Centric and Barnfield to build new Rochdale business park
A JOINT venture between Centric Property Group and Barnfield Construction has acquired 18 acres of land in Rochdale on which it plans to speculatively develop a 260,000 sq ft business park.
The joint venture company paid £3m for the site next to the M62 from Fortis Bank in August 2010, and the pair plan to spend a further £9.2m developing the first phase of the site, which will be known as Crown Business Park.
The initial phase involves construction of 20,000 sq ft of offices and 30,000 sq ft of industrial space to BREEAM Excellent standard. In total, the site has planning approval for 90,000 sq ft of offices and 170,000 sq ft of industrial space on the site.
The first phase will be complete by next summer and will include the opening and enabling works for the entire 18-acre site, which was acquired without any bank funding.
A European Regional Development Fund Grant of £3.2m has been granted to the project, however, and Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to provide debt funding towards the construction costs.
Once developed, it is hoped that companies relocating to the site could bring up to 650 jobs to the area.
David Malpass, Director of European Programme said: “Located close to junction 20 of the M62, Crown Business Park will become part of the region’s portfolio of sub-regionally important employment sites.
“This development will provide much-needed quality buildings to the Rochdale market. It has the opportunity to attract SME companies to the local area, in particular those in the financial and business services sector, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.”
Nolan Redshaw acted for the purchaser and has been retained as the park’s sole agents.
