Work has started on a new business park on the site of Nottingham’s old Imperial Tobacco factory.
Henry Boot’s property development arm HBD has secured almost £54 million from Oxenwood Real Estate towards the 426,000 sq ft logistics development on the 28-acre site.
In all, seven speculative units ranging from 30,000 sq ft to 145,000 sq ft are being built, with potential to create up to 1,000 jobs. Work on what has been called 'Power Park' should be completed next year.
Imperial Tobacco opened its Horizon factory the site in the early 1970s. At its peak it employed more than 7,000 people and produced billions of cigarettes a year.
The building, off Clifton Boulevard in the west of the city, won a Financial Times award for industrial architecture in 1973. It closed in 2016, and the site was sold to Henry Boot Developments (HBD) in 2017. The factory was demolished in 2019.
HBD director and regional head Justin Sheldon said: “It’s fantastic to see Power Park beginning to take shape – it is a high-quality, sustainable development that will attract new business and investment into the city and could create as many as 1,000 new jobs at Thane Road.”
Oxenwood co-founder Jeremy Bishop said: “Power Park is a very well located logistics development and we are delighted that construction has now commenced – the unit sizes and specification are designed to address the strong supply-demand dynamics in the Nottingham area.”
East Midlands Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles said: “After years of uncertainty and speculation over the future of a site that carries huge significance to lots of people in Nottingham and the surrounding area, it’s great to see the first spades in the ground at Power Park.
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“For many years, Imperial Tobacco was a major name on the city’s business landscape and it’s been sad to see the land in Thane Road sit unused.
“It’s a fantastically located site, sandwiched between the Boots factory and a relatively new Aston Martin showroom, so it has some great potential to become another strategic hub of economic activity if these plans come to fruition.
“At a time when Nottingham and the wider East Midlands is building a reputation as a centre of making, moving and innovating, these new industrial units will undoubtedly be attractive to a variety of businesses, both inside and outside the city.
“This is another significant vote of confidence in our region’s economy, and the jobs they will bring to Nottingham will be important for communities in the local area, much as the old Imperial Tobacco site once was.”
City council leader Coun David Mellen said: “We’re really pleased to see work get underway to develop this strategically-located site with strong links to Nottingham’s industrial past.
“With the prospect of a thousand jobs, it is set to play a big role in the city’s economic future.
“The high environmental standards for this development are particularly welcome, as we aim for carbon neutrality as a city.”
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