VGP, the pan-European owner, manager and developer of logistics properties, has made its first splash in the UK with the purchase of a major industrial development opportunity in the East Midlands.
Earlier this month the firm, which had a real estate portfolio gross asset value of €7.8 billion as of December 2024, confirmed a deal for its first land plot in the UK. VGP Park East Midlands comprises a 176,000-square-metre (circa 1.9 million-square-foot) land plot and has a development potential of 78,000 square metres (840,000 square feet).
The site has detailed planning consent for four logistics buildings, with the developer saying it expects to begin the first phase of construction in the third quarter of this year.
The site is north of Junction 24 of the M1 motorway and has direct access to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield to the north, and Leicester and the wider East Midlands to the south. It also sits close to East Midlands Airport, where Segro has a 700-acre development.
CoStar News understands that the site was previously owned by industrial and logistics developer Newlands Development, which was planning to build circa 835,000 square feet of industrial accommodation across four big-box units. Its scheme was known as NP24, with Cushman & Wakefield and LSH appointed joint letting agents.
VGP did not respond to requests for comment on its first UK acquisition, but market sources said the European warehouse specialist has plans to develop out the site after buying the plot from Newlands earlier this year.
VGP was founded in 1998 as a family-owned Belgian property developer in the Czech Republic and says it operates in 18 European countries through several 50:50 joint ventures. The developer's website says its land bank is focused close to major European cities with direct access to "main traffic lines".
Its land bank measures some 8.9 million square metres (circa 96 million square feet), with the company saying in its full year results for 2024 that it is looking to expand "substantially in existing and new territories".
Newlands Development was also approached for comment.
CoStar owner research manager Mark Crowley contributed to this article.