Property developer looks forward to record results

A BOOST in confidence and an increasingly buoyant industrial market is helping a Yorkshire property developer report record results.

Guisley-based Eshton Group expects to see turnover reach £10m within the next 18 months –  a significant climb up from its current £1m figure.

The growth in the company, which was launched in 2001 by brothers James Chapman and Jonathan Chapman, is down to an increase in confidence in the property industry and more demand being witnessed across the sector, the group said.

James Chapman said: “There are a lot of opportunities available at the moment and there’s certainly a lot more confidence about.

“We’ve seen a big increase in enquiries and for us, the industrial sector is the most buoyant at the moment.”

The group’s biggest project is it currently working on is the 70-acre £50m Burnley Bridge Business Park. 

However, here in Yorkshire, where the group is trying to grow its presence, it has a number of schemes it’s also working on.

Eshton is developing a 1.5 acre site in Hull on Clough Road, where it has planning in place for 20,000 sq ft of leisure space and 5,000 sq ft of retail space. Eshton said a well-known pub chain is currently interested in the site.

In Hebden Bridge, Eshton is working on the former fire station site with 4,000 sq ft of retail space, which supermarket Sainsbury’s is interested in and in Birstall, Eshton is the developer behind Springwell 27, an eight-acre  site off the M62 which has planning in place for its third phase – a 40,000 sq ft site.