A Shropshire NHS hospital trust is renting office space at a historic trade park which developers say is bringing 'important site back to life'
The trust that runs the two major acute hospitals in Shropshire has leased one of the county's most historic industrial sites.
More than 32,000 square feet of warehouse and office space on Sentinel Trade Park in Shrewsbury has been let to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
The letting has been secured by Shrewsbury-based agents Halls Commercial on behalf of Paterson Enterprises, parent company of Morris Lubricants and Morris Leisure, which owns the 8.5-acre park.
The Sentinel Works, a precision engineering centre since 1915, ended production on April 30 last year when tenants Radius Aerospace UK Ltd closed its Shrewsbury operation.
The works originally made steam-powered Sentinel lorries before evolving to railway locomotives and later diesel-engined lorries, buses and locomotives. Rolls-Royce took over the business in 1956 and made diesel engines in Shrewsbury until 1983.
A multi-million pound investment by Paterson Enterprises has rejuvenated the famous former engineering works in Whitchurch Road and turned it into a multi-use trade park.
SaTH has leased 20,236 sq ft of warehouse space for the storage of archives and 11,995 sq ft of office space in Block A at the park.
Other parts of the park have been leased to Enterprise car rental, Lakeside Coaches and Morris Lubricants which relocated its distribution function away from the company’s Castle Foregate manufacturing facility as part of a £1.5 million investment.
Edward Goddard, a director of Paterson Enterprises, said: “We are delighted that the NHS is leasing space at Sentinel Trade Park as we bring this important site back to life for the benefit of Shrewsbury, in partnership with Halls Commercial.”
James Evans, head of Halls Commercial, added: “This is a significant letting to the public sector of warehouse and office space on the repurposed site which is great news for the local economy in terms of jobs and investment.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Paterson Enterprises to find tenants for the former Sentinel Works, which has played such an important role in Shrewsbury’s engineering heritage and will continue to serve the town for many years to come, albeit in a different way.”
SaTH said the trust plans to use the site to consolidate health records among other things.
A spokesperson said: "The warehouse at Sentinel Trade Park will be used to consolidate our health records and we are considering our options for best use of the rest of the space."
