Council Grant kick-starts Highbridge’s Indigo Park

Posted on 9 March, 2015 by Cliff Goodwin

A North-East council has pledged more than £4m to help prepare an 82-acres site for one of the region’s biggest industrial estates.

Council-Grant-kick-starts-Highbridges-Indigo-Park

Highbridge Properties — the owners of Newcastle’s Cobalt Park, the UK’s largest office park — last year signed a collaboration agreement with North Tyneside Council to create Indigo Park, at Sandy Lane, close to the A1 at Gosforth Park.

The developer claims its new scheme will accommodate in excess of 1.5-million sq ft of manufacturing and distribution space in an area north of Newcastle and previously un-served by a logistics hub of any size. When fully let Indigo Park would be worth around £100m and provide work for more than 1,000 people.

North Tyneside Council is now set to spend £4.32m over the next two years building a second entrance to the site, a new traffic control system at Sandy Lane, widening the existing road leading to the park and making additional nearby road and boundary improvements.

Highbridge says Indigo Park has the potential for 10 large units, ranging from 41,900 to 509,900 sq ft. “But,” adds director Adrian Hill, “there is potential to build bespoke units up to 1.5-million sq ft, paving the way for a major investor to take on the entire site.”

Hill said the scheme would be demand led. “We are talking to three parties and who knows if they will go ahead, but if they do they will take up a significant chunk of the site.

“We are delighted the scheme is moving forward. Existing stock and existing buildings of this scale are disappearing across the region and we to be building to exact requirements,” he added. “One of the great things about Indigo is that it’s ready to go. We can build immediately — and far quicker than anyone else.”

The scheme is already being heavily marketed to potential tenants through property consultants ES Group and commercial agents at Knight Frank. Both confirm they are talking to a number of potential tenants.

Neil Osborne is an ES Group director at its Newcastle office. “It’s fair to say that we have had enquiries from manufacturing companies, distributions companies and others across a whole range of businesses who have been struggling to find accommodation because there is a dearth of large sheds in the area,” he commented.

Highbridge Properties was formed in 1988 as a business park developer. Since then the London-headquartered specialist has completed a raft of schemes in the North-East including Newcastle Business Park and industrial estates at Peterlee and Sunderland.

Its 250-acre flagship development, Cobalt Park, is the UK’s largest office park encompassing more than two-million sq ft of offices and amenity development employing 10,500 people.  Occupiers include Santander, Orange, Hewlett Packard, Proctor & Gamble, Newcastle Business Society and North Tyneside Council.




Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


Recent Posts

Interest Rates Impact on Commercial Property

Commercial Property Investment Outlook for 2023

The best places to stay on the Riviera

The latest property data has identified Newquay as the fastest property seller’s market in the UK

Investing in your garden can increase your property’s value

French Riviera temping high-end homebuyers

How can the ownership rights of my commercial property impact a business sale?

Should I incorporate virtual property viewings permanently?

Investment expected to increase across Asia-Pacific in 2021

UK property industry slows as the conclusion of tax break looms

BNP Paribas cautioned investors on Friday as debt-trading bonanza that increased its earnings this past year

Over 300,000 property purchases fell through in 2020 – we show the most frequent motives and the best way to get your house sale back on track

House Prices in the Capital Surpass £500,000

Optimism from the Bank of England’s chief economist

The most expensive commercial properties.

Businesses operating from shared premises will miss out on grants