Hines, the international real estate firm, is pleased to announce that Hines Global Income Trust, Inc. (“Hines Global”) has acquired Cross Point Business Park, an industrial warehouse in the West Midlands, 24 miles east of Birmingham outside of Coventry, UK. The warehouse is leased to Restore PLC (LSE: RST), a support services company. This off market transaction was sourced by the local Hines office in the UK, a platform launched 25 years ago when Hines opened our European headquarters in 1995. The acquisition marks Hines Global’s fifth project in a portfolio of strategically added UK warehouses in just over a year. 

Cross Point Business Park is a 147,000-square-foot, modern specification logistics warehouse constructed in 1994 and comprehensively refurbished and extended in 2015. It is located in the ‘Golden Triangle’, the U.K.’s premier location for logistics and distribution operations. This location provides direct access to major roadway networks, ports, railways and airports, enabling deliveries to reach over 90% of the UK population within four hours.

“Cross Point Business Park’s location within the ‘Golden Triangle’ further diversifies our UK geographic exposure, while exemplifying our strategy of harnessing forensic analysis to identify fit for purpose, infrastructure critical buildings in locations with strong occupational demand,” said Greg Cooper, Director at Hines UK. “At a time where increasing competition for land in the area from other use classes is ramping up, this is a key acquisition to increase the attractiveness and value of Hines Global’s broader portfolio, and we anticipate a further tranche of acquisitions in the coming year in line with this strategy.” 

The Midlands area, with more than twice the combined warehousing activity of London, Scotland and Wales, meets Hines Global’s strategic initiative of targeting a mix of well-located individual units with rent growth potential and capitalizes on the expected retail and e-commerce growth. Online sales in the UK have multiplied five times in the last five years and are up 40% YTD. With the continued growth of e-commerce sales and omnichannel retail placing greater emphasis on delivery times we expect steady rental growth within the area for the foreseeable future.

“We are excited for this opportunity to deepen Hines Global’s UK logistics presence and enhance our existing portfolio of diversified global properties,” said Omar Thowfeek, Hines Global’s Managing Director – Investments. “The logistics sector represents close to 50% of our portfolio and has proven to be an area of strong growth and resilience. We look forward to continuing to seek opportunities to expand our investment in this sector.”