Innes England has let 16,000 sq ft of office space at Meridian East in Leicester, to a company which provides specialist disability and rehabilitation services to the NHS, and manufactures and supplies prosthetic and orthotic equipment products both in the UK and overseas.
The Leicester property agent has completed the letting on behalf of the landlord; Avenue Investments, and let the space to Blatchford Clinical Services, the largest prosthetic and orthotic company in the UK.
The new office space will be the converted to become Leicestershire’s Specialist Mobility Service, which provides wheelchair, prosthetic and orthotic services for NHS patients in the region. The company is growing rapidly both in the UK and internationally; including the USA, Germany and India. Blatchford Clinical Services provides clinical services for the NHS and others on a number of sites throughout the UK, including Headley Court in Surrey, which provides clinical rehabilitation for injured servicemen, including those returning from Afghanistan or other operation tours.
Leicester’s Specialist Mobility Centre will offer a range of services, including providing wheelchairs to people across the county. The centre offers anything from a collapsible wheelchair to a fully electrical chair. The service will start from where people are measured to fit their chairs, through to a team of occupational therapists and rehabilitation engineers.
There will also be a large prosthetic service based at the facility. Clinical professionals (prosthetists, physiotherapists and orthotists) will be supported by a workshop staffed by prosthetic and rehabilitation technicians, who will put together artificial limbs, braces, shoes and other appliances for patients. This service currently runs from both the Leicester General Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary, but will now be relocated to Meridian East later this year.
Graham Jackson, senior project manager for Blatchford Clinical Services, says: “The old building and accommodation at Leicester General and Leicester Royal Infirmary are no longer large enough, or of sufficient for the NHS’s expanding services, which cater for the whole of Leicestershire. We had been looking for somewhere new for over a year, as we and the NHS had quite specific requirements. We did find an alternative space, but it fell through during the planning stage because of new flooding regulations. Innes England didn’t give up on us though. Steve Scott found 17A Meridian East and brought the site to our attention as an ideal site for us to convert into a clinic for the new service. We are delighted as 17A Meridian East provides all the space and parking that our patients deserve.
“We were looking for a suitable sized building with modern services, such as air conditioning, easy to find and with sufficient free parking available for our patients. We also needed somewhere that was near DDA compliant, so we could easily alter it to become Leicester’s specialist mobility centre, and that’s just what he found. The building does require some adjustments and alterations for us prior to our move, as we need to convert the open plan offices in to 12 clinic rooms, a workshop, training room, stores and offices. We will be fully operational by autumn this year.”
Steve Scott of Innes England says: “Blatchford had fairly specific requirements, and we wanted to make sure we could find them the right location and facilities they needed. Meridian East is a high specification development, and ticks all the boxes in terms for Blatchford. They now have quite a bit of flexibility to turn the site into the clinical space they need.
The office market in this area has been difficult over the last year, and a letting of this size is great news for the city, particularly as this was an off market transaction.”
