THE year started off for Warwick Burt with an ongoing project for Roxhill Developments – a new £2.3m Asda retail supermarket at Warth Park, Raunds, which was successfully handed over at the end of February, and a £2.3m industrial extension of 40,000 sq ft to EBC Brakes at Pineham, Northampton, again handed over successfully in April.
Andy Burt from Warwick Burt said: “It was particularly pleasing to win this job, as it continued our relationship with EBC after completing the original 90,000 sq ft headquarters building for them some five years ago.”
Also at this time we were constructing a £1.2m development of six flats and retail units in Great Denham, Bedford for Takeley LLP. The end product of this technically challenging development been warmly appreciated by the local populace as well as our client. Retail units continued to be a theme this year with the completion of the second Co-Op unit for Newcrest Developments of London at Hucknall, Nottingham, the first being completed the previous year at Bourne in Lincs.
In the spring, we reconnected our links to the automotive trade by starting two showroom refurbishments for Bells Kia and Progress Skoda that ran consecutively on Bedford Road Northampton. Both these projects were for repeat clients with the relationship with Bells going back some years.
On the theme of repeat business local developer Hampton Brook awarded Warwick Burt a £4.2m project to construct two new industrial units totalling 70,000 sq ft at their development at Magnetic Park Desborough for end users Dunkelman and Partridge Print. These are both local businesses relocating their main bases. The Magnetic Park site, as always, proved challenging in the ground given its former life as an ironstone quarry and it was with much relief when the intensive ground engineering and earth shifting was complete.
Just when it seemed to slow down a bit Newcrest Developments finally kicked off with their third instruction to construct another Co-Op unit, this time in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire. They have decided to make this one slightly more interesting by adding four residential two-bedroom flats over the top. This has an approximate build value build of £900k and consists of a timber frame construction first floor over a steel framed ground floor with an in situ concrete lid. The extremely small site area of this project makes this job just as challenging as some of our larger sites.
And just to make sure we don’t take it too easy Hampton Brook has just instructed us to commence a new £1.8m design and build unit in Maidstone Road, Kingston, Milton Keynes. This is a new 28,000 sq ft UK base for American food industry processing and packing company Reiser UK. They will have a good view of the site as works progress as their existing headquarters are just across the road.
So despite all the mixed messages in the media over the last 12 months the year will finish in a flurry of activity and there appears to be no let up for 2018 as Warwick Burt is already pursuing many more opportunities.
Warwick Burt Construction is based at 12 Darnell Way, Moulton Park, Northampton, telephone 01604 790555 or visit the website www.warwickburt.com