Spotlight shines on Cheshire West

Cheshire West and Chester Council return to Leeds next week, sharing an exhibition stand at UKREiiF with Enterprise Cheshire and Warrington, Cheshire East Council and Warrington Borough Council to showcase investment opportunities across the region.

The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum is an annual event attracting national and international investors and developers. The event takes place over three days May 21 to 23 at the Royal Armouries Leeds and Leeds Dock.

This year’s event expects to welcome over 10,000 attendees, including over 1,500 developers and over 1,500 investors. The delegates will hear from 700 speakers across 20 stages, and over 150 exhibitors.

Councillor Nathan Pardoe, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy, Regeneration and Digital Transformation said:

“Delegates to UKREiiF will hear about the future investment opportunities across our region.

“We have a strong track record and ambitious regeneration projects across the borough, the Levelling Up project to reimagine Ellesmere Port Market and the surrounding area is already underway. The first stage of a £22 million town centre redevelopment is being completed in Winsford this month and site clearance has been completed for a new history centre to be built in Chester.  

“You can find us at stand H20 where we’ll be shining a spotlight on Ellesmere Port, sharing the latest news about ORIGIN with new industrial premises now available at Link Logistics and the Vortex Business Park, both completed this month, we also have further land opportunities available.

“In Chester our focus is on Northgate Phase Two following the successes of Phase One delivering Chester’s new award-winning market, restaurants, cinema, offices and car parking. This exciting future phase provides an opportunity to take forward a significant part of the City to bring residential living to the heart of Northgate.”

Chester Northgate

The Council will be discussing future phases of Northgate with developers. The Northgate Regeneration Area is in the heart of the historic centre of Chester, creating a regeneration opportunity of approximately 2.7 hectares.

The area sits alongside the completed Northgate Phase 1 which opened in November 2022, delivering a new destination indoor market hall, cinema, multi-storey car park, commercial and business units and a new public realm.  Alongside that is the highly successful Storyhouse Theatre which includes Chester’s main library.

The guiding principles for future development, are for high quality design and innovative solutions for the spaces and enhancing accessibility throughout the area.

This phase could be a distinct area with a contemporary feel, whilst still complementing and respecting the historic, cultural, and mixed-uses of the city centre.

The next phase will look to develop potential uses for the area including residential, commercial, leisure, educational, and cultural. Quality public spaces and a clear movement pattern for pedestrians in and around the area with strong linkages to adjacent areas (particularly through from Watergate Street to the Northgate Phase 1 area and to the Cathedral) will underpin the area’s attractiveness and performance.

The scheme will be looking to generate social value and community benefit, maximising the opportunities for Chester to develop as a learning city, and as a place to live, work and play. 

ORIGIN Ellesmere Port

ORIGIN was launched at UKREiiF last year; delegates from across the UK and worldwide will be able to hear the latest news from Ellesmere Port Industrial Estate and the world leading green technology that is shining a spotlight on the region.

ORIGIN Ellesmere Port has 1,300 businesses supporting employment for 24,100 people. There are four distinctive development zones, which have attracted over £750 million investment to date including Regatta, Jaguar Land Rover / DHL, Westland Horticulture, Marks and Spencer, ESSAR, Peel (Protos), URENCO, Cheshire Oaks, University of Chester (Thornton Science Park) with a further £2bn forecast. The ORIGIN area forecasts an increase to 1,463 businesses, providing employment for 30,000 people by 2040.

ORIGIN boasts transformational projects now under development to respond to the Climate Emergency. Most significant is HyNet, an industry-led initiative to develop world-leading Carbon Capture Usage and Storage and Hydrogen Power.

Essar EET

Essar Energy Transition (EET) is creating the UK’s first low carbon process refinery at ORIGIN Ellesmere Port. EET plans to invest US$ 2.4 billion in developing a range of low carbon energy transition projects over the next five years.

EET Hydrogen, will deliver 1.35 gigawatt (GW) of blue hydrogen for the UK market, with follow-on capacity set to reach 4GW. The investment programme will play a major role in accelerating the UK’s low carbon transformation, supporting decarbonisation and creating highly skilled employment opportunities.

Fulcrum

Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc., is a clean energy company pioneering the creation of renewable, fuels from landfill waste, a £16.8 million grant from the Department for Transport Advanced Fuels Fund is supporting development of Fulcrum NorthPoint, a residual waste to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility located at the Essar Complex in Ellesmere Port. The plant is expected to have the capacity to transform about 600,000 tonnes of residual waste into approximately 100 million litres of low-carbon SAF per year when it enters operations in 2027.

Protos

Protos in Ellesmere Port connects energy intensive businesses with sources of low carbon energy. Advanced Biofuel Solutions Ltd (ABSL) is developing its first large-scale industrial plant, situated in the Protos energy park.

ABSL have a Joint Development Agreement with Greenergy to develop, construct and operate up to five waste-based biofuel plants in the UK. The first plant in Protos will convert 133,000 tonnes of waste into biomethane or biohydrogen for use in HGVs or buses.

Together, the five plants would replace millions of litres of fossil petrol and diesel used in transport fuels, saving 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, with the output of the plants sufficient to power 5,000 HGVs.

Amongst others, Encyclis is currently moving forward with an industry-leading plan to develop the UK’s first energy from waste facility with carbon capture. The Encyclis facility is a key addition to the Protos hub, bringing together innovative technologies and connecting energy-intensive businesses with sources of low-carbon energy. The hub has the potential to support over 3,000 jobs, with over £700m invested in the local area.

Stellantis

ORIGIN hosts the UK’s first manufacturing plant dedicated solely to electric vehicles, producing the Stellantis group’s all-electric small van (It is also the first Stellantis plant globally dedicated to electric vehicle manufacturing). The Plant has been transformed for EV production following £100 million investment. The first car produced in Ellesmere Port was the Vauxhall Viva, in 1964, Stellantis will become an electric-only brand by 2028.

Delegates to UKREiiF can hear about the future investment opportunities across ORIGIN and the region.

Added Councillor Pardoe:

“West Cheshire has an excellent record for attracting investment and Leeds will bring together more developers and investors to see for themselves what the borough can offer from available industrial land, office space and transport links.

“The Council would like to hear from any local businesses planning to attend REiiF, to join forces and showcase all the investment opportunities.”