£10m price-tag for development site

AN employment site formerly earmarked for a huge Ikea warehouse is being offered for sale with a price tag of around £10million.

The Swedish furniture giant gained permission for a huge 1.24million sq ft distribution depot with 20m eaves for the 91-acre plot at Stanton, near Bury St Edmunds, but withdrew its plans last year.

The withdrawal came as a blow to local villagers, who were given fresh hope of a bypass to reduce traffic through their communities by the Ikea plans, which it was hoped would lead to the building of a link road to the A143. The site, located nine miles from the A14, is being marketed by Savills on behalf of Property Recycling plc.

Savills director Chris Moody said they had already had a number of unsolicited enquiries about the site which he felt could be interest to a range of buyers. He pointed out that it had detailed permission for a very large building and could be of interest to another major retailer seeking a similar depot to the one granted permission on the site. He felt it might also attract a developer who could build the building speculatively or look at constructing a range of buildings on the site. “Consents like this are hard to achieve,” he said. “It's an opportunity. It's a major chunk of land.” The former World War II airfield was also a “clean” site, he said, which did not need to be cleared, and was situated next to other employment sites. “I rate it very highly. We are short of employment land. If you create a development of a big enough scale and a good enough quality, you make your own market,” he said.

Source: EADT

18/01/2008

---

<< back | view more news >>