The North West’s largest sustainable industrial development opportunity is being launched to the market in January by Russells, following completion of a new motorway link road to service the site.
HPARK is a new 120-acre distribution and industrial park in Heywood providing up to 1.45 million sq ft of floor space across six prime Grade A units ranging in size from 39,000 sq ft to 688,000 sq ft, with the potential to create more than 2,400 new jobs.
The site has an outline planning consent for B2/B8 use, offering clear heights of up to 18m and overall building heights of 23m, and has the potential to provide an operator with up to 1 million sq ft of Grade A distribution space, subject to a further planning approval. The largest unit H-688, a 688,000 sq ft B8 distribution building, has full detailed planning approval and is ready for construction to begin as soon as an operator is signed.
Russells has made a number of sustainability commitments for HPARK to support operators’ carbon reduction ambitions including Net Zero in Construction, BREEAM Excellent, EPC A, roof-mounted photovoltaic panels, and electric vehicle chargers.
Employee wellbeing is also high on the agenda. The site will include high quality landscaping and benefit from a range of amenities including an all-weather multi-use games area, three grass pitches, green corridors for walking and cycling, and outdoor recreational seating areas, cycle lanes and a new bus stop to encourage green travel options for workers.
HPARK is being brought forward by north west property and construction group Russells. The group’s development arm, Russell LDP (Land, Development and Property), is managing delivery of the scheme, which will be built by award-winning regional main contractor Russell WBHO.
HPARK provides a new opportunity in the current market for operators looking to specify a bespoke facility to their exact requirements. The availability of the highly sustainable H-688 unit in particular is unique in the region – where there is a current lack of large-scale distribution space under construction –will be an attractive prospect for operators.
The location is already acknowledged as one of the best in the region for East to West connectivity, as demonstrated by household names located within the wider South Heywood logistics hub. The newly opened motorway link road makes the area even more attractive by reducing journey times thereby cutting fuel costs and carbon emissions.
Andrew Russell, Joint Managing Director
Just nine miles from Manchester city centre, HPARK is located directly off the recently opened A6184 link road in Heywood which will cut return journeys to the motorway network by 17km, immediately saving upwards of 267,000 road hours a year and significantly reduce carbon emissions.
A prime logistics location, the area off Pilsworth Road is already home to major brands such as Argos, Kuhne & Nagel, Fowler Welch, Aramex, Martin Brower, and Lineage Logistics.
The site offers full flexibility of size, specification and site location, presenting a truly bespoke opportunity for operators. Russells is offering units on a leasehold basis, each will be bespoke design and build.
All units will be built to the Russell CORE Specification as standard, an industry-leading ‘fabric first’ approach to improving build quality and operational efficiency. This includes increased insulation depths, improved air tightness, 50kN minimum floor loadings, 100% photovoltaic-ready roof areas, air source heat pumps and high-quality CAT A office fit out.
CBRE and Colliers have been appointed joint agents.
The North West has seen record take-up over the past two years and HPARK has come at the right time to supply much-needed space to support local, national and global operators in the region.
While there have been a number of major transactions in 2022, across the North West the supply of Grade A space over 100,000 sq ft stands at 1.7m sq ft, circa six months average supply, but 23% is under offer. And of the five biggest spec builds currently under construction, 30% is under offer, making HPARK a genuinely exciting prospect in this market.
Paul Cook, CBRE Senior Director industrial and logistics North West
The opening of the new link road is a gamechanger for Heywood and makes HPARK one of the best connected sites in the region. The location is within two hours’ drive of almost 30% of the UK population, in an area world-renowned for logistics with a skilled and available workforce, and will accommodate all types of distribution requirements. Providing operators with a highly sustainable building and the chance to design it to their own specification makes HPARK an exceptional opportunity for operators of all sizes within this sector.
John Sullivan, Colliers’ Director of industrial and logistics
