Richard Baker, a Director of commercial property specialists Prop-Search reports that Northampton is still alive with regeneration projects and business potential that continue to move the town forward:
Northampton is still alive with regeneration projects and business potential that continue to move the town forward, and create opportunities that will encourage businesses to grow and invest.
Around £90 million has already been invested and a further half a billion pounds spent over the next five years as Northampton Alive continues to transform the town. Indeed, Northampton has proven its worth to the UK economy accordingly to a recent report – Cities Outlook 2016 – from the Centre for Cities. The town has the highest average increase in the number of businesses at 9.9 per cent and came in second place for business start-ups. It also had the UK’s second highest rate of employment at 78.6 per cent.
To date, 32 businesses have moved to the Enterprise Zone and Northampton has seen the creation of 1,740 jobs in the past four years – with the Enterprise Zone attracting more than £180 million of investment, the vast majority from the private sector.
The latest company attracted by the Enterprise Zone incentives, as well as a good labour pool, is the sporting gun manufacturer Longthorne – a subsidiary of Engineering Technologies & Manufacturing (ETM), which launched in Australia in 1989, but has operated from the UK since 1998. The company is currently producing 100 high-end shotguns per year, but plans to increase that to 1,000 across their range, and will be relocating from Hesketh Bank, Lancashire, creating around 30 new jobs. Longthorne has several high-profile clients including the Duchess of Rutland, Lord Coke of Holkham Hall in North Norfolk, and Middle Eastern royalty.
A major data firm is also currently planning to move to a site opposite Wrefords on Edgar Mobbs Way. A planning application is currently being considered that would also see them bring their new headquarters to the Enterprise Zone
Work continues on Northamptonshire County Council’s £53 million Project Angel in the town centre which, when completed, will see 2,000 county council staff move out of 12 buildings into one. Work started on the project in February last year, with the topping out ceremony in May this year and completion scheduled for November.
As part of Northampton’s emerging cultural quarter, a major redevelopment of the former Vulcan Iron Works site is taking place. The £10.8m project started last year and will create a managed workspace for up to 100 businesses, sustaining 400 jobs over 10 years. The Works were built in 1875 for engineering company Mobbs & Co but has been largely empty since the late 1970s. Close by, on Swan Street – also within the cultural quarter – the construction of a new Premier Inn 104-bedroom hotel was completed earlier this year.
Northampton also continues its love affair with logistic operators with John Lewis having just agreed to take a lease on a speculatively development shed, in a bid to expand its distribution network and fuel its online growth. The department store has signed a deal with Clipper Logistics, a leading provider of retail logistics solutions, and will occupy the 304,000 sq ft unit at Northampton Commercial Park on Grange Park to fulfil its online clothing orders. The building was completed at the beginning of March and is currently being fitted out for ‘go-live’ this summer – the fit out includes a multi-tier mezzanine structure and sortation capability. The centre is expected to become fully operational in Autumn 2016.
The 500 acre Grange Park is a sought after logistics location and is already home to a John Lewis distribution centre, as well as other major occupiers including Combisafe, Europa Worldwide Logistics and Yusen Logistics. This deal is seen as a vindication of developer Goodman to speculatively develop this unit alongside a 162,000 sq ft facility and is envisaged to reinforce confidence in the market and lead to further construction.
