West Midlands property firm A&J Mucklow is close to securing the first tenant for its new business park, which is situated near Wolverhampton.
The group, based in Halesowen, entered into an option agreement for a prime 15 acre industrial site with Staffordshire County Council and Wolverhampton City Council last November.
Mucklow Park i54 stands at the entrance to the current i54 site, which is home to Jaguar Land Roverâs Engine Manufacturing Centre and also serves as part of the Black Country Enterprise Zone.
The land has the capacity to accommodate up to 275,000 sq ft of advanced manufacturing space.
Mucklow said in its full year results statement that it was now marketing the site for pre-lets and was in detailed discussions with a potential occupier for a 43,000 sq ft unit.
However, this is not the only site within the groupâs investment portfolio that has attracted interest.
Looking further down the line, Mucklow said that Birmingham City Council was currently expected to start construction in 2017 on a new link road which will run alongside Mucklowâs 20 acre site in Tyseley. Marketing of the site will be kept on hold until all the details have been clarified.
Mucklow said that if the occupational market for industrial property continued to be supportive, the combined 35 acres of development land at i54 and Tyseley provided the potential for up to 625,000 sq ft of pre-let industrial/warehouse space.
However, the industrial property group saw profit before tax more than halved for its latest financial year, despite its vacancy rate hitting an historic low.
They were down from £56.2 million to £25.2m, but the group’s portfolio value increased from £349.7m to £364.2m in the year to the end of June.
Mucklow chairman Rupert Mucklow said it had been another solid performance by the group, which had resulted in further increases in underlying profit, net asset value and ordinary dividend per share.
