KING Sturge’s North West industrial team secured 5.4m sq ft of sales and lettings in 2010, the firm said.

This was a huge increase on the 2009 figure of around 2m sq ft.

A number of deals in Merseyside contributed to this figure, including the £16.73m sale of the 478,000 sq ft Galaxy building, in Knowsley Industrial Park, to the pension fund of Matalan tycoon John Hargreaves.

King Sturge also oversaw the freehold disposal of the former Bridgewater paper mill, in Ellesmere Port, which comprised 900,000 sq ft of space and 50 acres of land, to Peel Ports as well as the freehold disposal of the D1 Oils site in Bromborough, covering 40 acres.

David Brooks, King Sturge’s UK head of industrial & logistics, commented that the Merseyside deals were largely due to the emergence of opportunistic occupiers and investors who took advantage of heavily discounted prices and highly competitive rental and incentive packages to secure good available sites and buildings.

He added: “Our predictions forecast this trend will continue across the UK. “Here in the North West, our team expects to be active this year as strategic land buying by developers intensifies, with the focus on ‘oven-ready’ sites which are immediately deliverable to meet demand as supply of new and modern big box stock dwindles.

“We also believe that occupiers and investors will become increasingly alive to the obsolescence of certain types of larger secondary stock, and may look to redevelop sites in prime locations to suit today’s market requirement, rather than face high refurbishment costs.”