Hillington Park lettings reduce vacancies below 5%!

The two largest deals of 2009 by MEPC at Hillington Park have just been completed, taking the total rent value of new lettings for the year to date to over £500,000, and reducing the company’s vacancy rate to below 5% by area.

Accommodation extending to 1,030 sq metres (11, 335 sq ft) on Earl Haig Road, consisting of refurbished offices and warehouse space, has been agreed with McNicholas Construction on a five-year lease at £45,000 per annum. The company is presently based at the Oakbank industrial estate in Glasgow, and plans to move to Hillington before Christmas. Operations Manager Michael Connon said: "Hillington ticked all the right boxes for us, and MEPC made it easy for us to reach our decision to relocate."

In Kelvin Avenue, an existing tenant at Hillington Park is expanding into a unit of 1,260 sq metres (12,723 sq ft). Over the Road Ltd is the new name for manufacturing joiners Knot & Grain, who have agreed an annual rent of £45,000 over the next five years. They are also retaining their existing property at Napier Road, which will be developed as a showroom and conference facility for architects and other clients.

MEPC’s Asset Manager, Andrew Kerr, said: "These were our two largest available vacant spaces, and we are delighted that the new lettings reflect the attractions of the estate both to re-locating companies and those already at Hillington that need to expand."

Another incoming company has arrived in the past month in Montrose Avenue, where Matrix International Sourcing Ltd has taken on a refurbished warehouse-and-offices unit of 400 sq metres (4,390 sq ft) at a rent of £20,000 a year. The company are clothing distributors, and are re-locating from Linwood.

Grant Edmondson, MEPC’s managing director at Hillington Park, said: "Since the start of the year, we have completed a total of 28 new lettings, representing 120,000 sq ft of space and adding £532,000 to our rent book.

"So, at a time of recession, Hillington Park has continued to perform very well. The overall quality of the estate is widely recognised as a location where companies are able to grow. And we are continuing to secure lettings from competitors because of our proactive on-site management team."

MEPC Hillington Park were represented by GVA Grimley and James Barr.

Hillington Park buzzes with life

A recent ecological survey has confirmed that the biodiversity enhancement measures undertaken by MEPC, majority owners at Hillington Park, are already seeing positive results within the Estate. The biodiversity value has moved from "negligible" after the initial survey in 2007 to "moderate and developing" in 2009.

In addition to the £40,000 invested in new sustainable and native planting across nine key areas, major changes to the landscaping maintenance regime have been put in place. Previously all grassed areas were mown regularly but now meadow areas have been allowed to grow enabling already present flowering plants and grasses to flourish and be appreciated by wildlife and workers alike.

In the year to date 37 different species of birds have been recorded by eagle-eyed employees on the Park. There has also been a revised maintenance programme applied to many of the shrub beds and unusual plant species such as Broad Leaved Helleborine, Orchids and Cuckoo Flower have appeared which in turn bring in previously unseen wildlife such as the Orange Tipped Butterfly.

Small Business Bonus Scheme

From April 1, 2009 many small businesses will pay no rates.

From April 1, 2009 tens of thousands of small businesses will pay no rates at all under the Scottish Government's small business bonus scheme.

You could save up to almost £4,000 a year, depending on your rateable value. An eligible business property will save on average £1400 in 2009-10.
What's the catch?

There isn't one! The Scottish Government wants to help genuinely small businesses, particularly in the current economic climate.

Offices To Let Glasgow

Hillington gets ready to ROCCO!

Six Hillington-based companies have been shortlisted for one or more of the annual ROCCO Awards, presented by Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce. Among them is MEPC Hillington Park, which has been cited for the ‘Best Environmental Performance’ award.

The nine ‘Oscars’ of the local business world will be handed out at a glittering award ceremony on Friday November 20, and MEPC is also sponsoring the award for the most promising new business.

Nominated companies include Innovation Centre-based NS Design, who have recently won new business that will take their growth for the year to more than 15%. They are hoping to be acclaimed again as the ‘Outstanding Performing Business’ for companies with fewer than 25 employees, which they won in 2008, and are also cited for the ‘Excellence in Customer Services’ award.

Other Hillington companies nominated in the various categories include Haven Products, Tradeforms, Alpha Analytical and Future Environmental Services.

Chamber President Tom Johnston said: "We have been overwhelmed by the interest in the ROCCO Awards this year. We know we are facing challenging economic conditions, but it is fantastic to see local companies, large and small, buck the trend and continue to expand.

