Mole, development director, Tungsten Properties said: “Witney is now an established employment area to the west of Oxford, however, four years ago it was an unproven industrial and logistics location. We spent considerable time with our agents to understand the location and potential demand for employment space.
“We identified a number of requirements and recognised a large undersupply of new and existing employment space in Witney and the West Oxfordshire area. This led to us successfully pre-letting and selling 80 per centof the first phase ahead of practical completion. Following this overwhelming success, we submitted the planning application to build out the remainder of the site and completed a forward funding deal with NFU to deliver the final phase.
“In what has been a challenging four years due to macro factors out of our control, it is thanks to our Tungsten team, funding partners, professional consultants and sole construction partner that we have achieved a very high-quality product in a timely and professional manner which has achieved record rents. A big thank you to everyone involved.”
The Witney development represented Tungsten Properties’ largest development to date, the completion of which has seen the company surpass three million sq ft of completed developments.
Leasing agents were Carter Jonas and CBRE. Atlas Real Estate acted on the investment sales. The professional team was Goodrich Consulting, HTC Architects, PRP UK, HBA and Pegasus Group.
