THE developers of Wynyard Park on Teesside are investing £12.5m in more than 100,000sq ft of new office and industrial space. Wynyard Park Ltd, jointly owned by Helios in London, Kilmartin from Edinburgh and local developer Chris Musgrave, is building a 46,000sq ft office building and 64,000sq ft of industrial space, on the 700-acre site on a speculative basis. The units will be available either to buy or rent, and while the stated aim is to provide premium quality offices to match the upmarket housing in the area, Wynyard Park’s development arm, Strategic Sites, is offering space at just £13 per sq ft. Building work on the projects is scheduled to start in the summer with the office space promoted as the first phase of the 120,000sq ft Wynyard Park Business Village. The industrial units are being constructed on another part of the site and will be available so that they can be customised to suit specific company requirements. Paul Barber, managing director of Strategic Sites, said that there has already been interest in the new schemes with 20,000sq ft of the Wynyard Park Business Village office space already sold to a financial services company. He said: “We are experiencing a healthy demand for both office and industrial space on the site. The design of the new offices features a traditional brick construction, which is attracting attention, and the industrial shell units can be fitted with offices to suit a particular company’s needs. Our aim is to provide business property at Wynyard to suit all types of businesses.” The Wynyard Park development came together through Mr Musgrave acquiring both the 200 acres of the former Samsung factory site, and the 500 acres previously owned by Sir John Hall. Mr Barber said: “This must be the biggest business park development in the north of England. It will take a minimum of 10 years to develop it out. “With the housing at Wynyard village, that is a premium product, and the idea is to create a little bit of a premium product on the business side, too. We have planned it to be fairly low density, and with a high level of security. We hope to be able to attract non-Teesside companies into the area.” So far at Wynyard Park, the three buildings built by Sanyo have been re-let, Helios has built a 300,000sq ft distribution depot, and Wynyard Park has built a total of 60,000sq ft of office space, known as Evolution. Office space at Wynyard Park is available to buy at £160 per sq ft, or to rent at £13 per sq ft. Mr Barber said: “If anything, the space is ‘priced to go’, as it’s available at a slight discount to prices in the centre of Stockton. We want to get some early deals through. “In more established locations, you will pay £14 or £15 per sq ft, so we are a slight discount on that. “We always give the choice of buying or renting, and with interest rates creeping up, buying is proving quite interesting.” Meanwhile, the industrial units at Wynyard Park will be available to buy at £85 per sq ft or to let at £7 per sq ft. Chris Musgrave, chief executive of Wynyard Park, said he had been encouraged by the popularity of Evolution. He said: “The new schemes will give us even more to offer and underline once again the high quality of what we are creating at Wynyard Park.” | 
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