Tritax Big Box acquires 50% stake in Heathrow joint venture

Burges Salmon has facilitated Tritax Big Box's 50% acquisition in a joint venture focused on enhancing power delivery to a developing data centre at Heathrow.

The law firm guided Tritax Big Box REIT in establishing a joint venture with a major European renewable energy company. The venture aims to develop a substantial data centre at the newly acquired 74-acre site, Manor Farm, which is projected to become one of the UK's largest data centres.

The joint venture is set to create grid connections to two independent substations, allowing for the expedited delivery of up to 147 MW of power. This power will support the development of the data centre, with additional plans for further projects across key UK locations, leveraging around 1GW of power availability.

Burges Salmon's Corporate team and its Built Environment and Energy sectors supported the venture. Partners Malcolm Donald, Ross Polkinghorne, and Alec Whiter led the team, which brought expertise in corporate, real estate, energy, and construction matters.

Director Nia Stewart from the Construction team collaborated on a development management agreement with the specialist Energy Projects, Corporate, and Real Estate teams. This agreement led to Tritax Management's appointment to oversee elements such as planning, construction, and technical electricity services for the JV.

Malcolm Donald remarked, "Whilst data centres are classified by the UK Government as Critical National Infrastructure, historically the lack of power has significantly restricted their development. Therefore, it's been fantastic to work with TBBR to facilitate a new JV partner to provide accelerated access to clean power in this enviable Heathrow location and we look forward to continuing to support our client as it pursues its ambitious plan to invest in, and develop, one of the largest data centres in the UK."

Frankie Whitehead, Partner and CFO at TBBR, stated, "The combination of Manor Farm's prime London location and accelerated access to critical grid connection agreements creates the opportunity to develop quickly one of the UK's largest data centres and deliver exceptional returns for our shareholders. We're really thankful to Burges Salmon for its excellent advice and support, Malcolm and the team did a fabulous job on this complex transaction, getting us where we needed to be with ease and clarity."

Burges Salmon has been advising TBBR on managing its GBP £5 billion logistics portfolio over the past year, reflecting its role as the largest UK investor in logistics warehouse assets.