Gordons advises Associated Waste Management on £10m investment in 200,000 sq ft depot in Stourton, Leeds
Monday 4th July 2016
Gordons has advised Associated Waste Management (AWM) on the acquisition of over 200,000 sq ft of warehouse space in Stourton, Leeds, which it will convert into a depot as part of its continued expansion plans.
The sustainable waste resource management and commercial recycling solutions business is renting the units on Valley Farm Road from property fund Aviva in a deal worth up to £2.5m. AWM will invest a total of £10m in the site with an additional £5m in recycling equipment and £2.5m in more collection vehicles for both trade and skip waste.
The depot will open in July 2016, creating a further 40 jobs at the company, and will include the refurbishment of the site over the first four-year term of the 20-year lease. The rental values are undisclosed.
Gordons commercial property partner, Simon Mydlowski, advised AWM on acquiring the space in a deal carefully planned and negotiated over the past 12 months.
AWM has a turnover of £45m and employs in excess of 250 full time staff. The company was founded more than 20 years ago and has its headquarters on Gelderd Road, Leeds, less than three miles from the new site, and operates from a number of strategic locations in West and North Yorkshire.
Tim Shapcott, commercial director, AWM, commented: “The Stourton facility acquisition is the result of a number of significant contract awards for AWM over the past 24 months, culminating in the need for greater levels of innovation and processing capacity. It is a key element of our continued expansion plans, so we are very pleased that it has been successfully completed.
“Simon and his team at Gordons have helped us on numerous property deals over the past 18 months, so we had no doubt they would provide us practical, commercially astute advice. They excelled themselves on this project, favourably negotiating a complex deal involving a number of parties whilst simultaneously coordinating various consultants regarding the site’s refurbishment.”
AWM buys, processes and recycles all grades of paper, plastic, metals, wood, textiles, bricks and rubble, glass, food and organic fractions, using any non-recyclable items for energy recovery. In 2015, the company ranked in the top 10 exporters of energy from waste, producing 180,000 tonnes of refuse derived fuel which supplied combined heat and power plants both in the UK and Europe.
The Stourton facility is licensed to process 200,000 tonnes per year giving AWM a total of 875,000 tonnes of permitted waste and recycling activities annually.
Gordons’ Simon Mydlowski said: “In terms of size, this is a significant property transaction for the Yorkshire region. It is also a letting of huge importance to AWM as the company continues to grow its operations and scope of activity.
“The acquisition means the business is now ideally placed to enter its next phase of expansion and we look forward to continuing to work with the senior management team to help make this happen.”
The deal also drew praise from Leeds City Council leader, Councillor Judith Blake. She said: “We very much welcome Associated Waste Management’s continued commitment to Leeds, and it is great news that through this latest significant investment a further 40 jobs will be created in the city.”