Work has started on three buildings totalling 390,000 sq ft at Lancashire Business Park, which will replace the building destroyed in a fire in December 2011.
The first unit in the industrial and logistics scheme is due to be completed by August. There will be two 166,000 sq ft units which can be combined to create a 332,000 sq ft building plus a 50,000 sq ft unit.
There is also planning permission for a fourth unit of 60,000 sq ft.
Lambert Smith Hampton and Jones Lang LaSalle have been instructed in the marketing of the scheme by Lancashire County Council.
The scheme by Lancashire County Developments replaces a 450,000 sq ft building which was destroyed in the fire. Chairman Michael Welsh said: “The appointment of agents marks an important new stage in the reconstruction and upgrading of the Lancashire Business Park, following the catastrophic fire in December 2011… The construction has gone ahead at a rapid pace and the result is a most welcome and timely upgrade to Lancashire’s commercial infrastructure.”
Andrew Aherne, director of Lambert Smith Hampton, said: “There is a real shortage of available new/modern manufacturing and logistics buildings across virtually all size ranges in the key locations of the North West.”
“Over 5m sq ft of new speculatively built Big Box Logistics buildings, which were developed prior to the downturn, have now been taken up and there will shortly be no new buildings of 100,000 sq ft and above available in the North West as a whole.”
David Brooks, director of Jones Lang LaSalle said: “With the lack of funding for new speculative development remaining tight for the foreseeable future, we envisage that the problem being experienced with the shortage of supply buildings will become more acute. Lancashire Business Park is well serviced by the North West motorway network, lying within 1.5 miles of the intersection of the M6, M61 and M65 motorways.”
