A significant investment in excess of £500,000 will see the creation of a fully-functional business park at Bracken Hill Industrial Estate, in Peterlee, aimed at boosting small businesses.
The new seven unit scheme, to be re-launched as Bracken Park, will undergo a complete refurbishment after being purchased by Middlesbrough-based Linthorpe Developments, one of the region’s leading private commercial property developers.
The development comprises seven industrial/warehouse units ranging between 3,500 and 16,000 sq.ft and can be occupied individually or as one separate facility.
The units are to be refurbished to a high standard and are located within a secure compound, with two of the units offered to the market with the benefit of their own secure yards.
It will be completed in July when the units will be brought to the market “For Sale” or “To Let”.
Chartered surveyors Connect Property North East will market the scheme.
Geoff Hogg, managing director of Linthorpe Developments, said: “Offering units for freehold sale is quite unusual in the sector and this development has been designed to assist small businesses and give them the opportunity to own their own premises.
“There is a massive shortfall of small industrial units on the market and the Bracken Park development will address this and enable small businesses to purchase a capital asset that has the potential to increase in value.”
Jonathan Simpson, Director of Connect Property North East, said: “Over the course of the last 12 months, Peterlee has seen a large amount of activity at the upper end of the market, with a number of transactions of 25,000 – 60,000 sq.ft and larger. Both rents and capital values have increased in Peterlee as a result of an upturn in market conditions and, in recent years, there has been a lack of freehold stock available to the smaller end of the market.
“Bracken Park will give occupiers the opportunity to escape the clutches of rental payments and the opportunity to control their own destiny through a purchase. Although it is early days, the initial feedback from occupiers we have had has been very positive.”
Linthorpe Developments’ Central Point Business Centre, in Middlesbrough, recently reached full occupancy – a year after it was purchased – and has also invested £1million into the development of the Cleveland Business Centre, which is also located in Middlesbrough.
Mr Hogg, a regeneration entrepreneur who possesses more than 20 years’ experience in the property sector, has invested more than £20million across the North East in retail, office and residential schemes.
Geoff added: “The region’s commercial property sector is on the up and it is this increased sense of optimism which is giving me the confidence to invest in various development projects across the North East. I am hoping to create a thriving business centre in Peterlee as we have done in Middlesbrough.”