Creating ultra-urban warehouse space to better serve the modern consumer
In April 2020, Sam McGirr and I founded Bloom to develop warehouse space in Zones 1 & 2 in London to meet the demands of a modern city with modern consumers. Below I outline why it is desperately needed and how we intend to do it.
Clear trends are driving change in real estate
Both consumers and businesses have shifted their preferences towards flexibility, sharing and choice. This, in addition to the more macro trends of sustainability, digitisation, e-commerce penetration and urbanisation, has led to huge changes across logistics, food, mobility, retail & e-commerce. New innovative business models have arisen at pace to address these changes including dark kitchens, e-mobility, self-storage, electric vehicles and urban logistics/same day delivery amongst others.
The ‘Amazon Effect’ — providing unrivalled customer service along the supply chain with insane delivery options & speed (through Prime & PrimeNow) — has raised expectations amongst consumers who now expect more, better, faster and everything on demand.
We believe these trends present a great opportunity for real estate to adapt and become better utilised. In particular, London’s historic, inefficient and congested road network is driving many warehouse occupiers to London’s core — Zone 1 & 2 — to ensure their customers get better, more, faster & on demand.
Demand is outstripping supply
DPD and Amazon are leading the way with Zone 1 micro-hubs for parcel distribution in locations as central as Westminster & Hyde Park. Grocery & food delivery companies including Ocado and Deliveroo are also building networks across central London. Whilst these businesses are household names, there exists a plethora of modern, innovative businesses who are actively seeking ultra-urban warehouse space, yet securing good properties is increasingly difficult.
Demand is growing but there is an issue on the supply side: a lack of suitable warehouse stock is hampering these occupiers from operating effectively. Well specified & located warehouse space in Zone 1 & 2 with planning use classes B1(c), B2, B8 & the new E class is generally sparse and/or already occupied. However, there does exist opportunity to address this gap in the form of under-performing, under-utilised asset classes which can be adapted, in order to better suit our changing cities.
Where does Bloom come in?
Bloom is a property company which acquires under-utilised and quirky real estate in Zone 1 & 2, London, and re-purposes it into warehouse stock, to enable modern businesses to better serve the modern consumer. We also offer advisory services for both landlords and occupiers interested in acquiring, developing or leasing this type of ultra-urban warehouse space.
Redundant space needs re-purposing, re-creating, re-imagining — we owe it to our cities and inhabitants to future proof them with intelligently designed and located real estate. Engagement with key stakeholders and local government/authorities to carefully consider, masterplan and design the modern city can help mitigate issues around congestion, emissions and residential nuisance, and Bloom plans to be play a key role in finding solutions.
Our aim is to develop a portfolio of suitable warehouse assets in Zone 1 & 2 to create an eco-system that enables modern occupiers to appropriately serve the modern consumer. To date, Sam and I have spent the last 5 years working in real estate sectors transformed by many of the strong underlying trends and new business models outlined above. Whilst at SEGRO Plc, I saw Industrial and Logistics take centre stage within the Commercial Real Estate sector due to the rapid rise of e-commerce, urbanisation and changing delivery expectations. Sam’s work helping to launch Nomad Works in New York and at mixed use developer Forme Development in Vancouver & LA exposed him to a number of changes in the office, residential and hotel markets. In particular, he witnessed first-hand the shift towards flex serviced offices with ‘tenants’ the old and ‘customers’ the new, and the hotel & hospitality market where co-living, extended stay and micro hotel models have all exploded.
We want to take this experience and become a modern property fund/landlord laser focused on providing ultra-urban warehouse space. We are incredibly passionate about innovation, disruption and PropTech and aim to use relevant solutions and a data driven approach across every element of our business.
Please do get in touch with either Sam or I if you share our vision and would like to get involved.
Contact Details
Tom Davies MRICS: tom@bloom-developments.co.uk
Sam McGirr MRICS: sam@bloom-developments.co.uk
Bloom website: https://www.bloom-developments.co.uk
