This week St Edmundsbury Borough Council granted outline planning consent for the major 114-acre Suffolk Park business scheme at Bury St Edmunds, adjacent to the new Eastern Relief Road leading to Junction 45 of the A14 which will accommodate up to 2 m sq ft of business, distribution and industrial space.
St Edmundsbury Council granted Jaynic, as development promoter, outline consent for B1 (office, research & development and light industrial) and B8 (warehousing, storage and distribution) development, together with reserved matters approval for the main internal road linking the Eastern Relief Road with Lady Miriam Way South plus site-wide framework landscaping. The site has Enterprise Zone status on 35 acres.
The outline consent includes some B2 (manufacturing) space on the 10-acre site presold to Treatt – a leading beverage ingredients manufacturer – at the beginning of this year, which will be the subject of a separate reserved matters application shortly. The company is currently located in Bury St Edmunds and will consolidate its operations into a new 200,000 sq ft global headquarters facility to be constructed within the Enterprise Zone. Further B2 development may be possible for named occupiers, subject to planning.
Nic Rumsey of Jaynic, says: “It is currently the only major allocated employment site in Bury St Edmunds with an outline planning permission. The site is unique in the town and region for the scale of buildings it can offer. Occupiers requirements for buildings from 10,000 sq ft up to 700,000 sq ft including a potential 750,000 sq ft ‘big box’ distribution warehouse on the east side of the site, can now be accommodated within 12-15 months from now.”
Chris Starkie, Managing Director of New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, says: “Suffolk Park offers enormous potential for inward investment and economic growth – that’s the reason the LEP invested £10m to link the site directly to the A14 and selected it for Enterprise Zone status. Planning consent takes the site to the next stage, allowing more businesses to benefit from discounted business rates, simplified planning and Superfast broadband and from the excellent infrastructure Suffolk Park will soon have”.
Jonathan Lloyd of Hazells, agents on the scheme comments that “there is strong demand for business and distribution space in Bury St Edmunds being that it is located on the strategically important A14 east/west cross route into the UK motorway system.”
Jaynic has already gone out to tender for the infrastructure works with the intention of having the chosen contractor on site so that the main estate road between the Eastern Relief Road and Lady Miriam Way and associated infrastructure works are completed by the end of 2017. Individual occupier’s buildings, subject to reserved matters approval can commence whilst the infrastructure works are ongoing. This means companies could be in occupation and operational early in 2018.
Jaynic has appointed Bury St Edmunds based Hazells Chartered Surveyors as local agents for the scheme.
Savills, Industrial and Logistics department in London has been instructed to advise on the Big Shed potential.
