Centaur Group of Companies
The Centaur Group owns in excess of £100million portfolio of industrial, warehousing,
offices, residential flats and land throughout the UK. The Centaur Group
has its head office in Bromley, Kent, and has an in-house Legal, Finance
and Property Management team to manage the property portfolio and deal
with new acquisitions. The Centaur Group has a regional office in
Liverpool, managing over 1m sq ft of industrial property in the region,
and a Welsh office managing the significant portfolio in South Wales.
Alan Fernback, the Proprietor
Alan Fernback started over 40 years ago investing and trading in property.
Initially buying residential buy-to-lets, Alan then moved on to commercial
shops and offices in the South London area. After building a significant
portfolio, he progressed into the development arena by purchasing in 1981,
34,000 sq ft Hampshire and Dorset bus depot, gained planning and built
100 residential flats.
Alan purchased two large industrial parks in South Wales, near Cardiff, from the Dovey group in 1987. The sites are still owned and managed by our in house estates management team today.
Alan’s reputation in the property industry meant that there was a constant flow of potential property deals being offered to him. Examples of this being the joint venture with Singer and Friedlander in 1992 when they purchased the freehold properties of Perrings furniture company for £4m. These were subsequently sold for £6.5m. Alan purchased Stevenson House in Milton Keynes in 1993, which was a large glass office building, and subsequently sold at a profit 2 years later.
In late 1993, Alans company, Kingsway London Ltd, purchased large retail sheds in Bournemouth, Biggleswade, Portsmouth, Dundee, Southampton, Tunbridge Wells and Edmonton. He still owns and manages Biggleswade, Portsmouth, Tunbridge Wells and Edmonton.
Alan then went into partnership with Newstead Properties by purchasing a number of industrial estates in Aintree, Liverpool. The first purchase being Harley Village industrial estate, which was the home of the Hartley jam factory from 1885. The site is a total of 232,000 sq ft with retail to the road frontage and light industrial units to the rear. Subsequent purchases include Bemrose industrial estate and Brookfield drive industrial estate, which strengthened the portfolio by 70,000 sq ft.
After a number of successful years, Alan purchased Newstead properties interest in the Liverpool sites, and has continued to grow and develop in the area. Purchases include Nelsons business park, Graylaw industrial estate and Brookfield Drive Depot, adding a further 330,000 sq ft to the Liverpool portfolio.
Jabil Circuits Ltd, a $5billion international electronics solution company, approached Alan offering sale and leaseback deals on their UK industrial sites. In March 2006, Alan purchased their flagship site in Ayrshire, Scotland. The site extends to 64 acres, with 460,000 sq ft of warehousing, industrial and office space. Alan is currently looking at other sites in their portfolio, on a similar basis.
In August 2006, Alan purchased a further 82,000 sq ft of light industrial space adjacent to the Jabil Circuits site in Ayrshire, from TT Electronics Ltd, a £340m electronic components company.
Champion spark plugs went into receivership in 2006. Their head office and production site in the Wirral, near Birkenhead, was sold to Alan and his joint venture partners, Hawtin Plc, with full vacant possession at the beginning of 2007. The site extends to 26 acres, with 435,000 sq ft of warehousing, industrial and office space. The site is now on offer to rent on flexible terms.
