A marked improvement in the fortunes of the commercial property market have been seen over the past six months, reports commercial property agent Prop-Search, which is giving genuine hope that the sector is starting to emerge from the depths of recession.
The past four years have proven to be very slow, with business confidence levels subdued, bank funding hard to secure and the influence of global economic issues directly impacting on UK based business decision making. Northamptonshire and in particular Wellingborough, to a certain extent, have bucked this trend which has seen other areas facing challenging times.
However, as 2013 has progressed, a genuine sense of hope has been witnessed – with enquiry levels up on the same time last year – across all sectors of the commercial property market. More importantly, these enquiries have led to a greater volume of transactions. Stronger economic data and more positive stories coming out of the press appear to be galvanizing business owners and directors into re-igniting their previously shelved expansion and new investment plans that were perhaps on the agenda back in 2008.
Wellingborough has seen very strong performance particularly in the warehousing and industrial sectors. Driven by strong levels of investment, take-up of space has risen and there is now a critical situation where demand has out-stripped supply with no new buildings having been delivered for about five years. This has prompted some developers to start thinking about building again and the prospect of commercial construction within the town over the next year is looking increasingly likely.
Prologis, the leading global owner, operator and developer of industrial real estate, has gained outline planning permission for a new £150 million logistics park at Appleby Lodge, just off Park Farm. The site will provide for around two million square feet of employment space and has the potential to create up to 2,500 jobs. The scheme will be developed in phases and will offer a range of large format facilities. Prologis is now working on submitting a detailed planning application to the Borough Council of Wellingborough with work of the first phase anticipated to commence next year.
Councillors have recently agreed that the time is now right for negotiations to begin in respect of a substantial new expansion to the north of the town. The Upper Redhill scheme secured planning permission from the Secretary of State for the Environment in February 2010 and is located on some 620 acres. Consent was granted for 3,000 new homes, leisure facilities, a neighbourhood centre with shops and restaurants, community facilities, a health centre and around 270,000 sq ft of business space. It is understood that the Borough Council is now in further talks with a developer to negotiate terms of the sale of the Council owned land, which could then allow the first two phases of the three phase project to commence.
A £500m project – Stanton Cross – that could see Wellingborough grow in size by about a third has also moved a step closer. Earlier this year, the Borough Council of Wellingborough Council used its compulsory purchase powers to secure a piece of land needed to build the main road, known as Route 4, into the development and more recently Northamptonshire County Council has agreed to provide funding for this. The project, expected to take 10-15 years to complete will incorporate around 3,200 private and social houses, and more than 2.4 million sq ft of business and retail space – creating up to 7,500 jobs. The development will also include £100 million of infrastructure projects such as a new railway station, three rail and four river bridges, and community facilities including two primary schools. The first phase of the project will be a development known as Station Island, as well as the construction of roads and bridges into the site.
Prop-Search reports that it is working on four brownfield sites in the Borough, totaling over 14 acres, where deals have been agreed with developers. The proposed schemes will create a mix of uses including industrial, and retail and leisure. One of the sites that has recently been sold is just over three acres of land on London Road – the former Whitworths Bakery, more recently that of Knapp Tools. Negotiations are now underway within a number of potential occupiers and it is envisaged that spades could be in the soil as early as mid-2014.
Upgrading of the rail link to London St Pancras has also recently commenced with the electrification of the line. This has the potential to reduce journey times and with the opportunity to move stops at Luton and Bedford to Thames Link, would mean that Wellingborough became the first stop out of London.
So the future for Wellingborough is once again looking positive, all the right ingredients are present and the confidence to make things happen is back on track!
