Partnership Property News

                  

Business park in Pompey punches above its weight

A mixed martial arts and fitness gym is the latest business to move into a thriving £5m business park in the heart of Portsmouth.

A mixed martial arts and fitness gym is the latest business to move into a thriving £5m business park in the heart of Portsmouth.
Gym 01, run by co-directors and founders Gareth Johnson and Brian Adams, signed a five-year lease, at £30,000 a year, on Unit 16 at Partnership Park.

The warehouse-style building, which has a mezzanine floor, comprises 5,383 sq ft (500 sq m).

Regional commercial property consultancy Hughes Ellard, the park’s agent, handled the letting on behalf of city region regeneration body The Partnership, which developed the scheme and is the landlord.

More than £160,000 has been invested in fitting out the 5.5m-high building in readiness for the recent opening of Gym 01. The money was also used to buy equipment, including a fight cage, boxing ring and fitness machines.

The business, which employs 10 part-time staff, operates seven days a week and is already attracting upwards of 100 customers a day.

Gareth, from Gosport, said: “We’re firmly on the front foot with the business and customers are telling us they are knocked out, so to speak, by the facilities here.

“The central location is superb, the support we’ve had from The Partnership has been excellent and Hughes Ellard acted to the letter. It couldn’t have gone better.”

Gym 01 incorporates two well-known clubs in Portsmouth – South Coast Submissions, headed up by Brian, who is also from Gosport, and DKJ Martial Arts, which is run by Gareth.

Their gym was previously at the Sanderson Centre in Gosport.

Phase two of Partnership Park, at Fratton Way, a three-acre former derelict site at Fratton Way, between St Mary’s Hospital and Portsmouth FC, consists of eight units of between 2,072 sq ft (192.5 sq m) and 5,383 sq ft (500 sq m).

Four of the units are occupied, with a deal about to be signed on a fifth. The remaining three are available either leasehold or freehold, with allocated parking.

Gary Jeffries, Hughes Ellard’s managing director, said: “Gym 01 is creating jobs on site, which is great for the local economy, helping to drive inward investment. We are confident of welcoming another occupier soon to this thriving business park.”

Martin Dennison, the executive director at The Partnership, which is dedicated to economic development and regeneration in and around the city, said: “It’s great to see Partnership Park attract well-run businesses.

“Gym 01 is playing an important role in breathing new life into the area and we are on course to seeing up to 200 jobs at Partnership Park.”

The anchor occupier is cab company AquaCars, which is reputedly the largest tax company in Hampshire, carrying an estimated 10 million passengers a year.

It bought three units freehold, for an undisclosed sum, moving into the new headquarters last year.

Another occupier is Fuizion Freeze Dried Food, a family firm which produces freeze dried food for some of the world’s most daring expeditions and races.

Handlesbanken, the Swedish lender, funded the scheme. The first £6.5m phase of the business park, consisting of eight units, is fully let.

Other available units:

For more information, email Martin or visit Estates Gazette.