An ambitious 20-acre business park in Redditch is on course to complete in Q2 of 2019, after steel frames for its first two buildings went up this month.
Velocity42 will ultimately offer 330,000 sq ft across five units on the Park Farm industrial estate, and the first 45,500 sq ft of space was taken last October, even before the contractors started work on site.
Richard-James Moore, a JLL director specialising in the logistics and warehousing sectors, reports that interest is high from potential tenants; from both local companies looking to relocate to new space, and regional operators looking to satisfy the ever-growing demand from the online retail sector.
“Our research shows very clearly that whilst there’s been a slowdown in demand for the giant distribution centres – which our industry refers to as Big Boxes – the opposite is true for units of less than 100,000 sq ft,” he says.
“Regardless of the future direction or shape of our economy, SMEs will still be its major driving force and they’ll still be expanding and creating employment, which is what persuaded developers and brown field specialists St Francis Group, and its partner Richardson Capital, to deliver this park on a speculative basis.
“It was a bold decision; however, Redditch is a prime business location and the early commitment from Heartbeat UK justifies the enterprise shown by both parties behind this development. The level of interest that we and our joint agents, Savills, are seeing is further confirmation.”
Velocity42 in Redditch is available on either a virtual freehold or leasehold basis and is located between junction 2 and 3 of the M42, an established area for distribution and manufacturing companies.
The five units being constructed are between 45,462 sq ft and 92,500 sq ft.
JLL are joint agents with the Birmingham office of Savills.
