£50m park waiting for council go-ahead

Mar 5 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

A BUSINESS park costing at least £50m with space for 5,000 workers could get the go-ahead this week from Durham councillors.

Developer Mandale Group is aiming to redevelop the site of the former LG Philips Displays factory in Durham into the Mandale Park development which will eventually have 500,000sq ft of office space.

Albert Nugent, leader of Durham County Council, said: “I am particularly excited at the prospect of the Mandale Group turning what was a spectacular business failure with the loss of 750 jobs into an economic catalyst that will attract scores of businesses and thousands of workers to the area.”

Mandale has already been busy building the first phase of its scheme, with 50,000sq ft of space which has proven popular with occupiers.

Now Durham City Council is set to rule on whether phases two, three and four can go ahead, with Mandale aiming to build the remaining offices in just three years.

Mandale estates director Joe Darragh said: “The site represents a fantastic opportunity for Durham and the surrounding area as the only office development in the area offering businesses or organisations space on such a grand scale. At the moment, we have just got permission for phase one. We are nearly full on that, and we have had massive interest in phase two.

“We are now going for planning on the remainder of the site, phases two, three and four.

“I’m getting at least one or two phone calls a day from people wanting to be on the site, and it’s companies from the south, and from the Leeds area.

“So it’s going to create new jobs in the region, not just move them around Durham, or around the North East.”

Mr Darragh said the business park would cost between £50m and £100m to build, depending on what quality of accommodation occupiers demand.

He said: “The site is not too close to the city centre, but not too close to the A1 to be noisy - we believe it’s perfectly located.”

The office space at Mandale Park will be let at £11 per sq ft, which will substantially undercut the other out of town office schemes available in the North East, such as the nearby Rainton Bridge, Cobalt in North Tyneside, and Newcastle Great Park.

Mr Darragh said this was possible as Mandale does everything in-house.

“We build ourselves, run the site ourselves, and manage the buildings ourselves, so we keep the costs down.

“Other companies get builders to build their schemes, then other companies to let and manage them, so everybody is taking a bit off the top,” he said.