Backing Birchwood

Cantt Pak has added to its holdings in Birchwood Park, Warrington by buying Washington House and Allday House advised by Pin Property Consultancy, whose MD, Nasira Majid, won Woman in Property and Outstanding Business Woman of the Year awards at the first North West & Isle of Man Women in Business Awards.

The two buildings total 9,755 sq.metres (105,000 sq.ft.) with Washington House occupied by URS, an engineering consultancy, while Allday House is empty. Imran Younus of Pin said: “We will soon announce details of the refurbishment programme that will totally transform Allday House. We have already had interest from potential occupiers.” DTZ acted on the acquisition. Also in Warrington, Allen & Appleyard has taken the 1,505 sq.metres (16,196 sq.ft.) Unit 3, Taurus Park, Europa Boulevard.

Muse in Warrington

A 37 acre site in Cheshire is to be redeveloped by Waters Corporation, a scientific group, for its 500 employees with completion due in 2013.

The new headquarters at Wilmslow will be 20,299 sq.metres (218,500 sq.ft.) and will have offices, laboratories, a gym and staff restaurant. At the heart of the facility will be a mass spectrometry facility used to identify chemical components in complex structures.

Another major scheme in Cheshire is Muse Developments’ plans as a partner of Warrington Council in a £130 million regeneration of the Bridge Street area. It could have 65,030 sq.metres (700,000 sq.ft.) of mixed use space with the first phase an indoor market, shops and leisure. Later phases will bring a new council headquarters and offices.

Warrington remains a prime location for industrial property, as exemplified by two major deals by IM Properties for 6,503 sq.metres (70,000 sq.ft.) at Calver Quay. The largest of these was 4,135 sq.metres (44,500 sq.ft.) to Topgrade Sportswear, which already has a warehouse at Birchwood. Daniel Burn of Jones Lang LaSalle (joint agent with CBRE) said: “Warrington has seen considerable take up over the past few months and there is now a real shortage of quality industrial/warehouse space available.”