The new Harrogate offices of Commercial Estates Management

A £200 million property investment company is to open a Yorkshire office in Harrogate.

Commercial Estates Management (CEM) will move into Central House, Harrogate, next month, offices which it recently bought for £5.2 million. It will entail a staff of ten, seven of them new positions.

Meanwhile CEM is seeking planning consent for a 60,000 sq ft office development on the neighbouring six acre site, a potential tenant for which is already in discussions.

Aidan Grimshaw, formerly director of FPDSavills in Manchester, who as a new CEM director will head up the northern office, said Yorkshire accounted for a CEM property portfolio of around £25 million out of total northern assets of around £50 million. He is now actively looking to buy good potential sites in North Yorkshire, using a share of CEM's £50 million buying fund to be made available nationally in 2000.

The neighbouring land, which is designated for office use, was the sort of deal he would be seeking. "I cannot say at this stage who is the interested potential tenant, but it would involve taking over the entire offices with an potential for another 500 jobs.

Nikki Shale, managing director of CEM, said that the majority of the £50 million investment money to be made available was likely to be spent in the North "and we believe it is vital that we now have a presence in the region in order to manage these properties more effectively. This is partially a reflection on the market trend for landlords to work closer to their tenants."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.