Knight Frank delivers £4m vehicle servicing depot

The Yorkshire office of Knight Frank has delivered a £4m commercial vehicle servicing and MOT testing depot in the Midlands.

Building consultancy and planning experts based at the Sheffield office of Knight Frank were appointed by the Volvo commercial dealer, Hartshorne Group, to deliver a 14,000 sq ft, property in Erdington near Birmingham to manage all stages of planning and delivery of the bespoke facility.

The new-build project took eight months to complete once construction started at the beginning of the year and the five-bay unit was opened by the managing director UK & Ireland at Volvo Group, Arne Knaben.

Daniel Green, partner at Knight Frank, said: “We’d like to congratulate Hartshorne Group on the completion of their premium facility at Erdington, which will service Volvo trucks and buses for the Birmingham region. They have created a state-of-the-art facility which will provide skilled jobs for years to come.

“The depot has been built to exacting specifications to meet the requirements of both Hartshorne Group and the Department of Transport.

“Knight Frank’s Building consultancy team were appointed to design and project manage the scheme from inception through to completion including initial advice during the land acquisition and involving our expert planning team. The building consultancy team undertook the initial feasibility studies for the development and then brought in our planning team to obtain the necessary planning consents.

“From this point on, the building consultancy team took on responsibility for all aspects of the development. This included the tendering of works, appointment of contractors, management of costs, stage development, monitoring and delivery through to the final defects remediation process and handover.

“We are delighted to have been appointed on such a prestige facility for Hartshorne Group and see this as another success for our collaborative departments.”

Knight Frank’s building consultancy provides a range of professional building surveying related services associated with owning, leasing, maintaining, developing and investing in commercial property.

The Yorkshire office delivers projects across the North of England and the Midlands and is currently managing the fit-out of a 14,000 sq ft headquarters for Tuffnells Parcels Express at ARBA Group’s Meadowhall Business Park in Sheffield.

Hartshorne’s managing director Martin Cronin said: “Our new depot is built to very exacting specifications and has been designed from scratch in order to offer maximum convenience and vehicle uptime.

“The management of this project by the respective teams from Knight Frank has been exemplary and they have met all of our requirements without any issues.”

The depot in Erdington replaces Hartshorne’s former site in Gravelly Industrial Park, which Knight Frank is advising on dilapidations for, and employs 35 staff, including 15 new roles created as a result of the scheme.

Halesowen-based A&H Construction and Development were the appointed building contractors for the Hartshorne Group’s new facility.