Vitally needed warehousing pledged for Staffordshire business park after multi-million funding injection
A £21.6m development along the corridor of the M6 Toll is the first project to receive backing from a new West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) investment fund.
Two industrial units covering 14 acres and providing a total of 283,000 sq ft of accommodation will be built at Kingswood Lakeside, near Cannock, aided by £7m from the Combined Investment Fund (CIF). The development could sustain more than 400 new jobs.
Midlands-based developer Opus Land has been awarded the funding to purchase and develop the site, which forms part of the former Kingswood opencast colliery. The project is backed with funding by Bridges Ventures.
Opus has also been awarded grant funding from Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) for land remediation work to prepare it for development.
Kingswood Lakeside comes under Cannock Chase District Council, a non-constituent member of the WMCA.
The site is home to several other large scale operations including a massive distribution facility for food and domestic products giant, Unilever.
WMCA chair Cllr Bob Sleigh said: “I am delighted the CIF has made its first award.
“This is the Combined Authority financially supporting a local developer with a strong track record to bring a non-productive site back into economic use.
“This will create jobs and stimulate further investment and prosperity in this region, which is at the heart of what the WMCA was set up to do.”
Cllr Gordon Alcott, deputy leader and economic development and planning portfolio leader for Cannock Chase District Council, said: “I am delighted that the WMCA and GBSLEP have decided to support this excellent scheme put forward by Opus Land with their funding partner, Bridges Ventures.
“The scheme will provide significant job opportunities and investment into Cannock Chase district and I applaud all those involved in bringing it forward.”
Victoria Smith, joint managing director of Henley-in-Arden based Opus, said the project was Opus Land’s fourth development at Kingswood Lakeside, which in itself, illustrated the faith it had in the area.
“The development of this site will provide Grade A industrial accommodation to help plug the acute shortage of industrial and storage land accommodation in the Midlands,” she said.
The 100,000 sq ft unit sector is one currently under severe strain in the region with demand outstripping supply.
Predictions are that available stock will runout sometime next year unless there is a sustained development programme.
Opus is also building a new call centre unit on the site for First Choice, and has previously built a regional distribution hub for courier firm APC, and the offices of waste management company Veolia on adjoining plots.
The CIF is a £70m commercial development war-chest set up by the WMCA earlier this year to stimulate jobs, opportunity and growth.
It is aimed at unlocking a further £1bn in private sector investment over the next 10 years.
It is managed by Finance Birmingham and provides short-term loans to private sector developers to enable them to get schemes off the ground.
