New business park for Rochdale

A new business park is to open in Rochdale and is expected to bring in excess of 350 jobs to the area.

A 50:50 joint venture between Centric Property Group and Barnfield Construction has acquired 18 acres of land develop a 260,000 sq ft business park.

The land, positioned next to the M62, was acquired from Fortis Bank and already has planning permission for 90,000 sq ft of offices and 170,000 sq ft of industrial space.

The development, ‘Crown Business Park’, is the first of a number of acquisitions planned by the joint venture to speculatively develop business parks throughout the North.

The acquisition was completed at the end of August and construction has already commenced on first phase of the speculative development, which will see 20,000 sq ft offices and 30,000 sq ft of industrial space completed by summer 2011.

The first phase of works will also see the rest of the 18 acres opened up and serviced, ready for future phases of development. The site was acquired without external funding, however Royal Bank of Scotland are providing funding towards the speculative construction of the first phase.

Funding from partners amount to £8.6 million.The project has also been part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) who provided £3.2 million to prepare the 7.3 hectare brownfield site for the development of a high quality, mixed use business park.

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 from the local area, in particular those in the financial and business services sector, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.”

Cabinet member for Skills and Economic Recovery, Councillor Keith Swift said: “It is absolutely brilliant that other developers are building on the success of Kingsway Business Park and are taking the opportunity to move to Rochdale.

“This is good news for everyone in the borough.”