- The loan from OakNorth supports the acquisition of two commercial assets: Craigtoun Road in St Andrews and a former industrial warehouse in Aberdeen;
- Craigtoun Road is one of the largest consented commercial development opportunities in St Andrews and is expected to create over 170 permanent and 100 construction jobs;
- Meanwhile, the Aberdeen site has been pre-let to Fastned – Europe’s third-largest ultra-rapid EV charging network;
- West Coast Estates’ business model is built around identifying and securing development sites and securing planning permissions, working closely with prospective tenants to meet their occupational requirements.
OakNorth, the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, has provided a loan to West Coast Estates, an Aberdeen-based property development and investment company, to fund the acquisition of two commercial assets in Aberdeen and St Andrews, with headroom available to support further acquisitions.
West Coast Estates was founded 35 years ago and is led by Sarfraz Ali and Iftikar Mian, who have built a portfolio of retail, industrial, and roadside commercial developments across Scotland, with particular expertise in EV charging, neighbourhood, and roadside assets. The business model involves identifying sites and securing planning permissions, working closely with end users to meet their occupational requirements.
The OakNorth facility has supported the acquisition of two assets that exemplify this model. In St Andrews, West Coast Estates has completed the acquisition of Craigtoun Road, a 7-acre mixed-use development opportunity with planning consent for over 60,000 sq ft of retail, office, and employment space. The scheme – which is expected to create over 170 permanent and 100 construction jobs – has attracted significant occupier interest, notably from Home Bargains as the anchor retailer.
In Aberdeen, West Coast Estates has acquired Grampian House on Virginia Street, a former warehouse that has received planning permission for conversion into the UK’s first indoor drive-thru, ultra-rapid EV charging hub, pre-let to Fastned on a 35-year lease. Fastned is Europe’s third-largest ultra-rapid EV charging operator with over 2,100 chargers across more than 350 locations in nine countries. The business will install 12 ultra-rapid charging bays capable of delivering up to 400kW – providing up to 100 miles of range in five minutes – alongside a café, shop, and waiting area within the existing warehouse structure, targeting a winter 2026 opening.
Iftikar Mian, Director of West Coast Estates, commented: “These two acquisitions represent years of work – identifying the sites, building the relationships, progressing the planning, and agreeing pre-lets and pre-sales to de-risk the projects. That’s how we operate, and it requires a lender who understands the strategy. OakNorth took the time to genuinely understand what we were trying to achieve and why, and structured a facility that reflected that understanding. They were direct, they moved at pace, and they backed us without requiring us to justify the model from scratch – which, after 30 years of doing this, makes a real difference.”
Fraser McPhail, Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, continued: “Sarfraz and Iftikar have developed a distinctive and highly disciplined approach to commercial development in Scotland – patient, methodical, and with a genuine eye for sites that others overlook. The Aberdeen EV hub is a particularly compelling asset: a Fastned tenancy, a 35-year lease, and a genuinely pioneering format that reflects both the strength of the operator and the quality of the site West Coast Estates identified and secured. St Andrews is an equally strong story – one of the most commercially constrained planning environments in Scotland, with a scheme of genuine scale and ambition already well underpinned by a pre-sale to Home Bargains. We look forward to supporting West Coast Estates across further opportunities as they continue to grow their portfolio.”
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