Two leading regional companies are coming together for the first time to lay the foundations for the next generation of specialist engineers.
Warwick-based property investment and development company AC Lloyd has appointed Deeley Construction, from Coventry, to build Warwick Trident College’s new state-of-the-art engineering building.
The £2.3million project – part-funded by the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership – brings together the two firms, who boast more than 150 years’ of industry experience between them, for the first time, to complete the three-storey building.
A C Lloyd also instructed three other local companies on the project. Hitchman Stone Architects, Starkey Button Quantity Surveyors and Greenways Mechanical and Electrical Engineers
AC Lloyd owns the site on the Trident Business Park, where it has already developed several properties, and is providing the new 18,000 sq ft-educational centre within the complex.
The site set to train an extra 285 advanced and 253 higher apprenticeships in the manufacturing, mechanical, electronic, automotive and product creation sectors.
Work is expected to be completed in August 2015 with the new facility, including specialist engineering workshops and teaching space, ready for the start of the academic year the following month.
Des Wynne, director of AC Lloyd, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity of working with the College again, and in particular to be able to assist in the delivery of a building involved in the training and creation of new employment opportunities for apprentices in the rapidly expanding automotive sector.
“This is a rapid development programme and Warwick District Council Planners were very supportive in helping to fast-track the planning application process in order to make it happen.
“We have extensive experience in delivering educational buildings in the area having built Warwick Trident College’s main campus building some 10 years ago and which adjoins this site.
“We are due to deliver the building in August 2015 with a partial fit-out, before the college take over in time for the beginning of the academic year.
“The construction contract was put out to competitive tender, and this presented us with our first opportunity to work with Deeley Construction, and we hope this will be the start of an ongoing relationship.
“We are also delighted to be working alongside three other local companies on a project, which should have such a positive impact.”
This is the second Warwickshire College Group project that Deeley Construction have worked on in recent months.
Managing director, Martin Gallagher, said: “Work is already under way on the site, which will play an important part in providing skilled workers to the region in the future.
“We have worked on many educational sites in the past, and on behalf of Warwickshire College Group – including an extension of its Pershore College, which we are currently working on.
“This is the first time we have collaborated with AC Lloyd and we are looking forward to building a prosperous partnership.
“It is great to see so many local companies involved in this project, and it just goes to show of the strength of the industry in the region.”