The Welsh Government has paid just over £12m for one of the country’s largest business parks as part of its campaign to attract inward investment. Its latest land deal comes just 48 hours after the authority spent £1.55m to acquire the site of a former Hotpoint washing machine factory.
Originally built for Sony in the mid-1990s as a television manufacturing facility, Pencoed Technology Park, near Bridgend, will add another 57 acres to the 60 acres of development land the Welsh authority already owns between the park and the M4 motorway.
Described by Welsh economy minister, Edwina Hart (above), as one of the best located sites in the convergence area of West Wales and the Valleys, “Its acquisition,” she added, “will allow us to exploit the benefit arising from our existing adjacent landholdings where major occupiers include Sony, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and BBI healthcare … Our intention is to build on the existing concentration of high quality life science and manufacturing companies and attract new business and new jobs to the area.”
Within hours of the £12.35m acquisition from US-based BlackRock Real Estate the pioneering stem cell therapy company, ReNeuron, conformed it had leased a site adjacent to the Pencoed Park as part of a £33m relocation scheme. The firm — the first to be granted permission to run clinical trials using neural stem cells— plans to move its existing staff from its base in Guildford and create up to a further 70 highly skilled jobs in Wales.
Design work is already under way for a state-of-the-art facility for ReNeuron which will include research and development laboratories, clean rooms designed for automated cell culture, and office accommodation. The facility will be almost three times the size of the company’s existing Guildford base.
A spokesman Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), which had advised the site’s American owners for a number of years, said the sale will also allow the Government to create closer working relationships with key employers at the site including Sony, Invacare and BBI Healthcare. “The park is a valuable asset with an impressive mix of innovative tenants who understand the modern industrial environment and make an extremely valuable contribution to the Welsh economy,” explained Justin Millett, head of investment at JLL’s Cardiff office.
“The property is a gateway to other Welsh Government ownerships and provides a number of asset management, refurbishment and redevelopment opportunities and we look forward to seeing the site and its occupiers continue to evolve,” he added.
Before taking control of Hotpoint’s former Denbighshire site the Welsh Government had actively encouraged a number of firms to relocate to the site. It has offered a Repayable Business Finance grant to help car components firm Reflex and Allen make the move, safeguarding 200 jobs, and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water has applied for permission for a depot and offices on the Kinmel Park Industrial Estate which would accommodate staff and contractors. “We need more high-tech jobs in this area and I hope that other companies will show as much confidence as Reflex and Allen by investing here,” said Vale of Clwyd assembly member Ann Jones.