"The ROCCOs have grown in popularity over the years, and the Awards Dinner is now the business event of the year."

Offices To Let Glasgow

'Leading Edge 'status for Innovation Centre

The Hillington Park Innovation Centre has been awarded Leading Edge Status by UK Business Incubation after undergoing the Inspire monitoring, development and accreditation process.

The MEPC –owned Centre is managed by Innovation Centres Scotland, who also operate the Alba Innovation Centre in Livingston.

Director of ICS, Ross Clark, had this to say about Inspire: "We started the process because we believe it is extremely important to keep reinforcing the message of how high quality innovation and incubation support services make a significant difference to young technology companies’ growth and chances of success. For us we want to continue national recognition of Hillington Park Innovation Centre and Alba Innovation Centre as Scotland’s leading facilities, accredited through a thorough appraisal process, and also to be up there amongst the top providers in the UK. All the evidence is there, not just In the UK but globally, to confirm that at the highest level, such services are an excellent economic development investment. We need to ask policy and strategy makers not to forget this in their planning and decision making"

Grant Edmondson, Managing Director of MEPC Hillington Park said "This accreditation is testament to the skills and dedication of the management and staff of Innovation Centres Scotland and we are delighted that the Hillington Park Innovation Centre is recognised by the UKBI as an example of ‘best in class’."

Offices To Let Glasgow

Industrial Estates

MEPC have been providing high specification industrial units and warehousing available to let for more than 60 years. We currently manage eight business and industrial estates across the UK with over 10m sq ft of property housing more than 1000 business clients.

Keep Scotland Beautiful

In pursuit of the Keep Scotland Beautiful –Tidy Business Standards Award the MEPC Hillington Park team spent a recent (and dry!) lunchtime doing a litter pick on the approach road from Hillington Park to Arkleston Cemetery.

In less than an hour and along a 100 meter stretch of path, the team collected eight bags of rubbish and some rather unusual items such as a bed frame, a bicycle, car bumpers and a set of venetian blinds!

Industrial Lettings

Lets keep up at Hillington

Lettings activity by MEPC at its Hillington Park estate outside Glasgow continues to bolster the local economy, despite the recession in the wider commercial property market.

In the last three months, ten new industrial lettings have been concluded, totalling almost 5,000 square metres (55,000 sq ft).

The largest transaction was to a government body which has taken a refurbished 10,000 sq ft property on a 5-year lease.

Craftology, who currently lease a unit at the corner of Huntly Road and Kelvin Avenue, are trading up to a larger property of 9,200 sq ft on a 10-year lease.

New to the Park are Tradebalance Ltd, who have leased a 8,200 sq ft unit on Claverhouse Road. Previously used for short term storage, the unit was recently refurbished and provided with a secure yard and has now been leased for a three-year term.

Undoubtedly the fastest letting was to Alpine Blinds who, following a major fire at their premises in Paisley, were able to be up and running again within three working days by leasing 1,420 sq ft at 417 Hillington Road.

Andrew Kerr, MEPC’s Asset Manager, said: "We are certainly not complacent, but the level of industrial letting activity just goes to show that Hillington Park remains the location of choice west of the city centre.

"The likes of the Alpine Blinds letting shows we are a proactive management team, based on the Park, so we can respond quickly to new and existing customer needs."

MEPC’s industrial lettings agents are James Barr and GVA Grimley.

ENDS

Further information: Mike Stanger, G41forPR, 0141 423 6595

Industiral Estate Glasgow

Headquarters / Head Office Buildings Glasgow

If you’re looking for a Headquarter / Head Office Buildings in Glasgow, look no further than Hillington Park. With a mixture of fantastic amenities and excellent transport links, Hillington Park is the perfect place to locate your business. The total site covers 417 acres and was the first “Special Enterprise Zone” in Scotland, which were set up in the 1930s. Hillington Park had many different owners prior to MEPC, but has always been a major driver in the economy of Scotland.

Office Space / Property To Let Leeds

Do you want Offices/ Property To Let/Rent in Leeds? Are you looking for flexible property with the office space to meet you companies future needs? If so then Wellington Place, Leeds might just be the place for you.

Office Space / Property To Let Leeds

BT Reveals Plans For First Fibre Optic Broadband Rollout

BT has revealed new information about the roll-out of its £1.5bn programme to deploy super fast fibre optic (Fibre to the Premise/Cabinet, FTTP/C) broadband to as many as 10 million UK homes (40%) by 2012. Scotland will become one of the first places to benefit from early next year, with more than 34,000 homes and businesses in Edinburgh and Glasgow receiving speeds of up to 40Mbps and potentially 60Mbps.

