Property round-up: Radcliffe development site for sale; Sutton Kersh auction raises £3.6m; and more

THE William Pears Group has instructed CBRE North West to sell off its 32.5-acre East Lancashire Paper Mill site on Church Street East in Radcliffe.

The site, which backs on to the River Irwell, has outline consent for a mixed-use development.

Steven Verity, director at CBRE North West, said: “This is an excellent site in a prime location with huge potential. “Outline planning consent has been given for up to 520 new homes located next to a school, less than three miles from both the M66 and M60 motorways, and just seven miles outside Manchester City Centre. We are expecting a great deal of interest in the site.”

SUTTON Kersh sold 57 of the 88 properties at its May auction, raising £3.6m.

Some 17 properties were sold before the auction took place at Liverpool’s Marriott Hotel last week, generating over £1.4m.

A further 37 properties sold in the room, including a three-storey house on Bentley Road in Toxteth which sold for £120,000. The investment property has been converted into five self contained flats which generate a gross annual income of £12,600.

A vacant residential property on Needham Road in Kensington also attracted a high level of interest, selling for £54,500 off a guide price of £40,000-£45,000.

The 6,593 sq ft Duke St building which previously housed nightclub Le Bateau failed to sell in the room off its £180,000 guide price, but a deal was completed after the auction for an undisclosed sum. The buyer, who wished to remain anonymous, plans to reopen the venue as a bar and has appointed bar designer 44th to work on the designs.

Cathy Holt, auction manageress at Sutton Kersh, said: “ We are pleased with the result. It was a busy room with high levels of bidding. I am confident with a number of the deals in the pipeline that sales will exceed over 70%.”

The firm said that after hosting three bi-monthly auctions in 2012 it had generate sales of over £12m.

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LOAN comparison site Freedom Finance has moved its headquarters from Wilmslow to Atlas Business Park in south Manchester. It has taken a 7,300 sq ft unit at the park on a five-year lease with a three-year break clause.

The business, which was hived off to internet loan broker Moneio in 2008 after its former parent received scores of payment protection insurance (PPI) claims against it from clients, said that the new base was chosen as a result of improving transport links to the area, which sits within the new Airport City Enterprise Zone.

From 2016, the park will be connected to the extended Metrolink tram network.

Nicola Georgiou, managing director at Freedom Finance, said: “Excellent new transport links and a positive business atmosphere are the two main drivers behind our decision to relocate the Freedom Finance headquarters to the Atlas Business Park.

“The proximity of fantastic rail, bus and road links allows us to be fully connected to the South Manchester area and the wider region, and the Metrolink extension will pass by just yards away from our new offices.”

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HIGH Row Storage has let a 21,000 sq ft industrial unit at Appleton Industrial Park to Francis Flower.

Unit B has been let on a three-year lease at an average rent of £3 per sq ft to Francis Flower, which is the trading name of family-owned Gurney, Slade Lime & Stone Co. The 59 year-old business is a major supplier of limestone powders to industry.

The landlord was advised on the deal by the Manchester office of DTZ, which is marketing two other units of 16,000 sq ft and 27,000 sq ft respectively on the site.

Senior surveyor Alex Smylie said: “Occupier demand remains robust in prime distribution locations such as Warrington and is demonstrated by this latest letting where the building was vacant for less than one month.”

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FOSTER Care Associates has bought a 5,286 sq ft office building at Olympic Park in Birchwood, near Warrington, for an undisclosed sum.

The sale is the fifth to complete at the park within the last 12 months. in total, some seven units were put on the market and a 6,195 sq ft building is currently under offer, meaning there is only one 4,009 sq ft building left.

The properties are being marketed by joint agents Jones Lang LaSalle and Matthews & Goodman.

Claire Johnson, from Jones Lang LaSalle’s office agency team, said: “We are delighted with the number of freehold transactions completed at Olympic Park and elsewhere across the North West. 

“Since January 2011, Jones Lang LaSalle’s office agency team has completed 21 sales totalling 127,734 sq ft demonstrating that there is still demand by occupiers to purchase, albeit at competitive levels.”