A new, speculative business park is to be opened in 2011 on an 18 acre site in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

A newly formed 50:50 joint venture between Centric Property Group and Barnfield Construction has purchased the site from previous owners Fortis Bank in a land deal worth £2.44m that was concluded in August. The development is to be called the Crown Business Park and is to be undertaken in multiple phases.

As the empty land already had approved planning permission, construction work has already started on the first phase which will see 20,000 sq ft of office space and 30,000 sq ft of industrial space completed by next summer. Expected development costs for phase one are expected to reach £6.2m. The project is being part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) who provided £3.2m for ground works on the 7.3 hectare brownfield site. The completion of subsequent phases will make available a total 90,000 sq ft of office space and 170,000 sq ft of industrial space.

Crown Business Park is located near to J20 of the M62, offering easy access to the national motorway network. The scheme is not the only mixed-use business park in the region however. Kingsway Business Park by J21/M62 in Rochdale is a much larger scheme, covering some 420 acres and offering 300,000 sq ft of office floor space, though much of the office space is already let.

David Malpass, Director of European Programme for the regional development agency involved commented: “Crown Business Park will provide much-needed quality buildings to the Rochdale market. It has the opportunity to attract SME companies to the local area, in particular those in the financial and business services sector, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.”

Barnfield Construction, partners in the scheme, are no strangers to the speculative office market having been involved in over 150 office developments across the UK. Property developer Tim Heatley founded Centric Property Group in 2009 after spending 8 years at office fit-out group Modus. This new joint venture aims to developed further business parks within the north west.

Rental prices and agents for the scheme are yet to be announced.