Work has started on a new £3m business park set to create up to 100 jobs in Huddersfield.

Bridge Business Park at Colne Bridge Road at Colnebridge, is expected to be completed and ready for occupation by June this year.

It is one of three schemes to provide industrial space in the Colnebridge area – together creating 300 jobs.

The 2.73-acre Bridge Business Park site is owned by West Yorkshire property company Frank Marshall Estates, who bought the site from nursery products firm Mamas & Papas for an undisclosed sum in 2016. The site is next to Mamas & Papas headquarters.

Jonathan O’Connor, of property consultancy Walker Singleton, which is marketing the new business park, said the site would feature a number of light industrial units available to lease ranging in size from 2,500 sq ft to 10,750 sq ft.

Buildings take shape on the Bridge Business Park off Colne Bridge Road.

“The position of Bridge Business Park is exceptional,” he said. “It is in an established industrial location with neighbouring occupiers including Mamas & Papas, VTL and C&J Antich and is next to the busy A62 Leeds-Huddersfield road, with the M62 just 1.5 miles away.”

Bradford-based Frank Marshall Estates, headed by Edward and Jimmy Marshall, is a well-established real estate company with significant commercial assets in Yorkshire.

Edward Marshall said: “This is an extremely significant development for us. Huddersfield needs an employment park like this and so we are hoping to satisfy the pent-up demand from small-to-medium-sized businesses, who are looking for attractive, practical and modern premises, combining warehousing and distribution space, with hi-tech office facilities.”

It is understood that the exact size of the units will be determined by the needs of potential occupiers.

Image of the £3m Bridge Business Park now being built on land next to the headquarters of Mamas & Papas at Colne Bridge

Jimmy Marshall said: “We have confidence in the regional industrial property market, which is why we are building speculatively.

“Although Frank Marshall Estates has extensive interests in West Yorkshire, this is our first major development in Huddersfield, one of the

county’s foremost towns with a long-established industrial history.

“We are proud to be contributing to the area’s economy, by building bespoke business/industrial units and creating jobs. We are committed to the town.”

Mr O’Connor said: “It is a brave decision by Frank Marshall Estates to build speculatively, but the recent success of the company’s speculative Newhall Business Park in Bradford has proved that the demand is there for these kind of high-quality units.”

The joint marketing agents of the Bridge Business Park are Huddersfield-based property consultancy Hanson Chartered Surveyors.

Buildings take shape on the Bridge Business Park off Colne Bridge Road.

Elsewhere in the area, Yorkshire Water’s sister company Keyland Developments Ltd secured planning permission last October to turn former water treatment works at Colnebridge and Bradley into 75,000 sq ft of employment space with the potential to create 200 jobs.

The Colnebridge treatment works site, will be transformed to provide 40,000 sq ft of industrial accommodation with nine units ranging in size from 1,950sq ft upwards. The disused Bradley treatment works site has permission for a self-contained industrial park of about 35,000sq ft with a range of industrial units from 1,250 sq ft upwards.

Keyland said the development of the sites would meet an urgent need for new employment space.