A North-East business cooperative is pressing ahead with its plan to extend its “do-it-yourself” industrial and retail park after receiving planning permission from Durham county planners.
The Createcity Group — whose members own and operate several regional flooring companies including Frank’s Factory Flooring, Maguires Carpets and Cloverdale Carpets — paid £2m in 2003 for the former George Reynolds Industrial Estate at Shildon.
Since then several group companies have taken over the 100,000s q ft of existing warehouse space on the rebranded Future Business Park to store almost 20,000 rolls of floor covering and enlarge their wholesale and retail operations. The partnership has also spent £5m preparing and upgrading the 26-acre brownfield site.
Now the group has committed another £4m to build four multi-purpose industrial units, offering 40,000 sq ft of space when completed this autumn. “This is the start of an exciting new phase in the life of the Future Business Park,” commented David Stubbs, of The CreateCity Group.
“We are committed to investment in Shildon and we are dedicated to this important site,” he added. “We are grateful for the support, not only of Durham County Council and Business Durham, but also local politicians and partners including the North East Chamber of Commerce.” The latest development will extend the park to about 500,000 sq ft of warehousing, office and retail space.
When the group acquired the site 12 years ago it said it wanted to add another 260,000s q ft of facilities to those abandoned when the George Reynolds estate closed. At the time David Jackson, a director with selling agent Sanderson, Townend & Gilbert, described the transaction as an “inspiring” new development for the region’s commercial property sector.
“Createcity has demonstrated real belief, quality and passion in the involvement in this important venture by investing substantial sums to bring first class facilities back to life,” he said.
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