Rural estate business park

Prestwick Hall Farm, located just north of Newcastle Airport, is one of Rural Solutions’ longest standing clients. We first started working with the Wilson family in 2005 and continue to work with them now, almost 20 years later.

The Grade II* listed Prestwick Hall is considered to be one of renowned architect John Dobson's most successful classical houses. The Wilson family purchased the property in 1979 and began its much-needed restoration, following its use during World War II as a prisoner of war camp.

A decade after the purchase and restoration of the Hall and formal gardens, the owners bought a further 350 acres of surrounding farmland to protect and preserve the country estate that had become their family home.

Objective

To develop a viable new estate-based enterprise to provide income for the estate.

Approach

In 2005, the family began to look at diversification possibilities and approached Rural Solutions to help.

Following an extensive market opportunities assessment, Rural Solutions designed and secured planning consent for the redevelopment of the dilapidated farm buildings at Prestwick Hall into a contemporary new business park comprising both new build and conversion in a beautiful parkland surroundings.

Prestwick Park has become one of Northumberland’s leading providers of high-quality offices, making an important contribution to local economic prosperity. The space is fully let and currently hosts 15 companies across over 16,000 sq ft in the marine, energy, professional, creative, real estate, and financial sectors. It commands premium rates and continues to receive availability enquiries. The success of the Park is not only due to the location, but to the high-quality offer and setting.

To build on the success of the Business Park, in 2018 Rural Solutions promoted the expansion of the Business Park to the emerging Northumberland Local Plan to secure the allocation of a further two hectares of employment land from the metropolitan green belt adjacent to the existing site. Working closely with Northumberland Council and other key stakeholders the case was made and Representations were submitted for an extension of the Business Park, as part of the Northumberland Local Plan Review. The proposal for a two hectare extension of the employment land was found to be sound and in 2022 the two hectare site was allocated.

With the additional land included in the Local Plan, there were several options open to the family and it was critical to the continued success and further growth of the estate that all options across the estate were rigorously considered and evaluated before any decisions about future investment were made. This would ensure that the next phase in the development of Prestwick Park was the right one – balancing the family’s objectives with the market opportunity presented, to deliver greatest value from the estate.

In 2020 Rural Solutions undertook further work to produce an ambitious, yet realistic plan, for the future sequence of development that considered the estate in its entirety and could achieve the optimum financial outcome within the context of the ‘art of the possible’ from a planning perspective and provide a suggested development hierarchy. Following this work, in 2022 the team then determined the most valuable proposition for the extended business park, considering the shifting preferences of office tenants in a climate of uncertainty and rapid change. This included financial modelling, research of the local demographics and employment space market, and a review of established employment spaces as well as those which are proposed and under construction, to gain a clear understanding of the current and future office space market.

Rural Solutions is currently working to create the concept, design, and secure planning consent for one of the country’s first sustainable, rural newbuild office schemes on the additional two hectares of employment land.

Outcome

A real success story for Prestwick Hall Farm; from derelict farm buildings to a thriving business park, and a path secured for further office development, highlighting the extremely effective nature of the Rural Solutions combined service (Consulting, Planning, Architecture and Landscape), collaborative approach.