A £1.0 million pound refurbishment programme has commenced at Monkspath Business Park in Solihull following the purchase of this high profile, 360,000 sq ft multi-let industrial estate by clients of Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors, one of the world’s top 10 real estate investment advisory firms, at the end of last year.
This ambitious project follows a successful period of lettings with FLR Group, the flooring specialists, recently taking a unit of 5,000 sq ft and within two weeks of moving in signing up on the adjacent unit to double their floor space. In addition Farmfoods have just signed up on a 39,700 sq ft unit.
Faith Walker, Commercial Director at FLR Group, explained: “We have moved our operation from two sites in Kings Heath and Shirley and are now close to completing the fit out of our first unit which I’m sure our customers will be impressed with.”
Monkspath Business Park is one of the largest industrial estates in the West Midlands, comprising 41 units across 9 terraces and has proved to be popular not only for local Solihull and Shirley based occupiers but also larger ones looking to benefit from its superb accessibility. It is only 1 mile from Junction 4 of the M42 and 9 miles from Birmingham Airport.
Graham Barker, Managing Director, of Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors added:
“We are delighted to be progressing with our refurbishment programme, particularly with increased demand for property in Solihull demonstrated by the FLR Group transactions, Farmfoods and a number of others. We identified significant asset management opportunities when buying the estate which included undertaking significant works on a rolling programme. These have now been instigated such that the first units will have been fully refurbished by the end of July. Previous works on the estate before our ownership were fairly cosmetic and we decided that an estate of this significance warranted a more comprehensive refurbishment which includes: new roller shutter doors and a complete overhaul of the office accommodation within the units.”
Eight units, totalling approximately 60,000 sq ft, have now been let at Monkspath Business Park within the last 6 months with a further two units under offer. These have been to new tenants such as FLR Group, Classic Components, PW Electrical, Farmfoods, Bodyshocker and existing tenants such as AYS Couriers.
Tesni Thacker, Associate at GVA, joint letting agents with recently appointed GBR Phoenix Beard, added: “We are delighted with the quality of the works that our clients are providing. Not only will they help to modernise one of the most successful industrial estates in the area but it will also provide new tenants with the quality of space that is required in today’s market. We have seen a good number of lettings recently and are encouraged by the decision of existing occupiers to expand on the estate. As well as the quality of units that can now be provided tenants are also attracted by the location, large rear yards and allocated car parking.”