Construction on the site of the old Imperial Tobacco factory has started after a £50m deal was secured with a property developer and real estate firm. It will soon be home to high quality industrial and logistics space and is expected to be completed by 2023.
Imperial Tobacco began operating on the site in the early 1970s but after moving to Europe in 2016, the 'Horizon' factory was began to be demolished in 2019. At peak operation the factory employed more than 7,000 people and produced billions of cigarettes every year.
The building itself won the Financial Times award for industrial architecture in 1973, having been much brighter and organised than the typical industrial factories of the period. Eventually the site, off Clifton Boulevard in the west of Nottingham, was sold to Henry Boot Developments (HBD) in 2017 and following the close of a £53.8m forward funding deal between HBD and Oxenwood Real Estate work to transform it has commenced.
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Speaking of the impact on the city East Midlands Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles said: “After years of uncertainty and speculation over the future of a site that carries huge significance to lots of people in Nottingham and the surrounding area, it’s great to see the first spades in the ground at Power Park.
“For many years, Imperial Tobacco was a major name on the city’s business landscape and it’s been sad to see the land in Thane Road sit unused.
“It’s a fantastically located site, sandwiched between the Boots factory and a relatively new Aston Martin showroom, so it has some great potential to become another strategic hub of economic activity if these plans come to fruition.
“At a time when Nottingham and the wider East Midlands is building a reputation as a centre of making, moving and innovating, these new industrial units will undoubtedly be attractive to a variety of businesses, both inside and outside the city.
“This is another significant vote of confidence in our region’s economy, and the jobs they will bring to Nottingham will be important for communities in the local area, much as the old Imperial Tobacco site once was.”
Oxenwood, a real estate firm investing in the UK and European real estate markets with a focus on the logistics industry, and HBD have renamed the site the 'Power Park'. According to the developer 90% of the material from the original structure will be repurposed and the concrete from the old factory will be crushed and re-used to limit the scheme’s environmental impact.
The Power Park will see the delivery of seven buildings providing a total of 426,000 square feet of high-quality industrial and logistics space. It is hoped the final scheme will create up to 1,000 jobs.
City Council Leader, Cllr David Mellen, said: “We’re really pleased to see work get underway to develop this strategically-located site with strong links to Nottingham’s industrial past. With the prospect of a thousand jobs, it is set to play a big role in the city’s economic future. The high environmental standards for this development are particularly welcome, as we aim for carbon neutrality as a city.”
Justin Sheldon, Director and Head of Region at HBD, said: “It’s fantastic to see Power Park beginning to take shape - it is a high-quality, sustainable development that will attract new business and investment into the city and could create as many as 1,000 new jobs at Thane Road.”
And Jeremy Bishop, co-founder of Oxenwood, added: “Power Park is a very well located logistics development and we are delighted that construction has now commenced - the unit sizes and specification are designed to address the strong supply-demand dynamics in the Nottingham area.”
