Octopus Real Estate provides £10.6 million refinancing loan for industrial development in Suffolk

By Bridging Loan Directory 22nd January 2020

Octopus Real Estate, part of Octopus Group and a leading UK specialist real estate lender and investor, has agreed to provide a £10.6 million refinancing loan to Blackacre Limited to transform an industrial site into a 27-acre business and logistics park.

The site itself is split into two plots – one will be used to develop two large distribution units with a combined space of 369,000 sq ft over 10.95-acres, whilst the other will provide a further 450,000 sq ft of industrial space over 16.60-acres. The refinancing of the site will allow Blackacre to execute a long-term land assembly strategy and complete pre-letting negotiations with several potential tenants.

The site, near Great Blakenham in Suffolk, benefits from having excellent road connections, with direct access on to the A14 arterial trunk road, and is only 20 miles from the port of Felixstowe, one of the UK’s most important container ports and one of the largest in Europe.

The last 12 months have seen Octopus Real Estate set new lending records. It has competed numerous large commercial loans across the country and across a variety of asset classes. With recent completions in Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, London and Suffolk.

James Nunn, Commercial Fund Manager, Octopus Real Estate, said:

“With great links to one of the UK and Europe’s busiest container ports, the Blackacre development makes good commercial sense. Blackacre has a robust track record and the scheme will help satisfy strong local demand. The industrial and logistics market has shown consistent strength and significant outperformance through turbulent times in the market, so we are pleased to have supported the borrower and made this loan.”

Larry Isherwood, CEO, Blackacre (Great Blakenham) Ltd, commented:

“This is a great development for us delivering over 800,000 sq ft of high spec commercial space suitable for general warehousing use. A further land purchase could increase this to circa 1.5 million sq ft. We look forward to continuing our working relationship with Octopus Real Estate.”