A tender process is underway to find the contractor that will build a new 4.5 acre trade park in Cheltenham.

Demolition work is already underway at the former Vibixa factory site on the corner of Wymans Lane and Runnings Road.

With that nearing completion, work will then get underway on building the 14-unit trade counter and industrial warehousing development.

The 14 units will range in size from 3,487 to 34,981 square feet with nine being trade counter and the remainder industrial or warehouse units.

Festival Trade Park is being developed by a joint venture between industrial developer and asset manager Chancerygate and international real estate firm Hines.

They acquired the site from clothing brand Superdry. Prior to Superdry occupying the site in 2015 it was home to food packaging company Vibixa - the maker of boxes for Weetabix.

Chancerygate and Hines are in now tendering the main contractor for the build element of the development. All 14 units are expected to be available for occupation in in the first quarter of 2021.

Chancerygate development director, George Dickens, said: "There has been very little speculative development of industrial and trade counter units in Cheltenham over the last ten years.

"Festival Trade Park will provide the town and region with much needed, high quality space in an established trading estate.

"We have already had a number of initial enquiries from interested parties.

"Now work is underway we will enter into more advanced discussions with potential occupiers about how we can work with them to make Festival Trade Park the best place for them to further grow their businesses."

Chancerygate and Hines launched their JV in September 2018. It currently has six schemes with a gross development value totalling around £107m, comprising 753,711 sq ft.

As well as Cheltenham, the JV has further developments in Birmingham, Warrington, Nottingham, Tonbridge and Bournemouth.

Greg Cooper, Hines UK director of industrial and logistics, added: "We are pleased to have started work on this speculative development which we believe will bring much needed light industrial and warehouse space to the region.

"Early interest from potential occupiers has been encouraging and we look forward to completing the development and securing our first tenants in due course."

The site selling agent was Richard Knightley and Festival Trade Park's marketing agents are Colliers, KBW and Alder King.