Frasers Group buys 278-acre site for new HQ
Mon, 30 Dec 2024 | COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
Frasers Group has bought a 278-acre site in Ansty for its new global headquarters in a £53.5 million deal.
The high street retailer, led by Mike Ashley and whose brands include Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels, bought the site from Harworth Group.
Harworth originally secured an interest in the site in October 2019 and completed further land assembly over the next two years.
Frasers Group plans to relocate its headquarters to Ansty from Shirebrook in Derbyshire, consolidating its warehouse operation into a single location.
The 112.9-hectare site, designed by architects Grimshaw, known for projects such as the Eden Project, London’s Excel Phase II, and Lloyds Banking Group headquarters, will feature a “campus heart” with office headquarters, concept retail research and development facilities.
It will also have a gym to test equipment in real-time, leisure R&D spaces, a development and learning academy with a 750-seat auditorium, a 100-room hotel, a mobility hub, as well as retail and food and beverage areas.
The development is expected to create 7,680 jobs upon completion and generate £69 million in GVA for the region.
Harworth plans to reinvest the proceeds into infrastructure and development across its 9.6m sq. ft. consented industrial and logistics pipeline.
Lynda Shillaw, Chief Executive at Harworth, said: “The Ansty transaction demonstrates Harworth’s specialist ability in creating value from strategic land assembly which, alongside the strength of our balance sheet, enables us to take a longer-term view and develop the right schemes for our sites.”
She added that collaboration and partnership were key to unlocking schemes like Ansty.
“We have worked closely with a number of different stakeholders on this project, including the Purchaser since exchange of contracts, ultimately enabling us to accelerate delivery of the site. Our ability to identify and unlock significant value from strategic land is a key factor in Harworth’s outperformance and we continue to identify and acquire strategic sites like Ansty to support our ambitious growth targets,” she said.
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