From jamie.goodwin@hullcc.gov.uk | Wednesday 12 June 2019
Kingston International Business Park in Hedon Road has been purchased by JR Rix and Sons from Wykeland Group.
Hull’s largest multi-let industrial park has changed hands in a multi-million pound deal between two companies from the city.
Kingston International Business Park in Hedon Road has been purchased by JR Rix and Sons from Wykeland Group, ending almost three decades of ownership and investment by the commercial developer.
Wykeland purchased the site in 1991 from the administrators of engineering business Priestmans after the historic Hull company folded with the loss of hundreds of jobs, leaving the site vacant.
Over the past 28 years Wykeland has completed new buildings, refurbished existing facilities and invested in the infrastructure across the 30-acre site to create a thriving 500,000 sq ft business park where close to 1,000 people are now employed by a range of well-known local companies including Crestwood Fittings, Paneltex and Harrison Solway Logistics.
Wykeland managing director Dominic Gibbons said: “When we put Kingston International Business Park on the market in late 2018, we did not anticipate the site would be purchased by a local operator, so we’re delighted the new owner is a Hull company.
“We know JR Rix well as a long-established and highly respected Hull business, which will build on the long-term relationships we have created with the primarily locally-owned businesses on site.
“Kingston International Business Park is 100 per cent let and we have made a strategic decision to divest this asset as the market conditions are right for the sale.”
The acquisition is the biggest single investment in the 140-year history of Rix Group. The company also owns Tower House Lane, which borders the business park to the east, and Stoneferry Ltd, which shares the same directors as JR Rix, owns Unicorn Business Park directly to the west of the site.
JR Rix CEO Tim Rix said: “Acquiring Kingston International Business Park is a great move for us because it joins together the two business parks which we already have an interest in on either side of the site.
“Together, the three parks total more than 70 acres and that gives us more flexibility to provide commercial premises that fulfil our operational needs and our tenants’ space requirements."
Wykeland is one of Yorkshire and the Humber’s leading commercial developers with a development pipeline of almost £400m within the region. Flagship schemes include @TheDock, home to C4DI.
The company is also driving forward the £80m regeneration of the Fruit Market, working with joint venture partners Beal Homes and Hull City Council.
