A MULTI-million pound contract to build small business units at Thorp Arch Estate, near the A1 at Wetherby, has been won by a leading North Yorkshire construction company.

The £3.5m contract to build 21 high-quality small business units, totaling 25,600 sq ft, and five larger warehouse and workshop units totalling 44,280 sq ft, has been awarded to S Harrison Construction, of Malton, by business park development specialists, Arlington Development Management.

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 1,150 sq ft to 2,400 sq ft and be available for light manufacturing, warehousing or distribution businesses on a lease-only basis.

The units are the first phase of a £9 million scheme - the biggest new build in the estate's 60-year history - for the estate owners Hanover Property Unit Trust to meet demand from businesses wanting to locate to the 385-acre estate set in attractive, secure parkland.

Building work on the new units, designed by Chesterfield-based architects, Frank Shaw Associates, is due to start next month after improvements to access roads and other site preparatory work has been completed. Mike Lee, Arlington Development Management director, said: "We are pleased to have awarded the building contract for the first phase of this exciting scheme to S Harrison Construction, whom we know will do a very good job.

"Thorp Arch Estate is a very attractive location and there is already significant interest in these units which are due to become available in the autumn. We are very much looking forward to work progressing on this first phase and to bringing the others on stream."

Chris Walker, operations director for S Harrison Construction, said: "Ground works have already started and we anticipate that the steelwork frame will start earlier than scheduled, so it shouldn't be too long before the project starts to take shape."

Thorp Arch Estate, in the "golden triangle" between York, Harrogate and Leeds, is a business and retail estate and has a thriving business community including 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.

Updated: 09:43 Tuesday, June 22, 2004