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Field of dreams

The dispute over the future of Canada Fields is highlighting the growing shortage of land for industrial use in East Hertfordshire. Paul Strohm reports.

Loss of land to other uses is not helping an area where the supply of sites for business use is under severe pressure.

Between Hoddesdon and Broxbourne is 8.1ha (20 acre) Canada Fields. Although planning consent was granted in 1995 for a mix of B1, leisure and motor dealerships, alternative retail proposals are now awaiting the secretary of state’s decision following a planning inquiry.

Gary Hirsch, head of planning at Broxbourne borough council, says that he was told there was no demand for business space or leisure but adds: “I’ve no way of confirming or denying that.”

However, Simon Beeton of Spall Beeton says it is not true that there is no demand for B1 space. “To a degree, the market has moved on,” he says.

Since the retail application was made, Capital & Counties’ Turnford Place office scheme, adjacent to Canada Fields, has fully let. Beeton adds that there is no new industrial space in Hertfordshire’s A10 corridor.

“There is undoubtedly demand,” says Beeton, who explains that industrial occupancy rates in Cheshunt, Hoddesdon, Hertford and Ware are such that there is now nothing available. Although industrial use might not yield high land values, Beeton stresses: “Given that there is nothing in Broxbourne it is a shame to lose Canada Fields. When you lose a site like that, you never get it back.”

He adds that allowing retail on the site will have a severe affect on surrounding towns which have already been hit by the Brookfield Centre, from which Tesco and Marks & Spencer operate.

Sequential test

Hirsch says that the council is happy to see up to 9,290m2 (100,000 sq ft) of retail space built at Canada Fields as long as it is dedicated to the sale of bulky goods and comprises units of a minimum 929m2 (10,000 sq ft). He adds that the sequential test has been applied and there are no alternative sites in surrounding town centres, including Cheshunt, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross.

Meanwhile, supply and demand problems are also hitting the office market. According to Hillier Parker’s Hertfordshire office market report, the eastern side of the county only commanded 1% of Hertfordshire’s office take-up in 1997. Hillier Parker’s Guy Bishop says that the main problem is demand, but confirms that there are also limited opportunities in terms of supply.

The B1 shortage is noticeable in the office market. Tesco’s relocation from Cheshunt and Harlow to Welwyn a year ago is testament to that.

Tesco’s move was thought likely to release land and space. But while its Dairy Glen House, at Cheshunt, has been sold and demolished to make way for housing, 800 staff continue to occupy New Tesco House. And, according to Tesco, there are no plans for Old Tesco House, where staff are still based.

There are other large sites in the East Herts area. Among Hertfordshire county council’s designated key employment sites are land in Hoddesdon and Park Plaza at Waltham Cross, formerly known as Cedar Park.

Park Plaza is sited close to the intersection of the A10 and M25 and is designated in the structure plan and local plan. But according to Steve Cox, key employment sites manager in the county’s economic development unit, use of 25.9ha (64 acres) of former green belt is restricted to technological activities.

The development is potentially aimed at the county’s pharmaceutical and research and development entities.

“The economy of Hertfordshire has ahi-tech and pharmaceutical basis, and we are looking to consolidate these markets on this sort of site,” says Cox.

He adds that, while the county is not looking to poach occupiers from the Thames Valley, the site might also suit computer companies that cannot find space or land in that increasingly restricted market.

Cox says that outline consent for the site could be in place by the summer. But, he adds: “There are a lot of issues to sort out before that is achieved.” Among the most difficult are the highway access arrangements.

Similar difficulties have, so far, thwarted delivery of the 32ha (79 acre) Essex Road site in Hoddesdon, of which 15.8ha (39 acres) is able to be developed.

Comprising three parcels of brownfield land, owned respectively by Powergen, the Department of Transport – now DETR – and Redland, the key issue is the need for a road to open up the land.

