OVERVIEW OF DERBYSHIRE COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MARKET
BY RUSSELL RIGBY, DIRECTOR OF RIGBY & CO
At present, occupier demand and investor activity appears strong across all the key property sectors throughout Derby and Derbyshire.
Within Derby, construction work is to start shortly on a number of new city centre headquarter office buildings. Buildings on Cathedral Row and Full Street respectively provide up to 200,00 ft2 of Grade A space. Although the city centre is effectively a ‘virgin’ market, it is already apparent that there are a number of occupiers with office requirements who are keen to consider an alternative to the phenomenally successful Pride Park.
Serviced industrial land remains in short supply. New developments on Victory Road and specifically at Raynesway (Cedar House Investments’ Axion Business Park) are attracting deals for a range of local and regional businesses. In the case of Axion, it is likely that that 10 acre development site will be committed sooner rather than later. Goodmans Development at Raynesway, together with the rapidly accelerating plans for Chellaston Business Park, at last give Derby two high quality sites with real sub-regional appeal.
A number of key employment projects in Derbyshire are also moving ahead, ranging from the regeneration of the former Dema Glass site in Chesterfield and Barlborough links to the north, right down to a number of key sites within South Derbyshire. Sladen Estates/Peveril Securities Tetron Point at Swadlincote remains popular. The same developer is now also on site at Denby Hall to the north of Derby taking on a challenging project in an as yet unproven location. Early signs though in that latter project are encouraging – testimony to the developer’s knack of being where others sometimes fear to tread.
I understand that for the recent call for sites initiated by emda as part of their high quality floor space initiative, Derbyshire has submitted more sites than any other county in the East Midlands.
This is a very encouraging sign and shows the strong willingness to turn allocated employment sites in Derbyshire from ideas into real opportunities.
The only slight black cloud on the horizon for the county is the start of the three year road widening scheme to the M1 through Junctions 25 – 28. Mayhem and regular bouts of road rage are bound to follow and the extra congestion will impact further on the county’s competitiveness, albeit in the short term.
