Leading regional developer Wykeland Group has continued to forge ahead with major investments during the lockdown.
The Hull-hased company has secured new planning approvals, driven forward key regeneration projects and completed purchases that open up new opportunities, in the past few weeks.
It has recently gained planning consent for new business space totalling more than 230,000 sq ft at its growing Melton West Business Park in East Yorkshire.
The approvals from the local authority give the go-ahead to the development of a 107,000 sq ft operational support building to accommodate more than 500 Humberside Police staff, a speculative 84,000 sq ft industrial development and a 40,000 sq ft office, distribution and warehouse centre for an unidentified end user.
Hull-based Wykeland has also submitted plans to the council for an 88,000 sq ft distribution centre there for an unnamed occupier, which would create around 450 jobs.
Amazon has been rumoured to be one potential tenant, with a focus on last mile delivery operations by the online giant being rolled out.
The location already has more than 800,000 sq ft of manufacturing, warehouse and office space occupied, with leading companies on site including Kohler Mira, Heron Foods, Needlers and Allam Marine.
Wykeland managing director Dominic Gibbons said: “Our recent activity demonstrates our continuing commitment to investing in major projects of strategic importance to the region’s economy.
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“We have always taken a long-term market view and that has not been affected by the recent economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We remain confident about the economy in Yorkshire and the Humber as we focus on existing and new growth opportunities. The projects we are currently delivering and those in the pipeline will make an important contribution to the region’s growth post Covid-19.”
The firm has £50 million of development currently under construction.
These include the largest single investment yet as part of the £80 million regeneration of Hull’s Fruit Market urban village – a 58,500 sq ft head office for Arco, the 海角视频’s leading safety company, together with a 350-space multi-storey car park, for Arco’s use as well as for wider Fruit Market occupiers and visitors.
It is being driven forward by the Wykeland Beal joint venture formed by Wykeland and housebuilder Beal Homes, working in partnership with Hull City Council.
Just yards away from the Arco construction site, another Wykeland development is also well advanced – a 20,000 sq ft sister building for the Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI), which is the centrepiece of Wykeland’s @TheDock tech campus.
Across the river, and construction is nearing completion on two new speculative buildings on Europarc, Grimsby’s flagship business park. Suitable for manufacturing or warehouse use, they total 45,000 sq ft.
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Just outside of the Humber, and strong progress is being made on the £17 million Treadmills redevelopment of the former Northallerton Prison site in North Yorkshire. With new stores for Lidl and Iceland due to open this summer, the scheme has now entered its second phase, which will see the listed former prison blocks transformed into offices and shared-working facilities for start-up and scale-up digital businesses forming the C4DI Northallerton community, as well as cafés and restaurants.
Mr Gibbons said construction activity resumed on all developments within five weeks of the start of the lockdown, “following the introduction of extensive safety measures in response to the Covid-19 emergency”.
As reported, Wykeland has also been active on the acquisition front during lockdown, sealing the purchase of Hull’s former Marks and Spencer store and another neighbouring property on Whitefriargate.