First Panattoni opens northern office

First Panattoni is to open a northern office in Manchester, headed by Daniel Burn.

The company intends to develop speculatively logistics warehousing in buildings of up to 1,000,000 sq ft across the northern markets and along the M6, M62 and M1 corridor.

Managing director Matthew Byrom said: “The rapid growth of e-commerce, and the on-going structural changes in the retail sector, have provided an unprecedented opportunity for growth. Last quarter, we saw the highest take-up of new build warehousing in the UK since records began and we see the supply-starved North West and Yorkshire market as key targets for our business.”

Earlier this month, the company broke ground on a 235,000 sq ft speculative build project in Crewe.

Burn, who has previously held senior positions at King Sturge, JLL and DB Symmetry, said: “First Panattoni has quickly established a market leading position in the Midlands and South with its bold and ambitious approach to speculative development. When offered the opportunity to replicate this in the North, I didn’t hesitate to accept.”

First Panattoni has allocated £525 million for new UK land purchases in 2018/19. Across the UK, First Panattoni is currently underway with over 3,500,000 sq ft of development and is actively acquiring additional premium sites.