Shake-up at top of Birchwood Park

Two of the senior management team at Birchwood Park in Warrington, commercial director Andrew Cowell and senior leasing manager Chris Reay, are expected to leave in the New Year.

Alongside the departures, Birchwood Park managing director Jonathan Walsh has been promoted to UK head of business park portfolio asset management at Patrizia. Walsh will continue to act as managing director until a replacement is appointed.

Walsh confirmed that Cowell and Reay were leaving the company and said: "We are actively recruiting for a new managing director and deputy."

Reay is expected to join developer Allied London as a leasing manager in its Spinningfields office in Manchester. Reay was appointed to Birchwood Park in August 2013 from Canning O'Neill, and was previously an asset manager at Bruntwood.

Cowell joined Birchwood Park in March 2013 from a role as head of sales at Bruntwood. It is unclear at this stage where he will be moving to.

The 1.2m sq ft Birchwood Park was sold by MEPC to a joint venture between Oaktree Capital Management and Patrizia Immobilien in August this year. The management team transferred from MEPC to Patrizia.

Speaking to Place North West in October, Walsh said that it was "business as usual" at the park and there would be no changes to the management structure.

Reay and Cowell declined to comment.

JLL and BE Group are joint agents for the offices at Birchwood Park, while B8 Real Estate represents the industrial space.