DJ Property has agreed terms to acquire the former BT depot at 14 Cumberland Drive in the heart of Weymouth’s Granby Industrial Estate.
The former BT site has been vacant for over 5 years and is located adjacent to the former Universal Engineering site which was acquired by DJ Property in June 2017.
Mickey Jones, Chief Executive of DJ Property, said “I am delighted that, at last, after a very long negotiation period we have finally acquired the former BT site from Telereal Plc. The combined area of the former Universal Engineering site and the BT site is almost five acres which will provide a substantial development area in the very centre of the Granby Industrial Estate. The Granby Industrial Estate was first built in the 1960’s and much of its success can be credited to my late father, David Jones. Some of the original buildings now require redevelopment and this site will be a catalyst for improvement and redevelopment of a large part of the estate. Mr Jones went on to say “The future redevelopment of the Granby must also embrace supporting infrastructure uses, as is the case on most leading industrial estates across the UK. These uses include high quality but affordable gym facilities, serviced offices, a supermarket for essentials, restaurants and a no frills hotel. Without these supporting businesses, the Granby will not be fully sustainable as a modern place for business. The aim is to be able to live your working day and not have to use a car, but still having access to everything you might reasonably need.”
This former BT site is highly visible from the main road which runs through the centre of Granby Industrial Estate with a large frontage and extensive space for essential car parking. This site is now probably the most desirable on the Granby Industrial Estate, especially as Link Park is almost complete. Chickerell as a residential area is growing rapidly with new houses being created to the east and north of the town. Just recently CJ Fry were granted planning permission to build an additional 292 houses to the north of Chickerell and there will be many more to come in the future. New employment opportunities on the Granby Industrial Estate will be very welcome to the local growing population and will help to balance the residential development and create a sustainable town where cars are not essential.
The end use of this new development site on Cumberland Drive is yet to be decided, however, with approximately five acres of prime employment space located in the centre of a thriving industrial estate, the opportunities are vast.
DJ Property’s recent developments at Link Park are amongst the highest quality employment space available in South Dorset benefitting from reduced cost solar PV generated electricity and a whole host of other environmental and quality attributes. In addition, ALDI opened a Chickerell store at Link Park in September 2017, which has greatly increased footfall in the Link Park area and Granby Industrial Estate. Zone Fitness also opened a brand new state of the art fitness centre at the end of January 2018 which already has approximately 1,000 members. Both ALDI and Zone Fitness are perfect examples of the infrastructure required to support a modern industrial estate. The final commercial units at Link Park are now in the planning stage, bringing the total developed area to over 10 acres and creating hundreds of local jobs.
Anyone interested in finding out more about Granby Industrial Estate or commercial property in south Dorset should contact Mickey Jones via the website at www.djproperty.com