Funding lined up for four industrial schemes

Liverpool City Region is to provide nearly £4m towards industrial projects in Aintree, St Helens, Wirral, and Knowsley, including grants for developers Redsun and Network Space.

The funding totals £3.8m and will go towards Network Space’s Brookfield Park in Aintree; Northern Trust’s Gerard’s Park in St Helens; Seybourne Estates’ Image Business Park in Knowsley; and Redsun’s Magazine Point in Bromborough.

Network Space is set to secure the largest grant of the four schemes with a £1.1m pot set to be won to support the second phase of its industrial scheme in Aintree.

This will include 76,750 sq ft of industrial workshops on the Aintree Industrial Estate, delivered across two terraces and three standalone units. The first phase of Brookfield Park was delivered in 2008 and includes 57,000 sq ft of employment space across 13 units.

Northern Trust is also in line for a seven-figure grant, with £1m to be secured at Gerard’s Park. This is also for a second phase, with the company looking to deliver 35,605 sq ft over 20 units in three blocks at the site to the north of St Helens town centre.

Seybourne Estates is set for £861,000 to support the demolition of buildings at Knowsley Industrial Park; this is to be followed by a development of 65,000 sq ft of industrial space. The grant will also support the creation of a future three-acre development site.

In Bromborough, Redsun is set to receive £767,000 for Magazine Point, where it is looking to build 55,000 sq ft over two units; one is subdivided into three smaller workshop units but could potentially be marketed as a single unit depending on market demand.

All four schemes are set to secure the grant from the City Region’s Single Investment Fund.

A fifth project, CRT Property Investments’ 45,000 sq ft Sutton Fold, was also put forward for funding. However, the City Region said the project was “high risk” given “no site investigations have been undertaken, cost information is limited, site acquisition [is] pending and a planning application has not been submitted”.

As a result, the developer has been given until 31 May 2020 to prove the project’s deliverability before funding can be secured.

The funding is set to be signed off by the Combined Authority at a meeting on 1 November.