Work to begin on ‘zero energy business park’
A tender brief is due to be published in the summer for a contractor to build the £2.7m Swan Lane Industrial Estate designed by JDA Architects in Hindley Green, Wigan.
The sustainable development led by Armstrong Properties has been partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund, which provided a £1.3m grant.
The appointed building contractor is expected to be on site by the end of this year with the 22,500 sq ft park in nine units.
The scheme is designed such that tenants will not pay any gas, electricity or water costs due to the use of 12 low and zero carbon technologies.
These are:
- Wind turbine
- Solar hot water
- Solar photovoltaic
- Rainwater harvesting
- Innovative cladding heating
- Innovative cladding cooling
- Low energy high bay lighting
- Low energy external lighting
- Car charging points
- Voltage optimisation
- Increased U-values/fabric
- Air source heat pump
Rob Henderson, director of Denton-based JDA Architects, recently named Green Business of the Year 2011 by Tameside Council, said: "Ultimately, green design and technologies need to be viable but by offering tangible benefits to tenants developers such as Armstong Properties believe they can stay one step ahead of their competitors."
Dave Armstrong, managing director of Armstrong Properties, based in Prestwich, said: "This truly exemplar scheme will raise the bar in terms of sustainability for property development and create an amazing opportunity for occupiers to slash running costs for their businesses. The development will provide valuable working space to create jobs and assist businesses to meet current and future environmental legislation.
"In addition to helping Wigan businesses we look forward to assisting companies throughout the North West when our demonstration centre opens in one of the units. This development will help others re-think how property is developed, it also helps future proof our investment against forthcoming environmental legislation and should ensure we have the units let."
The project is designed to BREEAM 'outstanding' industrial building standard. The design team consists of JDA Architects, WCP Quantity Surveyors and Veridian M&E.
David Malpass, head of the North West ERDF programme, said: "ERDF aims to support green technologies in the region and Swan Lane will be a shining example of best practice using the very latest in these technologies.
"The demonstration centre will be a fantastic tool to support regional businesses to create innovative new products for a market with huge potential, and the whole site will encourage businesses to adopt energy efficiency measures themselves.
"The project shows that in times of economic constraint, green technologies can not only help to reduce carbon emissions in the north west, but can save businesses a great deal of money."
