THE close of 2013 saw the announcement that Kier Property had been selected by West Northampton to Development Corporation as the preferred developer of a 20,000 sq m office development in Northampton’s Waterside Enterprise Z one, marking the end of what, by comparison to previous years, has been a particularly buoyant period in the Northampton office market. During 2013 Drake Commercial completed transactions on in excess of 40,000 sq ft square feet of offices which was a significant improvement on the previous year. Following on from the successful letting of Albert House to Northampton
THE close of 2013 saw the announcement that Kier Property had been selected by West Northampton to Development Corporation as the preferred developer of a 20,000 sq m office development in Northampton’s Waterside Enterprise Z one, marking the end of what, by comparison to previous years, has been a particularly buoyant period in the Northampton office market. During 2013 Drake Commercial completed transactions on in excess of 40,000 sq ft square feet of offices which was a significant improvement on the previous year. Following on from the successful letting of Albert House to Northampton Chronicle & Echo earlier in the summer, we then completed the letting of Elgin House to Hewitsons Solicitors. This detached building of just over 13,000 sq ft was fully refurbished to provide a particularly high level of accommodation with air conditioning throughout and onsite car parking. The take up of office accommodation in Northampton during 2012 has been such that there are now very few opportunities available for occupiers looking for good quality buildings between 5,000 to 10,000 sq ft. Even other areas of the county that are perhaps not traditionally regarded as strong office locations have been active. In Daventry , the last quarter of 2013 saw transactions completed on three buildings each of 1,500 sq ft on Heartlands Business Park Daventry. On the same estate, Genoa House, a detached high quality office building of just in excess of 6,000 sq ft was placed under offer on a freehold basis in December. Northampton and the wider county has to date somewhat lived in the shadow of Milton Keynes and Leicester as being an established regional office location. There is some way to go yet but the recent announcement of the Enterprise Zone development and the £20m redevelopment of Northampton’s railway station at least helps us to start re-positioning Northampton as a credible alternative. For further information, please contact: Nicholas Roberts, Partner, Drake Commercial. Telephone Number 01604 620616.