The Doncaster Investment Team invites you on a tour of key strategic investment sites in the town.

Doncaster, in common with the rest of South Yorkshire, has been an active player in the field of economic regeneration for many years.

The Investment Team
The Doncaster Investment Team in its present guise has only existed since 1998. Proposed changes to both remit and personnel mean that from summer 2002 the Team will be even better resourced to meet the needs of local companies, partner agencies and the property network seeking to assist growth and attract new businesses into the town.

A tour of Doncaster
What better way to gain an understanding of Doncaster than by a guided tour? Does Doncaster have the sites and premises your company is looking for? With 275,000m2 (three million square feet) of new development taking place in the last year, a tour around the town is an enlightening if lengthy experience.

Let’s begin alongside Junction 38 of the A1(M), where Redhouse Interchange will provide warehousing and distribution accommodation on a grand scale. The new 11,000m2 speculative unit is already dominating the skyline, and was signed up before completion by local furniture manufacturer DFS. So happy is DFS with the location that an expansion is soon to follow. And it won’t stop there – office accommodation and restaurant or fast food uses will also be developed on the site.

Next we travel down the A1 to Bentley, to the recently-refurbished Doncaster Industry Park. This impressive scheme by Langtree totals just short of 50,000m2, with more than 75% already tenanted with such blue chip companies as Mastercare.

To take in our Enterprise Zone, we leave the A1 to travel to Denaby. This site, within the Dearne Valley Enterprise Zone offers business rates free until November 2005, and corporation or income tax incentives too. It’s a hive of activity, with offices and warehouses springing up all over. With design and build and speculative units from Sandringham Investments, there is still time to get a piece of the action!

Onwards, to Junction 3 of the M18. Driving off the motorway we pass the Catesby Park site, some 30 hectares of future development land, and then on to the Lakeside development. This 150-hectare mixed-use site includes business, retail, leisure and housing, and is home to the Yorkshire Outlet Factory Shopping Centre. Such well- known companies as British Telecom, Royal Mail, Barclays Bank and EWS Railways are located at Lakeside, with the recent prestigious names of P&O Trans European, Power Europe & Royal Bank of Scotland between them adding nearly 75,000m2 of new warehouse and office space to the landscape of Lakeside over an 18-month period.

As we drive through the centre of Doncaster, the Interchange Scheme, North Bridge Relief Road and Waterfront redevelopment are all under way, and we head on up to Hungerhill Business Park. This latest site is a joint venture between The Council and St Paul’s Developments. With existing planning consents on 25 hectares for office development and six hectares allocated for storage and distribution uses, the site will be kick-started this year by the construction of 8000m2 of fitness/leisure development, operated as a sports injury clinic.

As a break we detour to the Doncaster Racecourse, home of the world’s oldest classic horse race, the St. Leger. This Group One racecourse is also a first-class conference/exhibition venue, boasting over 4250m2 of indoor floor-space on the ground level alone. Expect to see major changes to this facility as the result of a £50m investment project to improve both horse racing and conference facilities.

Shaw Wood is our next destination, with Doncaster’s first hybrid office/ workshop developments. All business units are already let or under offer in this ideal starter accommodation scheme with a great location and reasonable rental levels. The concept is already being replicated around the town.

On to the Yorkshire Forward flagship site of West Moor Park. Many new businesses are moving onto this 70-hectare greenfield site, adjacent to Junction 4 of the M18. Even larger occupiers are going to be dwarfed by the new IKEA distribution facility, with a phase one of 60,000m2, doubling during phase two to more than 120,000m2. This vast structure is not putting other occupiers off – a speculative scheme by Clugstons has been completed and occupied within a few short months, with one of the units purchased from the drawings alone. Fellowes Manufacturing has relocated its European HQ to West Moor, into a purpose-built unit of 18,500m2, which will shortly be joined by two further 10,000m2 schemes.

Much is also happening at Kirk Sandall, home to traditional industries as well as Langtree’s proposed starter units and an adjoining scheme building larger industrial units, so that firms have the chance to grow in situ.

Our last industrial site is Capitol Park at Thorne, home to motor dealers, kitchen manufacturers and medical equipment sterilisation providers.

Last stop is the Peel’s Doncaster Finningley Airport, a former RAF site currently under proposal as a new international airport with a runway length allowing access to both the US and the Far East. A decision on the proposal is expected by end-2002.

To book a tour of Doncaster, contact the Investment Team:
Telephone: +44 1302 734734
Email: Investment.Team@doncaster.gov.uk