£35m Business Park to Be Built at Timken

£35m Business Park to Be Built at Timken More than 1,000 new jobs are expected to be created on the edge of Northampton when a £35 million business park is built on the former Timken factory site.The Timken Business Park will feature a mixture of new offices and industrial units. Martin Ashley, from developers Wilson Bowden said: "The new business park will provide the area with much-needed high-specification office and industrial accommodation." The development will feature 100,000 sq ft of office space and 160,000 sq ft of industrial space. Work is expected to start on the business park in the middle of 2008. It has not yet been announced which firms will be based in the park. But estate agent Ian Leather, who is overseeing the sale of the new units, said it was expected to attract both local and national companies. He said: "Businesses located on the site will benefit from the development's close proximity to the town centre and a vast local workforce. The site also affords a wider regional appeal due to its strategic location close to junction 16 of the M1 and the extended motorway network." American bearing manufacturer British Timken had been based in Northampton for 60 years when it closed the Duston site in 2002.When the factory closed it employed more than 1,000 workers, jobs which the new business park is expected to replace. As well as the business park, developers Bellway Homes will build more than 400 new houses on the 67-acre former factory site. The development will feature a range of three, four, and five-bedroom houses, with the first to go on sale early next year.Other facilities will include a new cricket pitch, two football pitches and an area for archery.