InfraRed Capital Partners has sold a 2.2m sq ft portfolio for £250 which includes four sites totalling 215,000 sq ft across Liverpool City Region. Tony McDonough reports

Property investor InfraRed Capital Partners has sold four Liverpool city region logistics sites totalling 215,000 sq ft as part of a £250m deal.

Late last week InfraRed revealed it had sold a property portfolio, acting on behalf of its InfraRed Active Real Estate Fund IV (IRAF IV), comprising 2.2m sq ft of warehouse space across 50 properties in the UK and France in a £250m deal.

The buyer was Blackstone real estate funds. The assets, in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield as well as around Paris, will be incorporated into Mileway. Blackstone’s pan-European last mile logistics platform.

Included in the deal was four sites around Liverpool city region. They are a 23,981 sq ft site, north of the city centre, occupied by Royal Mail; Central 23, comprising 23,474 sq ft in north Liverpool; Platinum Court in Knowsley, totalling 80,780 sq ft; and the 87,365 sq ft Wellington Employment Park South in north Liverpool.

InfraRed will retain control of Venture Point West in south Liverpool, totalling 48,671 sq ft, and the 19,890 sq ft Chalon Way in St Helens. InfraRed grew the portfolio to its current size through a series of acquisitions over the course of 2018 and 2019. On a number of sites it employed Liverpool-based Network Space as  development and asset manager.

The tenant line up was widened substantially and now includes several leading online delivery firms such as Amazon, Hermes, FedEx, Royal Mail and Just Eat.

Andreas Katsaros, fund manager of IRAF IV, said: “Over the course of the past year, the impact of COVID-19 has further boosted the development of the last-mile logistics sector. This has allowed us to crystallize exits across the UK and France earlier than anticipated.

“InfraRed has a decades-long, successful track record in the sector and we are pleased to realise value for our investors with the sale of some of our UK and French assets. InfraRed remains well placed to capture further investment opportunities from the last-mile logistics sector during the course of 2021.”

Dean Harrison, investment director (UK), real estate at InfraRed Capital Partners, added: During our two-and-a-half year holding period, we have significantly grown the UK portfolio by developing around 270,000 sq ft of warehouses.

“We are particularly pleased with our partnership with Network Space, who acted as our development and asset manager. Leveraging our highly localised sourcing network across the UK, we also made a number of accretive bolt-on acquisitions adding a further 375,000 sq ft.”

Dowley Turner Real Estate, Osborne Clarke, Taylor Wessing, Gide, Hollis and WSM acted for InfraRed.