Shed of the Month: Turning green

By Liza Helps Property Editor Logistics Matters

• Unit 1 Greenbox Darlington, Off Tornado Way DL11GQ
• Developer: Greenbox – a joint venture between Partners Group and Citivale UK Logistics
• Letting Agents: Savills and HTA Real Estate
• Construction contractor: Winvic
• Unit Size: 213,000 ft2 
• Development size: 402,000 ft2
• Total number of units: 3 213,000 ft2, 105,000 ft2 and 84,000 ft2
• Power: 3MvA secured to site

A sharp sunny morning with temperatures pushing  minus seven saw me veer off the A1 motorway at Darlington in the Northeast to tour a logistics scheme that some termed ‘very brave’ when its speculative development was announced in December 2023.

The scheme, which consists of three units on a 24-acre site , is being brought forward by  Partners Group and Citivale UK logistics JV Greenbox, and is known as Greenbox Darlington.

The site was acquired speculatively by Premcor in 2021, and the privately owned developer has spent 18 months securing detailed planning consent for industrial and warehouse usage only for the disastrous 2022 Truss Budget to see everything fall out of bed.

In that light property pundits deemed any speculative construction on the site  almost foolhardly with kinder souls  merely stating ‘brave’ but that did not put off Greenbox.

Certainly through 2024, those dour sentiments seemed prophetic with occupier  take up  strugging but turn into 2025 with a noticeable uptick in enquiries now turning into deals, and  having speculatively built warehouses  up and standing for occupiers to move into straight away, does not seem quite so foolish.

Savills Richard Scott, joint agent on the scheme with HTA, explains: “If you don’t know the Northeast you may be forgiven. It can be a bit of a closed shop.”

It certainly is a very different market to that found only a little further south in Yorkshire. While vacancy there are at 9.63% totalling some 8.46 million ft2 in the Northeast it barely registers at 2.4% (1.8 million ft2). In addition, there are only two  speculatively built  units coming to the market over 100,000 ft2 and surprise, surprise, they are both at Greenbox Darlington: unit 1 totalling 213,000 ft2 and unit 2 totaling 105,000 ft2.

Indeed, Knight Frank’s Northeast LOGIC report notes that in 2024 take up for warehouses over 50,000 ft2 in the region actually rose 14%  (again bucking the national trend)  to hit 1.4 million ft2. Occupiers in the Northeast are active but supply is tight – very tight. Having space immediately available  when other sites are build-to-suit or  still requiring reserved matters  approval – de-risks the whole process – the building are there for the taking.

Due to the extremely cold weather up north there is a delay in PC on the units by a few weeks but the tour goes ahead. These are handsome buildings, designed with clean lines  and extended parapets hiding the roof so the do look exactly like boxes in that respect.

Luckily, the textured cladding breaks up the mass of the building and the blue highlights surrounding the triple height glass walls  to the atrium of the office entrance positively ‘pops’ in the sunshine. There has been a lot of thought in the design.

But nowadays so far so normal, of course the building boasts all the sustainability add-ons occupiers are now coming to expect. It has category A office space, it’s EPC A, it has a 100% PV ready roof and has air source heat pumps, it is targeting BREAAM Excellent. 

But it’s the corner glass walls in the warehouse  that attracts my attention. At first I am a little disconcerted – I know they are a tad behind on PC but not to have the office space marked out  seems a more than just a ‘little’ behind. But this large glass corner flooded by sunlight, isn’t part of the office space. It’s actually right next door to two level access doors in an area that would normally be a dead zone. Here it fills the warehouse with daylight and looks out across a landscaped vista next to the service yard.

It is not something you miss in a standard warehouse design, but it certainly is something you notice here and frankly I like it – a lot. There are not many  opportunities to have windows  in warehouses for many practical reasons  but working  in a space without  them while not necessarily  unpleasant or indeed missed when you are busy moving about, does diminish the  experience. Human beings are not yet robots and simple  environmental enhancement goes a long way towards well being and – dare I say it – increased productivity.

These may to all intents and purposes be boxes but they are as they say ‘pure belta’ ones…