THE industrial park home to engineering giant Doosan Babcock in Renfrew has been acquired for £40 million in one of the biggest deals seen in Scotland so far this year.
The 135-acre Westway Park, billed as Scotland’s largest fully-enclosed industrial park, has been bought by Canmoor, the asset manager behind millions of square feet of commercial property around the UK.
Canmoor has pledged to make a “substantial investment to breathe new life into the area”, located next to Glasgow Airport, after the park’s previous owner ran into financial difficulties.
The asset manager acquired Westway, whose facilities include an on-site dock for marine transportation, from administrators at PwC.
The administrators were appointed to former owner WB Westway LP in late 2016 after it “faced a period of decline in its financial performance”. That came amid falling income caused by a lack of market demand and the level of vacant units at the site, the administrators said.
WB Westway, registered as a limited partnership in the US state of Delaware, was set up as an investment vehicle owned ultimately by Moorfield, a UK property management business, and Westbrook Group, a US-based private equity house.
The acquisition of Westway builds on Canmoor’s existing presence in Scotland, which currently includes properties in Glasgow, Greenock and Cumbernauld.
These include Axiom, a vacant warehouse in Glasgow which the company says offers multiple redevelopment options, and Valley Park in Greenock, a 65,000 square foot office facility with direct access to the M8 motorway.
Tom White, director at Canmoor, said: “We are delighted to complete the acquisition of Westway Park and are excited to be part of the next phase of its development. We intend to work closely with current and new occupiers to deliver fit for purpose warehouse, manufacturing and business space.
“The existing buildings have real rarity value through their high eaves, heavy cranage and large power capacity and through our refurbishment programme we aim to take advantage of these attributes, to attract new occupiers.
“We are also excited that Westway Park will play a key part of the Renfrewshire City Deal Project, including the recently announced National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland and the development of a new bridge over the River Cart, linking Westway with Glasgow Airport.
“This marks the start of an exciting new chapter.”
Canmoor’s portfolio includes warehouse and business space spanning 14 million sq ft, with a further 4m sq ft under development.
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