Former Prologis men come out of downturn with development company launch
Prologis’s former head of global development, Ken Hall, and former development director, Matthew Byrom, have launched an industrial development company.
The pair have teamed up with two former colleagues at Prologis: head of project delivery Fergie Taylor, and development associate Oliver Bertram.
The new company is called First Industrial Developments.
The four have set up the 11-strong company with backing from entrepreneur Terry Lister.
Lister is the founder of Listers Group, the largest privately owned motor group in England, and will be company chairman.
First Industrial has also agreed “substantial” backing from an offshore private equity company, which will be used to invest in development land.
First Industrial is one of the first start-up development companies to emerge from the downturn. It is also the first industrial venture to break away from Prologis since former directors David Keir and Jason Dalby founded Rosemound in 2001.
Byrom, managing director of First Industrial, told Property Week: “We are stepping up while everyone else is still taking their masts down. At Prologis we built a strong reputation in the market and together have delivered 30m sq ft of shed space.”
Hall, director of sustainability and construction, said: “In 2007 it was all about excess. Now it is about swift, no-nonsense, low-cost sustainable development.”
The developer has opened an office in Solihull near Prologis’s headquarters and will only undertake carbon-neutral development, which it will carry out across the Midlands and attract the design-and-build market.
“The build-to-suit market is starting to emerge again now and will be very strong next year,” added Byrom.
The latest research from BNP Paribas Real Estate concludes that in areas of the Midlands and south-east there are already few options remaining for occupiers.
By the end of 2010, demand will have recovered to a level that developers will even be considering speculative shed development again.
© Property Week - Nick Duxbury 20.11.09
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