The industrial and logistics team at JLL’s Birmingham office has been appointed joint agent on a major new business park in the Midlands.
St Francis Group along with Richardsons Capital are bringing forward 330,000 sq ft of speculative space on the 20-acre Velocity 42 in Redditch available on a Freehold and Leashold basis and the first occupier was signed even before the official ground-breaking ceremony.
The park’s name comes from its location between J2 and J3 of the M42, an established area for distribution and manufacturing companies.
Five units are being constructed by the main contractor, Buckingham Group, of between 45,462 sq ft and 92,500 sq ft. Work is underway and the space should be available for occupation in Q2 2019.
Richard James-Moore, JLL’s industrial and logistics director, says the first occupier will be Heartbeat UK, a family-owned business based in Redditch, which has been designing and manufacturing innovative retail displays since 1946, and is taking the 45,500 sq ft unit.
“They are exactly the kind of potential occupiers which St Francis and Richardsons had in mind, when they were deciding whether to proceed with these speculative units,” he said.
“Heartbeat are local, very successful, and they needed quality space in which to expand because of their success. Their clients range from Asda and Costa Coffee, to Premier Inn and Waitrose, and they also work with a wide array of independents.
”The labour supply is good in this area, the units are being built to a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ spec, with an EPC ‘A’ rating, and I’d expect this space to prove very attractive to expanding companies in this region.”
JLL are joint agents with the Birmingham office of Savills.
