Commercial property firm GVA acted on behalf of Canalside Developments, the owner of the Yorkshire business park, and secured a 10-year deal with NFU Mutual, which has more than 300 branches and nearly a million customers around the country.
Matthew Tootell from GVA’s offices in Leeds suggested in a statement that the proximity of the Ripon site to the A1 (M), the main road-based transport link in and out of North Yorkshire, was important in attracting NFU Mutual to the business park and its new offices.
“This is a fantastic result and a coup for the City of Ripon to attract a well-known high-quality occupier to the area,” Tootell said. “The attraction to the city, especially to Ripon Business Park, is due to the fact that Canalside House is a purpose-built, well-specified office building with a good level of car parking,” he added.
Meanwhile, Canalside Developments’ director Andrew Lupton described the new offices as fitting the bill in terms of “location, quality of space and unit size”, with 2,150 sq ft now earmarked for NFU Mutual’s purposes for the next decade.
In other north-of-England office space news, the property development group Peel recently revealed that it intends to create new office and industrial space at the Pemberton Business Park in Wigan.
Meanwhile, in central London, the insurance underwriting company Ascot Ltd recently signed up to occupy offices at the under-construction office tower at 20 Fenchurch St in the City.
Editor’s notes: As of August 2024, NFU Mutual listed Canalside House in Ripon as its headquarters on its LinkedIn company page.