Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 35 | Page 13

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 13
Hitachi
developers
plan new
‘Station Park’
T
he developers who brought Hitachi Rail
Europe to Newton Aycliffe are back
with another exciting new large-scale
development.
Merchant Anglo, the company behind
Merchant Park, home to Hitachi’s £82m
factory which opened three years ago, is now
planning to build new smaller scale flexible
units near to the rail manufacturing facility.
The new Station Place development
will build on the solid elements that made
Merchant Park perfect for Hitachi Rail –
namely excellent transport links for rail, road,
sea and air, and a developer committed to
providing fit-for-purpose flexible space.
Station Place aims to build on that strong
base and provide much needed high quality
industrial units from 5,000 sq ft.
Geoff Hunton, from Merchant Anglo, who
was credited with playing a major part in
persuading Hitachi to choose Aycliffe other
several other UK options, told Aycliffe Today:
“We’re looking to take the development of
Merchant Park forward with the next phase
of our development, and building new units
for the future.
“It’s been a long time coming. It took
us quite a while to bring Hitachi here, but
we did it once and we believe we’ve been
successful in bringing a large number of jobs
to the area, not just direct with Hitachi but
also through the supply chain.
“Economic development in the UK as
a whole is moving away from large-scale
developments such as Hitachi, but we see a
demand in Newton Aycliffe for 5-10,000 sq
ft units.
“We want to provide state-of-the-art
new facilities for existing businesses in and
around Aycliffe to expand to.”
National firm of chartered surveyors
Sanderson Weatherall has been appointed
alongside joint agents CBRE to market the
units.
Chris Dent, head of industrial agency for
the North East at Sanderson Weatherall, said:
“Station Place represents a new chapter in
the evolution of industrial space in Newton
Aycliffe, which we are excited to be a part of.”
“We recently presented the Station Place
plans local businesses, funders and local
authorities representatives. The very positive
response we received confirmed our theory
that there is demand for smaller flexible high
quality industrial units. Station Place will tick
the boxes for that market that currently isn’t
being catered for.”
Designed by Ryder Architectu re, it’s hoped
Station Place will be ready for occupation by
Summer/Autumn 2019.