01/06/2008
From Business Magazine (Solent & South Central) 1st June 2008.
Real estate adviser Vail Williams’ M27 team, comprising the Southampton and Portsmouth offices, acquired or disposed of a massive 1.2 million sq ft of floor space during the past 12 months, the equivalent of 25 football pitches.
Despite the fact that the south coast was not immune to conditions in the market economy, Vail Williams successfully achieved the figure with a split of 618,500 sq ft for offices and 823,500 sq ft for industrial.
Jason Webb, partner at the Southampton office, stated that:
“Vail Williams enjoyed a strong year and is involved in some exciting projects which should ensure that 2008 mirrors the success of the preceeding year. On the industrial side we are joint letting agents on the new 60,000 sq ft warehouse facility currently under construction in Hedge End by Royal London Asset management, as well as being joint agents for UBS in Andover, where consent has just been obtained for a 45,000 sq ft high bay warehouse.
In terms of the office market , we continue to be involved with The University of Southampton Science Park in Chilworth, where more than 100,000 sq ft of new accommodation is being built at Benham Campus, along with Grosvenor House in central Southampton, where a major new landmark building is proposed.
At the eastern end of the corridor, the extensive refurbishment of 1000 Lakeside Business Centre at the IBM site in North Harbour has just taken place We are now marketing 275,000 s ft of office accommodation with suites available from 3,000 sq ft upwards.”
Top deals throughout the year included:
•110,000 sq ft high office content industrial unit in Walton Road, Portsmouth, sold to Scottish and Southern (Portsmouth office).
•70,000 sq ft office space at Lambert Court in Chandlers Ford let to Blake Lapthorn Tylo Lyons (Portsmouth office).
•34,000 sq ft pre-let to Wellman defence on behalf of SEGRO (Portsmouth office).
•25,000 sq ft industrial unit in Petersfield let to RAK Ceramics (Portsmouth office).
•53,000 sq ft of brand new offices at Solent Business Park let to Zurich (Southampton Office).
•45,000 sq ft refurbished second hand headquarters building at Solent Business Park let to Northrop Gruman (Southampton Office).
•50,000 sq ft Southampton city centre offices acquired for PPG for redevelopment (Southampton Office).
