Woodbourne begins £100m self-storage portfolio build-out
Woodbourne Group is set to create a portfolio of 10 self-storage facilities, following its first entry into the sector through the acquisition of an asset in the West Midlands.
The investor-developer has bagged the £9m redevelopment opportunity at a 1.03-acre site in Brierley Hill, Dudley. It is currently used as a factory producing butt-weld pipe fittings.
The 31,750 sq ft industrial building is expected to be repurposed to create a new 50,000 sq ft self-storage facility. The works will involve re-cladding, re-roofing and reconfiguring to suit the requirements of a modern self-storage building. Woodbourne Group will also revitalise the building’s frontage and modify the scale and number of entrances.
Woodbourne Group is set to create a portfolio of 10 self-storage facilities, following its first entry into the sector through the acquisition of an asset in the West Midlands.
The investor-developer has bagged the £9m redevelopment opportunity at a 1.03-acre site in Brierley Hill, Dudley. It is currently used as a factory producing butt-weld pipe fittings.
The 31,750 sq ft industrial building is expected to be repurposed to create a new 50,000 sq ft self-storage facility. The works will involve re-cladding, re-roofing and reconfiguring to suit the requirements of a modern self-storage building. Woodbourne Group will also revitalise the building’s frontage and modify the scale and number of entrances.
Woodbourne Group has appointed Cushman & Wakefield as advisers on its self-storage pipeline as it looks to add another nine investments of similar size, located around Birmingham, Dudley, Solihull, Coventry and the adjoining areas.
Tani Dulay, founder and chief executive at Woodbourne Group, told EG that the firm is looking to acquire, grow and then exit the opportunities. He said: “Deals of that scale can be funded off our own balance sheet, which is particularly attractive because we’re not relying upon any external funding, and we can just move forward at pace.
“That’s also a level and a risk curve that we’re comfortable in taking. If we can build an institutional product of scale, more than one, with a view to exit thereafter, that’s certainly something appealing for us in our home market that we know particularly well.”
Woodbourne hopes to benefit from the growing demand for self-storage space across the Midlands, boosted by the housing crisis, hybrid working patterns and a boom in e-commerce.
Dulay said: “Reliance upon storage is going up as working environments and consumer lifestyles are changing. We are seeing quite buoyant long-term trends around the demand for storage space with the high rate of growth in e-commerce, the number of start-ups and logistics activity.
“The Birmingham market is inevitably moving at a rapid pace in the right direction, and we need infrastructure to meet that growing demand.”
Steffan Morgan, associate partner at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The consented scheme provides an opportunity to develop the property into a self-storage facility. Conversion opportunities in prominent locations are highly sought after in the undersupplied self-storage market and help deliver much-needed volume.”
Photo © Woodbourne Group
