THE lease on the huge Clifton Moor factory where Lawson Mardon packaging company closed in June with the loss of 76 jobs is up for grabs - at a rent of £535,000 per year exclusive.

Already York commercial property agency Briggs Burley has linked arms with the York Inward Investment Board and Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, to call for big industrialists in the UK and abroad to consider moving in.

With 142,400 sq ft of steel-framed building set in 6.5 acres off Kettlestring Lane it is easily the biggest available facility of its kind in the whole of the city.

Whoever takes on the lease - which has 20 years to run - will also need to accept a rating assessment based on a rateable value of £670,000. Freehold landlord is a Scottish pension fund.

Ten years of printing and supplying wrappers for top chocolates such as Kit Kat for Nestl came to a sudden end this summer when Lawson Mardon decided to focus production at its two other factories in Cumbria and Bath.

Management blamed a static UK market where capacity outstrips demand, coupled with the strong Pound and the weak Euro.

"After all the bad news we are looking for a silver lining," said agent John Burley, acting for Lawson Mardon.

He said he had already spoken informally to representatives of two organisations looking to re-locate within York, adding: "We are only at the talking stage."

But he recognised that the site, with its 20,000 sq ft of modern offices, 80,000 sq ft of production area and 40,000 sq ft of warehousing, was ideal for relocation by a large industrial or high tech operation operating elsewhere in Britain or abroad and these were being targeted with the help of York IIB and Yorkshire Forward.

Dave Taylor, marketing director of the York Inward Investment Board said:

"It's not often that we have the opportunity to market such an exceptionally high quality and well-located industrial unit in York.

"At best we could double the number of people employed there, depending on the nature of the industry which moves in there"