By Liza Helps, Property Editor, Logistics Matters

Warehouse aesthetics are frequently a bone of contrition especially  for locals, their sheer size means  landscape dominance is almost unavoidable and more and more frequently  highlighted by both local and national media possibly fuelling  a negative outlook for the logistics industry as a whole – but if more were built like this one could attitudes change?

Unit 1 Vanguard Logistics Park, Woolmer Road, Longmoor, Liphook, Hampshire, GU33 6DN

Developer: Equation Properties

Investor: BenthallGreenOak

Letting Agents: M1 Agency and CBRE

Unit size: 200,367 ft2

Type: Speculative

Power: up to 3MvA

Sustainability: BREEAM Outstanding, EPCA

It’s the hottest day of the latest heatwave to hit the UK so far this summer and temperatures are already hitting 30 degrees and its only 10am. Tia the Lab(rador) Assistant and I are late – though luckily not hot and bothered by the situation as we travel in airconditioned bliss.

I turn off the A3 and turn left almost immediately to my destination and its just “Oh, Wow!” in fact so busy am I looking at the sight in front of me that I completely miss the turning and shoot along the road. It is quite simply the most stunning warehouse I have ever seen. We are talking serious kerb appeal.

The thing that strikes me most is that this is not a warehouse looking warehouse. It sits surrounded by mature woodland, the buildings situated, if you like, in a large glade. There is an abundance of vertical wood cladding (sourced I am assured within a 30 mile radius) and a serious lack of concrete and tarmac to be seen. In fact, the only traditional hard standing to be found is in the loading yard itself.

On the corners of the buildings are towering living walls  lustrously dark green with pops of bright yellow flowers, the gatehouses and office buildings have green rooves, with grasses and butterflies dancing and dipping in and out of sight. Swathes of tall spiky blue flowered Viper Bugloss lead you from one building to another along the driveway  – outwardly its simply stunning.

But as the old adage goes – handsome is as handsome does: will the internal presentation match the outward gloss? I am looking at Unit 1, the larger of the two building on the site which formerly used to house the Ministry of Defence’s old Apple Pie mantenance depot which after 122 years was deemed surplus to requirements and sold to Equation in 2022.

Inside the building  with its 15m eaves , it looks taller due to its barrel roof design, and its pleasing to note all of the space is available as the two storey office pod adjoins rather than is part of the warehouse itself – so no awkward redundant corners or undercroft with which to deal.

It has the traditional FM2 50kn/m2 floor loading, LED lighting and 15% roof lights – which even on such a hot day do not seem to be causing the place to overheat – in fact the reverse is true it is blissfully cool and bright.

What is of note though are the huge vertical floor to ceiling windows along the back wall of the building framing the outside woods and flooding the space with dappled daylight. It is all very well thought out.

On a more practical basis the warehouse boasts 16 Horman dock and three level access doors. I like the fact that the space below the docks is covered by a rubber screen preventing detritus from accumulating underneath. There is plenty of room to manoeuvre within the yard which is guarded by a single wooden panelled gatehouse with well established green roof and served by a matching two storey transport hub. In addition, there is hardstanding to park up 32 HGVs. From a practical point of view the functionality of the building as a logistics facility has not been compromised in any way.

The office space is just as you’d expect from a traditional modern warehouse property, with kitchenettes and toilet facilities pretty much standard. It’s the outside wellness aspects that really make it special. Who wouldn’t want to work here in the middle of the South Downs National Park?

The landscaping is  second to none, with even the attenuation pond becoming part of the whole and looking almost too tempting for Lab(rador) Assistant Tia, with delicate iridescent blue dragonflies hovering over lilies floating dreamingly on the surface. I was spared the ride home accompanied by the smell of wet labrador filling the car, by the cracking of shots from the nearby Ministry of Defence live firing range which proved far more interesting. Even though that was going on, it was not overpoweringly loud and I suspect once the buildings are operational, would not be  much noticed.

The property with its Outstanding BREEAM  rating also has  some very useful  operational savings attached; these include 4,010 m/2 of Solar PV installed, which is forecasted to save future occupiers £194,280 a year in electricity costs, as well as a total CO2 saving of 336 tonnes per annum. (It has been calculated that savings for Unit 1  could be as much as £113,856 and Unit 2 £80,422 a year.) There is also a 40% reduction in potable water use through rainwater harvesting.

While Vanguard Logistics Park felt like it was quite literally in its own world, it was surprisingly  easy to get to being  just off the A3 roughly equidistant between the M25 motorway and Portsmouth with both being only a half hour drive away tops.

There is also plenty of skilled labour in the vicinity and at a discount to national averages.

So is it worth a look? Definitley.

Is it available on a campus basis? Yes.

Is it the best looking facility you’ve ever seen – well be my guest…it’s certainly the best looking I have ever seen and I’d like to see more developed to this standard in the future: it might just save an awful lot of angst and headlines.