Openreach will be making fibre based services available to more than 30,000 homes and businesses from exchanges serving the areas around Glasgow University and the arts galleries and in the Hillington Park business park and industrial estate development here in Glasgow

Hillington Park Innovation Centre

After 9 years of success, Hillington Park Innovation Centre is proud to present several of it's former client sharing their successes and experiences since leaving the centre. This seminar will also focus on what have been critical points in helping them grow and overcome particular issues facing young, innovative technology companies.

Hillington Park - Business Park and Industrial Estate in Glasgow

To register your attendance at this event please email forums@innovationcentre.org

A message from the MEPC chief executive: Rick de Blaby

Hillington Design and Build | Headquarters Buildings

Hillington Park offers an unrivalled situation on the western fringe of Glasgow, close to Glasgow International Airport with immediate access to the M8. MEPC owns a number of plots within the Park which either already have planning consent for Class 5 and 6 (Industrial and Warehousing) uses or are zoned as suitable for such. The sites are already serviced with most having frontage onto adopted roads and all offering close connections to drainage, power, gas and broadband telecommunications infrastructure. The sites are suitable for development to accommodate a range of different sizes and configurations from 929 – 6500 sq m (10-70,000 sq ft).

MEPC always ensures its new development schemes offer
high quality space for occupiers which afford both flexibility
and efficiency of use. The benefit to an occupier in choosing a
pre-let/design and build route is to offer input at design stage
so that the building meets its exact requirements in layout,
design and finishes.
Typical key criteria for industrial/warehouse occupiers
include: warehouse dimensions, yard size, capacity of
electricity and gas supplies and extent of office
accommodation.
Whilst the lead-in time for an occupier from initial search to
physical occupation will be inevitably longer than one which is
purely focused on existing buildings, the key driver for a prelet/
design and build is that the building can be designed from
scratch to house that particular occupier’s business.

Headquarters/Headoffices Buildings Glasgow

Hillington Newsletter

Get your copy of the latest Hillington Herald February 09
All our latest business park and industrial estate info.

The Arc's Attraction for Hillington

A distinctive and attractive development of seven single-storey office suites has just been completed at Hillington Park, demonstrating MEPC’s confidence by providing quality accommodation during a difficult time in the market.

The Arc, a £4 million development by MEPC, the majority landowners at Scotland’s largest business location to the west of Glasgow, is a curved terrace of office accommodation on one level, ranging from 228 square metres (2,458 square feet) to 357 sq m (3,851 sq ft).

The scheme was designed to take advantage of a unique semi-circular site on the east side of Hillington Park, and is expected to appeal to small to medium-sized businesses seeking high-quality, good-value, out-of-town accommodation. Rental charges have been pitched at a level to appeal to the local market and are in the range of £16 per sq ft per annum.

Viewings so far have been very positive. Grant Edmondson, managing director of MEPC Hillington Park, said: "We persisted with this development at a time when we knew that the office market was cooling. But we have very little other office space available and, even although business conditions are tough, we expect to attract lettings.

"We are committed to providing office space of a price and quality at the Park which the occupier market demands. We expect The Arc to continue our long-held experience that, with the right range of accommodation and a flexible customer-focused approach, MEPC can retain growing businesses at Hillington Park over the long term."

The Arc is located in what has become an established office area of the estate: adjacent to Centura Court, which is home to Ceridian, British Red Cross and Fujitsu, and close to the Hillington Park Innovation Centre and the Lumina building, which was let to Balfour Kilpatrick last year.

The development has been built to a sustainable specification and has achieved a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating, offering a single, space-efficient floorplate. Each office enables occupiers to have full control over their premises, with dedicated main door entry and reception, together with the ability to erect their own external corporate signage.

The letting agents on Hillington Park offices are Ryden and Cushman & Wakefield.

Offices To LET Glasgow

Industrial Estate Glasgow

If you're looking for Scotlands largest industrial estate then Hillington Park Glasgow is the industrial estate for you.
We currently have a large number of industiral, manufacturing and distribution companies here on the Glasgow site. Why not see if it could be the ideal location for your business.

Industiral Estate Glasgow

Happy New Year!

A very happy and prosperous new year to all at Hillington Park Glasgow.