Speculative unit sold at Burnley Bridge

Independent music retailer Townsend Music has bought a 10,000 sq ft unit developed speculatively by Eshton on Burnley Bridge Business Park for a new distribution hub.

Townsend Music is currently fitting out the BREEAM 'very good' block Business Park, completed recently by Stainforth Construction. The owner-occupier will relocate from its existing premises at Great Harwood.

The new base was acquired on a long leasehold of 999 years off a quoting price of £75/sq ft. The quoting leasehold price is £5.75/sq ft.

Eshton's scheme at Junction 9 of the M65 was officially opened by Vince Cable in February 2014 and 97,600 sq ft is already occupied or under offer. The remainder of the £50m park, aside from the remaining two units at Magnesium Court, of 3,000 sq ft and 6,500 sq ft, will be designed and built to occupier requirements.

Steve Bamber, managing director at Townsend Music, said: "Having seen a near doubling in the size of our global online operations over the last 12 months, we have out grown our current premises and needed a new larger distribution centre. We had a number of requirements in order to sustain our ongoing expansion plans which included location, good transport links, size, build quality and layout. The new development at Burnley Bridge was ideally suited in all these areas and we are looking forward to the move and the ongoing development of the site by Eshton into a flagship business park for the North West."

Jonathan Chapman, director of Eshton, added: "We're delighted with the amount of interest we have received on the site and to have so much space taken or under offer less than nine months after the park launched is very promising.

"This latest signing demonstrates there is strong demand for high quality industrial and warehousing space with good links to the national motorway network and we hope to make further announcements in the coming weeks."

Construction of the first phase at Burnley Bridge Business Park used £3.85m in European Regional Development Funding. Once complete, the business park will provide warehousing/industrial accommodation totalling over 680,000 sq ft.

Burnley Bridge Business Park is jointly marketed by Trevor Dawson and Dove Haigh Phillips. Townsend Music acted for themselves.