Crown Business Park to generate hundreds of jobs for Rochdale

Date: 9.11.2010

A 50:50 Joint Venture between Centric Property Group and Barnfield Construction has acquired 18 acres of land in Rochdale, Greater Manchester to speculatively develop a 260,000 sq ft business park.

The development is expected to bring in excess of 650 jobs to the area.

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 JV to speculatively develop business parks throughout the North which will achieve BREEAM excellent.

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 bank funding, however Royal Bank of Scotland are providing funding towards the speculative construction of the first phase.

The costs of the first phase amount to £9.2 million*.The project has also been part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) who provided £3.2 million to prepare the 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 to the local area, in particular those in the financial and business services sector, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.”

Managed by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), ERDF allocates funding to different regions throughout the European Union to boost economic development in less prosperous areas.

Nolan Redshaw acted for the purchaser and have been retained as sole agents.

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