Celebrating #BrilliantBurnley

I can’t imagine that anybody who attended the recent #BrilliantBurnley Lancashire Hotspots event left with anything but a positive impression.

By Brent Forbes, partner at Petty Commercial Property.

The event’s venue was the recently opened Prairie Sports Village - a £2.5m development with a golf driving range and shop, a football academy complex, plus bistro and bar.

The Prairie is the latest example of Burnley’s great progress that I’ve seen in recent years and another milestone on a journey which has seen over £500m inward investment in the town!

Investment was a factor that enabled Burnley to become the UK’s most enterprising place in 2013/14. But investment is only one aspect of the town’s increasing attraction to relocating businesses.

Like all of east Lancashire, Burnley enjoys a central UK location and has excellent connectivity via the motorway network and direct rail links to Manchester, Leeds and Preston - I dealt with a business recently that relocated from Cornwall – with road and rail accessibility having been key considerations.

Burnley’s offer is also enhanced by the amenable, pro-active, business focussed local authority; a skilled workforce; and available, affordable space for industrial, commercial or retail businesses. Whereas, generally there has been a shortage of industrial premises, hence a substantial take up of existing properties. There is also new build becoming available at Burnley Bridge Business Park, which when completed could offer a million sq ft of industrial/warehousing space, with rents at £5.50per sq ft.

That said, not every business requires such high spec facilities - nor do they necessarily want to pay that level of rent, so we still have a large unsatisfied market for good secondary industrial accommodation.

One of our clients, Pickup Systems Ltd. is a business that provides specialist vehicles to Mountain Rescue, EoN and the Fire Service.

They recently relocated from Rossendale to the Empire Business Park on Liverpool Road, Burnley. We provided a design and build opportunity tailored specifically for their business use. They liked the location and image of the development, plus they’ve been able to recruit skilled labour and apprentices.

It’s been so successful that they are now expanding further on the estate. We’re delighted to have supported Pickup Systems’ success – and we’d love to support your efforts too. So if you’re considering relocation or expansion, please get in touch