A Scottish judge has upheld a landlord’s right to demand that e-commerce giant Amazon remove itself from a warehouse it owns in Scotland.
Investment property firm M7 gave Amazon six months’ notice to quit the 300,000 sq ft warehouse known as Unit 1 Faulds Park, Gourock in February as Amazon’s lease was due to terminate in August 2019.
The property was originally leased from Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire in 2004 on a 15 year lease and was later sold to M7. Between 2005 – 2017 Scottish Enterprise gave Amazon £5.33 million in assistance to create its distribution centres in Scotland including a Regional Selective Grant worth £1.655 million to specifically set up the Gourock centre. In the original letting CBRE acted for Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire while Amazon represented itself.
When Amazon got the notice to quit, it challenged the move at the Court of Session, arguing it was entitled to a year’s notice.
But the courts backed M7, though Amazon has intimated that it will appeal again. About 300 people work at the Gourock site and Amazon says it remains “business as usual” for them and customers.
It has been suggested that if Amazon were to renegotiate the rent on the property it would be able to remain at the site. It has been known that Amazon is a tough rent negotiator.
Richard Croft of M7 said: “We would be very happy for Amazon to stay at Gourock. We look forward to hearing from them to negotiate new terms.”
In the meantime the property is listed as one available to rent on new lease terms on the M7 website. It was built approximately 20 years ago and has a 7.5m eaves 48 dock level doors as well as 29,000 sq ft of offices.
Externally the property benefits from concrete surfaced yards at each end of the building and controlled entry to the yard via a gatehouse. At the front elevation of the building there is a tarmac surfaced car park that provides 367 parking spaces. The site area of the property extends to 30.15 acres
The property is located 15 miles west of Junction 31 of the M8 motorway and 24 miles from Glasgow International Airport.
By Liza Helps
UPDATED: 13.45 9 October 2019