At present, access is via a level crossing on the main London to Cambridge railway line. But new road access will cost £8m, expenditure which even the enhanced land values are thought unlikely to make viable.

Shortages are in evidence further north, and Hertford has also seen a switch from oversupply to shortage. According to Mike Davies of Davies & Co, Stag House, which let for £92 per m2 (£8.50 per sq ft) two years ago, would now fetch £135-£145 per m2(£12.50-£13.50 per sq ft). “There’s very little vacant space, which is now a problem in Hertford,” says Davies.

Some of the demand for the town has come from unconventional sources. Ware-based defence contractor Lockheed Martin Solatron Systems moved an electronic assembly operation from around 3,716m2 (40,000 sq ft) of tired industrial premises in Hoddesdon to a 1,394m2 (15,000 sq ft) office building in Hale Road, formerly occupied by Mercury.

Robin Catlin of Jones Lang Wootton, who acquired the space, said that the search was not specifically targeted at Hertford. He also acquired a 929m2 (10,000 sq ft) warehouse for Lockheed on Ware Road.

“It was even harder to find the second building. It proved very difficult, and we took something that was less than ideal but which suited the client because it was close to the main facility.”

Engineering group Symmonds is even seeking a profit rent on premises built for the company at the Foxholes Business Park, close to the A10 junction, which it has never occupied. Now renamed Axis 10, the 5,853m2 (63,000 sq ft) building is on the market at £67-£70 per m2 (£6.25-£6.50 per sq ft).

“The market is improving and getting to the critical stage where demand is definitely outstripping supply,” says John Thoroughgood of Freeth Melhuish. “It’s a reflection of what is happening throughout south Hertfordshire.”

David Moule of agent Smith Melzack agrees, pointing to Thames Water. When the company sold 1.3ha (3.3 acres) of surplus industrial land at Mead Park on Mead Lane recently, initial take-up was slow. But now local occupiers realise how little land and stock there is available in the town, the whole site is now committed. A price of £803,064 per ha (£325,000 per acre) was being quoted.

On the move to tap demand

According to retailer Halfords, East Hertfordshire is a source of untapped retail potential. The car repair and accessories specialist is targeting East Hertfordshire in its bid to open 25 stores, nationwide, per year. The company is seeking out-of-centre shed space in 700-1,000m2 (7,535-10,764 sq ft) units on solus sites or on retail parks. “It’s a particularly important area,” says the company, which adds that the area’s demographic profile and levels of car ownership particularly fit Halfords’ ideal.

Town faces greenbelt limits

Bishop’s Stortford is subject to different pressures than those facing other East Hertfordshire towns. Mike Davies of Davies & Co explains that Bishop’s Stortford is more aligned to the Cambridge-Harlow market. Richard Coke of Lambert Smith Hampton agrees, saying that the town’s key influences are Stansted Airport and the M11. He explains that the property market there has undergone a rapid switch from glut to shortage in the past few years. “In the mid-1980s, when the airport expansion was under way, there was a tremendous ramp in values, primarily speculative on the back of anticipated growth.” The 1990s brought a “cold shower of realism”. The expanded airport relaunched during the Gulf war and values fell significantly in all three property sectors. However, there is now no quality stock available, and Coke says that he is seeing significant enquiries emerging, along with opportunities for prelets. Federal Express is looking for 1,858m2 (20,000 sq ft), for example, and has little to choose from. Dutch airline KLM is also looking for space, a requirement that is only likely to be satisfied on the airport itself. Although there is about 242.8ha (600 acres) of development land at the airport for air-related uses, some companies are deterred from locating there. Coke says that this is because the commercial critical mass has restricted the development of support facilities, such as convenience shopping for staff. The greenbelt is tightly drawn around Bishop’s Stortford, and development in the town requires recycling secondhand stock. BT sold a yard and premises on Dunmow Road to Dencora, for example, which is developing asmall-scale industrial estate. Coke says that around a dozen enquiries have emerged for the six proposed units before any marketing has been done.

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