A controversial £140m shopping and leisure development — sold earlier this year to The Crown Estate — will breath new economic life into East Northamptonshire, an expert has claimed.
The Rushden Lakes scheme was approved by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in April and within weeks the owners of the Skew Bridge site LXB Retail Properties was lining up the sale to the public body.
“Under the terms of the forward funding arrangement, The Crown Estate will purchase the whole of the Rushden Lakes investment, once pre-completion conditions are satisfied and then fund all the future development costs,” explained Samantha Jones, an associate surveyor at commercial agents Prop-Search. “LXB will remain on-board to oversee the development and pre-letting.”
Planning consent has already been granted for around 350,000 sq ft of ground floor space with pre-lets reportedly in place with M&S, H&M and Costa. It has also been announced that terms have been agreed with another major anchor retailer for a pre-let 32,000 sq ft store.
Rushden Lakes will be developed in three principal phases. The first is a triple-terrace shopping park including retail and restaurant units, a visitor centre and a boathouse. It will offer 230,000 sq ft of ground floor space. Designs are also being worked up for two further phases, enhancing the initial phase shops offer with high quality retail and associated leisure uses.
Constructing is expected to get underway late this year or early in 2016, with the first phase slated for completion in the winter of next year.
Just along the A45, plans had been submitted for the demolition and redevelopment of Rushden & Diamonds former home at Nene Park. The original scheme was for the creation of a leisure park — including a cinema, shops, restaurants, hotel and multi-use football pitch — but site owner, Conalgen Enterprises SA, has now withdrawn the application. It has so far given no indication of its new vision for the brownfield land.
Development at Warth Park on the edge of the market town of Raunds has steadily continued over the past couple of years — now home to major occupiers including AirWair, GeoPost, Robert Wiseman Dairies and Indesit.
Construction is currently underway on a new 400,000 sq ft warehouse facility for the Danish-owned transport company DSV to complement its existing 108,000 sq ft operation in Thrapston. The new unit, to be operational by the end of the year, will feature 40 docks and eight level access doors. The bespoke logistics provider will employ more than 200 people at its new base, 40 of which will be newly created jobs.
A planning application has also recently been submitted for the speculative development of 102,600 sq ft of distribution warehousing at Thrapston.
Developer Hampton Brook intends to build a single warehouse unit, next to the Paperchase depot on Huntingdon Roadwhich, that will provide multi-storey office accommodation of 4,950 sq ft, eight docks and two level access loading doors and hardstanding for around 23 lorries. Subject to planning consent, construction will start later this year.
And having withdrawn its planning application for the development of a 2.67m sq ft facility on land adjacent to Junction 15 of the M1 motorway in Northampton, Howdens Joinery, the UK’s largest kitchen supplier, has announced that it now look to lease an additional warehouse at Warth Park. East Northamptonshire Council has since received an application to vary the original outline consent for the site.
“With all these new developments will come job creation,” adds Jones, “Combined they are likely to change the whole face of employment in East Northamptonshire and, with so much going on, the area is buzzing with excitement.”
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