THE developers of Northminster Business Park at Poppleton in York are investing in new space for businesses on the site.

Northminster Developments, which has steadily expanded the park since the late 1990s, has bought back one of its original buildings and will redevelop the unit into four new industrial units.

The company said it was investing in the speculative development because there is strong demand for the location, which otherwise is fully occupied.

George Burgess, managing director of Northminster Developments, said the 12,000 sq ft unit, which has been used for warehousing since about 1998, needed refurbishing, and they decided to split it into four smaller units.

The building’s roof will be replaced and the refurbishment will also include new brickwork, cladding, glazed entrances and roller shutter doors.

Alastair Gill, development surveyor for Northminster Properties, said they were confident of filling the buildings, which they expect to complete in summer this year.

The units, which range in size from about 2,700 sq ft to 3,200 sq ft, will be available to lease, or to buy, with an increase in businesses buying their premises to put in their pensions fund and leasing it to the company.

Mr Burgess said there was demand among local businesses looking to own their own property, as well as from inward investors.

He said: “We were approached by an extremely large international company for a research and development facility for something of a similar size, but we were not able to provide it. If they came to me now we could.”

Ian Tulloch, of Tulloch Property Consultants, which is marketing the site, said: “The industrial market in York is very tight.

“There’s not a great deal of new industrial premises available and with empty rates, no developers are willing to build speculatively.”

Northminster said that particularly with approval for a new Park and Ride next door, they believed they could fill any further expansion of the site, and had identified land to the north and south of the existing business park, although any future developments depend on the council’s core strategy plan.