The Fragrance Shop on board at Metro 190 Trafford Park
Legal & General’s Industrial Property Investment Fund (IPIF) and PLP have announced the leasing of Metro 190, a prime speculative logistics unit in Trafford Park, Manchester immediately following practical completion to The Fragrance Shop, the UK’s largest independent, fragrance retailer.
Metro 190 is in the heart of Trafford Park, just 6 miles from Manchester city and adjacent to the newly completed Metrolink tram extension linking Manchester city centre to the Trafford Centre. It is a prime urban logistics facility totalling 190,660 sq ft with 15m clear height warehouse, high spec offices, a secure 50m yard, separately accessed car parking and 2.5MVA of power.
During construction of Metro 190, the team at PLP and IPIF, alongside the contractor, Readie Construction Ltd, explored new measures such as the use of GGBS within concrete and the use of steel with a higher recycled content to achieve greater on-site embodied carbon reductions.
Metro 190 has also achieved BREEAM Excellent and has been designed to facilitate carbon net zero in operation. The building has an all-electric energy strategy utilising measures including air source heat pumps to heat and cool the offices, over 600m2 of solar PV to generate renewable electricity and electric car charging points.
The Fragrance Shop has been growing from strength to strength in recent years, and this move will solidify the company’s rapid growth and exciting plans for the future. CEO of The Fragrance Shop, Sanjay Vadera, says: “We’re delighted to have signed the lease for our brand-new Headquarters and Fulfilment Centre at Metro 190, Trafford Park – as a Greater Manchester-based business, it’s always been important to us to stay in the area where we have grown, developed and flourished. The whole team are thrilled that we were able to find new Headquarters and Fulfilment Centre in the area that will allow the ever-growing TFS family to connect, create, collaborate and innovate in brand-new, state-of-the-art offices. We’re already excited to move into our new home, which will be ready in Summer 2022.”
Tim Packer, Assistant Fund Manager of IPIF said: “We are delighted to welcome The Fragrance Shop to our Metro 190 development. Leasing this building so quickly to such a successful and exciting occupier fully endorses our decision to speculatively develop this ‘best-in-class’ facility in an unrivalled location within Trafford Park. Achieving BREEAM Excellent as well as reducing the embodied and operational carbon of our assets are crucial parts of LGIM Real Assets strategy to deliver net zero carbon across its commercial real estate portfolio by 2050 or sooner.”
Keith Wilson, Development Director at PLP said: “The team have worked extremely hard in a very difficult construction environment to deliver a fantastic development that we can all be proud of. We are also delighted that Metro 190 has achieved such significant on-site carbon reductions, and we look forward to achieving higher savings on future projects as we and our supply chain identify new ways to reduce construction carbon.”
Kam Birk, Property Director of The Fragrance Shop said: “This move to Metro 190 couldn’t come at a better time for The Fragrance Shop – as the largest independent fragrance retailer in the UK, we’re always at the forefront of the marketplace, and this new HQ will give us brand-new “best-in-class” facilities so that we can continue being bigger and better than ever before! We’re always scouting the best locations for our stores, so it’s great that we will soon be moving into our brand new, bespoke Headquarters and Fulfilment Centre, right here in Greater Manchester.”
Savills and Avison Young were leasing agents for the scheme.