High-end department store Selfridges is in talks to take a 500,000 square foot-plus distribution hub at the giant Segro Logistics Park Northampton, CoStar News understands.
The talks come in a week where deals have moved forward on a number of large logistics moves, including Zara's move to Prologis' DIRFT campus, also in Northampton, and XPO Logistics' move to Melburg's Voltaic 41 in Wakefield, both revealed by CoStar News. A common theme is the occupier's desire to move into highly sustainable developments.
Segro Logistics Park Northampton is being developed four miles from the town centre and promises a new strategic rail freight interchange for the Midlands.
It will eventually comprise 5 million square feet of logistics development with design and build units available from 50,000 square feet to 1.3 million square feet with flexible eaves heights.
It is unclear which of the seven plots Selfridges is in talks to take but Plots 1, 2 and 5 are all scheduled for warehouses of around 540,000 square feet. It is unclear it if would relocate from the circa 400,000 square feet distribution hub it operates from at its national distribution centre at Hams Hall in Birmingham, which is run by third-party logistics provider DHL.
Central, a family-owned retail, real estate and hospitality group from Thailand, and Austria’s Signa entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Selfridges Group from the Weston family for around £4 billion in 2021.
The portfolio comprises 18 leading department stores, including the flagship Selfridges in London, Manchester and Birmingham, de Bijenkorf in Netherlands, Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland, their associated e-commerce platforms.
Of that price, £2 billion was attributed to real estate, including the famous Selfridges store at 400 Oxford Street in London's West End, stores at 1 Exchange Square in Manchester and the Bullring in Birmingham, and the Browne Thomas and Arnotts stores in Dublin.
Segro declined to comment. Selfridges did not comment.