£15m deal for speculative development at Worcester Six
A £15m speculative funding deal has been agreed with an overseas investor for two large commercial units to be built at Worcester Six Business Park.
The units of 160,000 sq ft and 45,000 sq ft will be the first to be built at Worcester Six – near junction 6 of the M5 – which will provide up to 1.5m sq ft of accommodation in a range of units as well as providing more than 5,000 jobs.
The speculative commercial units have been designed for a variety of employment uses to include technology, manufacturing, industrial and warehousing.
The announcement gives the £120m business park a further boost after it was announced that work has already started on a £10m infrastructure upgrade.
Funding for the upgrade has been delivered by Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership through the Growth Deal. Worcestershire County Council, working in partnership with Birmingham-based developer Stoford, has begun a programme of work to provide greater access and improve traffic flow to the Worcester Six site.
Speaking at property and inward investment MIPIM UK in London, Stoford director Gerard Ludlow said: “We have reached agreement with an overseas investor to speculatively build two commercial units at Worcester Six. Funding is in place for the £15m deal and we are keen to get started as soon as possible.
“We will be submitting a reserved matters planning application hopefully by the end of next month with a view to starting construction on site at the end of the first quarter of 2016. The two units should be completed by the last quarter of the year.
“Building these units speculatively will give us the best opportunity to attract and secure inward investment into the region and to nurture the local technology-based businesses.”
The development site has been identified within Worcestershire’s Strategic Economic Plan as one of four ‘game changer’ sites – key employment sites seen as important in driving the county’s economic future prosperity, and together are expected to create more than 16,000 new jobs across the county.
