It is the business park that York forgot - the massive area to the west of the city which is about to become alive again.

Planning consent awarded at last for the conversion of buildings on the former army depot at Hessay has triggered a rigorous marketing campaign.

And as huge expenditure has gone into revamping the buildings, the Inward investment Board is reporting that organisations outside the city have already expressed interest in setting up small manufacturing units or using the units for storage.

The site was bought for nearly £2 million from the Ministry of Defence two years ago by Oxford-based Leda Properties.

At the time it had no planning permission to revamp the 150,000 sq ft of buildings on the 17.76 acre site which is on the A59 close to York ring road.

But now that York planners have given consent for the conversions, the York office of DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, as joint agents with Kemp & Kemp of Oxford, is pushing hard to win tenancies.

They can point to giant investment by Leda Properties to ensure restoration of electricity (which had been vandalised) as well as providing the site with its own sewage plant and other necessary facilities.

Available to any organisations seeking light industry, storage and distribution or manufacturing, the site includes a collection of four Romney huts, two enormous sheds, one of 30,000 sq ft the other of 36,000 sq ft, plus other warehouses of 17,000 sq ft, 13,500 sq ft, 9,000 sq ft and 7,000 sq ft.

There is also masses of room for open storage.

Alistair Gill, senior surveyor at DTZ's York office, said that the buildings could be split, or even fragmented into 2,000 sq ft at prices ranging from £1 to £3.50 per sq ft and on flexible leasing terms from six months to 25 years.

That, he claimed, takes some beating.

"Some if the units are as good as those on offer at York Business Park and in Clifton Moor, yet cost half the price," he said.

The site is still being used by RMA and its subsidiary Scene 42 which took out a tenancy there to help to rebuild scenes at the revamped exhibition at the Jorvik Centre in York.

Graeme Rudd, client services executive for the York Inward Investment Board, said: "It is a considerable opportunity for organisations outside the city who are seeking storage/distribution facilities, or even a small factory. I have already referred people to the site from other parts of the UK."