Associated British Ports (ABP), the UK’s leading ports operator, has announced a strategic agency partnership with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, to help promote ABP’s property portfolio across its 21 port locations in Wales, England and Scotland.
As part of the partnership, ABP and JLL will raise market awareness of the strategic importance of ports in future-proofing the businesses of occupiers, as ABP continues to invest in acquisitions and regeneration. ABP offers a broad range of available commercial property and land opportunities, including industrial, warehousing, open storage and development land. Together these provide tri-modal connectivity and a unique level of resilience for a vast range of businesses, it said.
Henrik L. Pedersen, ABP CEO, said:
“When businesses choose to locate on ABP’s port estate, they are choosing the future.
“Our ports are at the epicentre of building a greener tomorrow, providing businesses with access to multimodal distribution links, urban skills centres and the ability to plug into a vibrant community of like-minded industry partners, committed to clean growth, decarbonisation and energy generation.”
Melinda Cross, Head of Industrial and Logistics at JLL, said:
“This partnership with ABP represents a significant opportunity to bring cutting-edge industrial and logistics spaces to the market. JLL’s extensive network and understanding of occupier needs will help showcase ABP’s diverse portfolio, which offers businesses resilient, future-proof locations and emerging clean energy hubs. This collaboration aligns with our commitment to driving sustainable growth and supporting the evolving needs of modern supply chains.”
ABP is one of the largest commercial landowners in the UK, with a portfolio of 8,600 acres, over 2,400 acres of development land and a rent roll of £130 million. ABP’s locations provide development options including more than 120 acres of development land and more than 200,000 sq ft shed space currently available at the Port of Newport.
These locations provide the access to major distribution hubs via road, rail and sea, said ABP, which added that it is also leading the way in creating clean growth hubs, offering competitive, sustainable options to help prepare businesses located on port estate for the future.
Alongside a focus on both traditional occupiers and advanced manufacturing aligned with the advantage of freeport status on key areas of its land, sustainability is at the heart of ABP’s business. Earlier this year, the company announced its ambitious plans for the Port of Newport, which are centred around energy and include a focus on harnessing wind and solar sources and will ultimately be linked to hydrogen electrolysis and e-fuels manufacturing plants. The development will also be connected to low-carbon rail and marine logistics and will expect to see hundreds of highly productive jobs created at the resulting Newport clean growth hub.
The competitive tender process to select a national property agent partner was led by a cross-regional expert team from ABP Property, including Robert Morton, Lead Asset Manager on the Humber, Jeff Gibb, Lead Asset Manager, WSSP and Tim Hook, Lead Asset Manager in Southampton.
Speaking about the selection, they said:
“We selected JLL because we were impressed by their expertise and in particular their strong UK-wide coverage and experience in the energy and advanced manufacturing sector. We would like to congratulate them on their success and look forward to working together to deliver value for local businesses and the communities surrounding our ports.”
ABP’s 21 ports across Wales England and Scotland contribute £15 billion to the UK economy every year, directly employ over 2,500 people and support over 200,000 jobs across wider supply chains.
