An attractive open landscape setting will surround new business units being created in a £9m scheme at Thorp Arch Estate near Wetherby - the biggest new development in the estate's 60 year history.

Light, modern buildings and extensive landscaping with mature trees are being created in the first phase of the scheme backed by Leeds City Council planners earlier this year and due for completion towards the end of 2004.

The first phase of the scheme at the 385-acre business and retail estate in the `golden triangle' between Leeds, York and Harrogate, will comprise 21 new small business units totalling 31,024 sq ft and five larger warehouse and workshop units totalling 44,284 sq ft.

The larger units will offer industrial space, ranging from 6,000 sq ft to 12,000 sq ft and the 21 smaller units will range from 2,150 sq ft to 2,400 sq ft and be available for light manufacturing, warehousing or distribution businesses on a lease-only basis.

The units will be finished to the latest specification, with fully-finished offices, providing open plan accommodation along with a warehouse or production area accessed from the concrete surfaced loading yards through electrically-operated sectional overhead doors

The design contract for the estate, being developed for owners, Hanover Property Unit Trust, by business park development specialists, Arlington Development Management, has gone to Chesterfield-based national architects Frank Shaw Architects Ltd.

Paul Crabtree, an associate at international property consultants, King Sturge, Leeds, who are seeking occupiers for the new units, says: "The attractive parkland setting of the Thorp Arch Estate, its proximity to the A1 and lack of any real rush hour enable it to offer a unique alternative as a business park location in this region.

"The design challenge has been to offer units which meet the needs of small-to-medium sized enterprises but which do not detract from what makes this location so special. We are delighted at the designs which have been achieved."

The estate is set in an attractive, secure parkland setting and has a thriving business community with a 120,000 sq ft retail park, which was one of the first out-of-town shopping centres in the North when it opened in 1959, and a diverse range of 120 small enterprises which operate throughout the UK and employ more than 2,500 people.

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