New arrivals show signs of life at Kingsway
TWO new tenants have signed up to take the remaining speculatively-built units at Rochdale’s Kingsway Business Park.
Skelmersdale-based textile specialist Redwood Distribution has exhanged contracts on a 32,290 sq ft unit, while energy supplier EON UK has taken a 20,451 sq ft building.
Moreover, developer Wilson Bowden has also handed over the 860,000 sq ft building that is set to become a new distribution centre for JD Sports.
The Bury-based sportswear reatailer has now taken possession of the site and will begin the installation of a new automated racking system prior to the unit’s expected opening in Spring 2012.
Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com last week, Wilson Bowden’s development director Robert Grafton said that it was also in “detailed discussions” with a potential occupier for Kingsway’s biggest single site – a 60-acre plot close to the motorway known as Plot J.
Grafton said the discussions centre around the firm taking a huge 600,000 sq ft building. He added that the potential occupier had settled on Kingsway following a region-wide search for a suitable site.
“We’re a premium product within spitting distance of the motorway,” he said.
Grafton said that he hoped to see activity get underway on the prominent Plot C site facing the M62 motorway, where it has been in talks with De Vere Hotels about building one of its Village Hotels on the site.Planning approval for a hotel on the plot was renewed earlier this year.
“We’re in pretty close discussions with Village at the moment and we hope to see a start on site by the end of summer,” he said.
He added that there had also been interest shown in the office element of the same plot, where three office buildings of around 10-12,000 sq ft are proposed.
Joint agents for Kingsway are P3 Property Consultants and Jones LangLaSalle.
For an in-depth look at the current picture for Kingsway Business Park, click here.
