STRONG INVESTMENT INTEREST IN TRENTHAM LAKES BUCKS MARKET TREND

Three speculative schemes on the 400-acre Trentham Lakes development in Stoke-on-Trent, known as Trentham Office Village, Trentham Business Quarter and Trentham Trade Park, are proving highly successfully in attracting private investors as well as owner-occupiers wanting to buy business space, despite reports of a general slackening in the ccmmercial property market.

An Austrian glassware company , Riedel Crystal, is one of the occupiers who has acquired an office building from Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration Ltd, the joint venture partnership between St Modwen Properties PLC and Stoke City Council.

The firm has bought the long leasehold on a 4,074 sq ft unit , one of four two-storey buildings in Trentham Office Village, where there is firm interest in the remaining 10,500 sq ft unit.

Private investors and local companies have busily been buying up small to medium sized offices and studio units on the adjacent Trentham Business Quarter. Four of the ten 'front door' office buildings of around 2,000 sq ft have been sold to Acacia Training and Hosting Systems and to private investors. A fifth building of 2,300 sq ft, has been let to TandT Consultancy on a ten-year lease and the investment is under offer. There is keen interest in the remaining five.

Eight of the seventeen 1,000 sq ft studio units have also been sold and all the remainder, except one, are under offer.

"There has been just as much interest in Trentham Trade Park," says Andrew Cox of Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration. "We have let or sold eight of the 13 units in the 45,000 sq ft first phase and negiotiating terms with numerous parties for the remainder. We hope to start phase two this spring which will provide a further 50,000 sq ft in 11 units between 4,100 sq ft and 19,400 sq ft, for completion in early 2009."

Seven units have been sold to private investors and owner occupiers, among them Mirage Services Ltd who have bought a 4,800 sq ft unit . Eurocell Building Plastics Ltd has taken a ten-year lease on 5,000 sq ft.

Mike Herbert, St Modwen¹s regional director, said: "Sometimes it is fashionable to decry the progress being made in the regeneration of the Potteries. Faced, however, with this evidence of an entreprenurial spirit amongst small and medium enterprises none should under-rate the area. We are proud to have been a catalyst for much of what has been achieved."

Louis Taylor LLP represented Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration.

Ref: MOD/31/08