Harworth Estates, the UK property regeneration company, has secured occupation for over half of the space at its 117,000 sq. ft speculative industrial development, R-evolution@The AMP, at the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham, Yorkshire.
The two sales leave just two units available to let at R-evolution@the AMP and have prompted Harworth to bring forward plans for a second phase of development. Harworth now intends to submit a planning application by June 2014 for three further industrial units on five acres of the 68 acres that remain to be developed for employment use at Waverley, followed by a further 21 acres for ‘AMPlify’ – a new phase of employment development to meet the strong demand for space at the development.
Construction of R-evolution@The AMP is due to begin on 7 April after Harworth last month completed a forward-purchase agreement for R-evolutions Plots 3 & 4 with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council for £4.3 million, with Harworth being responsible for the letting of those units in 2014. It also secured a £2.7 million loan from the Sheffield City Region Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) Fund.
The forward-purchasing agreement involves Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council taking ownership of R-evolution’s first phase when it is completed in October 2014. Harworth is responsible for the delivery and the leasing of the development.
The money from the SCR JESSICA Fund is paying for infrastructure works and the construction of the new units at R-evolution.
The SCR JESSICA Fund, which is made up of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Growing Places capital, aims to provide funding for projects at competitive commercial rates where funding might otherwise prove challenging in the current markets. The Fund will commit capital to regeneration opportunities with a focus on office and industrial developments which meet the ERDF’s targets on employment, remediation and floorspace outputs. The Fund is managed by CBRE Capital Advisors.
Campbell Carruth, Director of Business Space at Harworth Estates, said: “The sale of the first two units at R-evolution to top-quality occupiers justifies our decision to build speculatively and proves the latent demand for high quality space in the region.
“Such is the scarcity of equivalent-quality stock in the Yorkshire & Humber region that we are accelerating our plans for a second phase of R-evolution, utilising the significant remaining land designated for employment here at Waverley”.
Councillor Roger Stone, Leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council said: “It is good to be here at the ground-breaking of the R-evolution @ the AMP development.
“The Advanced Manufacturing Park is known globally for its cutting edge advanced manufacturing technology expertise, and has benefitted Rotherham through the creation of many high quality jobs and investment into the borough. R-evolution will help meet further demand from high quality manufacturing businesses, who want to expand and join the world-class companies already located at the AMP.”
R-evolution@The AMP is located at Harworth’s flagship Waverley scheme, which is being transformed into Yorkshire’s largest-ever brownfield mixed-use development. The 740-acre development comprises an AdvancedManufacturingPark with world-leading occupiers, employment development and a new community of 4,000 homes along with shops, restaurants, schools, leisure & community facilities and parks.
The Advanced Manufacturing Park is the UK’s premier advanced manufacturing technology park. Businesses on the park already provide world-class technology solutions for use in precision industries, including aerospace, defence, construction, automotive, sport and others. It is home to world-class organisation such as Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Castings Technology International (CTI), Dormer Tools, Sandvik Coromant and TWI. The Park still has four employment phases comprising 68 acres available for a variety of employment uses, all of it benefitting from Enterprise Zone status.