Patrizia JV is targeting London last-mile logistics with €750m

Augsburg-based Patrizia has held the final close for its GLI platform, a London urban logistics sidecar investment to its flagship discretionary value add fund, TransEuropean Property VII, which gives it a further €750 million to invest.

The Platform has already assembled a £200 million seed portfolio of four sites in the Greater London area, including Park Royal, Croydon and Mitcham.

The platform will be operated by Patrizia on behalf of institutional clients, is a joint venture with London-based logistics and last mile specialist KSP (Kingston Space Property) which will act as local operating and development partner.

Dark kitchens and data centres are in sidecar fund’s sights

TransEuropean Property VII GLI aims to assemble a portfolio worth around €1billion comprising prime last-mile logistics properties in strategic locations in Greater London, including areas underpinned by e-commerce and those attracting interest from such dark kitchens and data centres.

The JV will re-develop dated and, in some cases, obsolete properties and projects will typically involve ground-up development.

The new platform is targeting submarkets that are characterised by limited supply, low vacancy rates and growing demand that has been bolstered by e-commerce as the focus shifts from last mile to ‘last hour’ logistics.

“With this platform, we now have the firepower to target one of the most exciting and rapidly growing segments of the European real assets market,” said Paul Hampton, chairman of the TransEuropean Property series at Patrizia. “The pressure for last mile delivery is only expected to grow over the near term and as the gig economy continues to expand, we also expect increasing demand from dark kitchens, data centres and the like. Many of these groups need real estate close to densely populated areas, which is in short supply.”

If the new sidecar platform is included TEP VII has now reached a total equity of circa €1.1 billion, providing the fund with €2.7 billion to invest. About 60% of capital has been committed since the final close and Patrizia said the fund’s pipeline of investment opportunities will ensure that it is fully deployed over the next 18 months.