Newcastle's HTA Real Estate concludes £2.6m Chester le Street sale to H W Martin

HTA Real Estate, an industrial property specialist, has completed a £2.6m sale of warehouse premises in Chester le Street to H W Martin Limited.

This is on behalf of Birmingham’s Blue Marble Asset Management company. The 41,400 sq ft distribution facility at Drum Industrial Estate is to provide H W Martin with a new depot and office facilities in the North East.

The firm recently secured a five-year contract with Highways England, one of the drivers for the acquisition. The deal arrives almost four years after HTA Real Estate let the same property to HMY Group, one of the first deals brokered after the company’s launch in December 2013.

Nick Atkinson, HTA Real Estate’s director, said: “This was a very rare opportunity to purchase a modern high bay warehouse with extensive external storage area and over four acres of expansion land.

“In order to facilitate the deal it was necessary for us to agree a lease surrender with the tenant, HMY Group. This sale is the latest chapter in our involvement with a building which has always appealed to occupiers, particularly because of its expansion capability.”

The firm sold the freehold investment to real estate asset management company, Blue Marble, for its client Pemberstone in October 2014.

The sale to HW Martin has realised a total return on capital of more than 55 per cent in only three years.

Tim Matthews, Blue Marble’s chief executive, said: “We had to move fast to secure the deal in only three weeks. The sale delivers a strong capital return to our client, as part of our ongoing planned investment strategy.”

The Martin Group employ some 650 people nationwide and will be undertaking additional recruitment in the North East for the new operating centre.

A family owned business, the Martin Group was originally established in 1972 and now owns various business interests in the construction, traffic management, engineering and waste recycling industries.

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