Opus Land and Arlington Property Investors are to more than double the size of their Opus 9 industrial scheme in Wednesbury, Birmingham.
The joint venture partners now plan to develop a 1m sq ft scheme, after buying a neighbouring site.
They have paid £2.5m for garden tool maker Spear & Jackson’s 8-acre manufacturing plant.
Opus managing director Richard Smith said the purchase would enable the jv to add a further 500,000 sq ft to its £45m, 25-acre Opus 9 scheme.
The Spear & Jackson site abuts the southern end of the project, where Opus is already speculatively developing around 450,000 sq ft of industrial and distribution space in four phases alongside a 100-bedroom budget hotel.
Smith said work on the extension would not start until its original scheme had progressed further.
“We’ll see how the first four phases go at Opus 9 and then we’ll concentrate our efforts on this latest site,” he said.
Opus is in talks with several potential occupiers for the 105,000 sq ft first phase of the scheme. Work on site has already commenced at Point 1 and is scheduled to be completed in the summer.
Joint letting agents King Sturge and DTZ are quoting £5.50 per sq ft, a new high for the Black Country.
Spear & Jackson will relocate from Birmingham to Sheffield.
References: EGi News 03/04/06
