Lot mix on East Midlands industrial estates
Asset managers with stock along the M1 corridor often describe the mandate as industrial. That word covers cross-dock sheds, older manufacturing, open storage, and the odd trade-counter parade that was bought with a park. A single pie labelled industrial tells the committee almost nothing about how income would behave if one occupier left.
We draw lot mix by floorspace and, on a second plate, by passing rent. The two pies disagree more often than managers expect. A small trade counter on a main road can carry rent that a large vacant warehouse does not. Showing only floorspace flatters the empty shed; showing only rent hides how much of the park is dark.
Open storage is marked as its own slice even when the agent files it under industrial. Committees remember a photograph of parked trailers more clearly than a footnote. If the planning use is precarious, that belongs in the narrative pages, not as a texture on the pie.
When two parks sit twenty minutes apart, we still draw them separately before any combined view. Combined views are useful for the fund; they are misleading for the person who has to let Unit 12 in Corby rather than in Northampton.
Bring the last aerial the managing agent used. We will not commission new photography as part of a mix plate. An old aerial with a date in the caption is better than a guessed outline.