Plans unveiled for multi-million Steelpark development

How the Steelpark development will look

Multi-million pound plans for a speculative industrial development in the Black Country have been unveiled by developers.

Construction of the Steelpark Trading Estate development, comprising 70,000 sq ft of industrial/warehouse units, starts at Steelpark Way and Bearing Drive, Wednesfield, this month.

Property company Goold Estates, which is behind the development, believes the scheme could create dozens of new jobs.

The units will vary in size from 8,925 sq ft to 21,450 sq ft.

The 8.5-acre site has 4.5 acres of developable land and four acres of wetland, which is home to great crested newts. Natural England has this year launched a new policy relating to the conservation of the protected species.

Goold Estates is working closely with Natural England and it is believed this will be the first industrial development under the updated legislation.

Dominic Goold, managing director of Walsall-based Goold Estates, said: “It’s great to see progress being made at Steelpark and we are looking forward to delivering a high quality development which will attract investment and jobs to the region.

“The site, which is adjacent to the Tata Steel Automotive Service Centre, has been vacant and available for development for many years. We acquired it in September last year and now, less than nine months later, we are ready to start construction.”

All of the units are being built speculatively and will be available for sale or lease. Goold is confident of the scheme’s success due to the limited supply of commercial space in the area.

“There is excellent rental growth in the industrial and logistics sector, driven by a severe shortage of units available on the market. For example, Redmill Trading Estate, which we acquired as a completely vacant site in August 2015, was fully let in less than a year. That clearly demonstrates the level of demand in this region,” added Mr Goold.

Finance Birmingham has arranged speculative development finance to help fund the project through the West Midlands Combined Authority Collective Investment Fund CIF. This fund aims to accelerate economic regeneration by assisting developers and land owners to bring forward job creating schemes such as Steelpark.

Nick Oakley, senior investment director at Finance Birmingham, said: “This is an excellent, well located site and we are delighted to be supporting Goold Estates in bringing forward this development which will deliver much needed quality industrial accommodation.”

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