Queen’s Place gives region’s contract industry a big boost

Work on Mansfield’s prestigious new town centre gateway building, Queen’s Place, has generated nearly half a million pounds for the local construction industry, new figures show.

One fifth of the contractors involved in the building are Mansfield based, including groundworkers, concrete specialists, roofers, aluminium fabricators and electrical engineers.

A further 40 per cent are from the wider Nottinghamshire area. All but three of the 29 suppliers are from Nottinghamshire or just over the border in Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

Seven Mansfield companies are helping to bring the £2.4m eco-building to completion, which is the first commercial development to be taken forward in the town centre in more than a decade.

Michael Ford, managing director of Stag Shopfronts Ltd, which has provided all 70 high-spec windows and doors in the building said: “Queen’s Place has been a challenging and exciting project and has kept our team really busy over the summer.

“It’s been great to work on a landmark building in our home town. To be able to say we helped to design and build Queen’s Place is a real feather in our cap. It’s also our biggest project of late.

“People just haven’t been taking the big projects forward, so Queen’s Place has been a welcome boost to our order books.”

Construction Services Mansfield, Amber Decorators, Electract Ltd, IMS PH Ltd, Med-Clad Contracts Ltd and Northfield Construction have also benefited from the project, which has been managed by Mansell Balfour Beatty.

The iconic eco-building, which is nearing completion, creates two highly-visible retail opportunities and six high-quality offices for businesses and retailers.

Located on Queen Street next to Mansfield’s brand new £9m bus station, its train station and within 200 metres of the market square, not only does Queen’s Place become a new gateway building but with daily footfall of more than 13,000 it is one of the busiest spots in town, with more traffic than East Midlands Airport.

Mike Robinson, head of regeneration at Mansfield District Council, said: “Building projects across the district have been few and far between.

“The construction industry, which is one of this district’s major employers, has had a challenging time during the economic downturn.

“It was vital that local contractors benefitted from the investment. We are delighted so many Mansfield companies have been involved and that we’ve been able to source more than 90 per cent of the contractors from the East Midlands.

“We invested in Queen’s Place to regenerate this site, this part of town and the town centre. That process has been as much about creating a stunning gateway building that makes a real statement about Mansfield’s prospects as it has been about creating high quality retail and office space that will attract exciting new companies to the town centre.”

Queen’s Place is equipped with some of the most efficient insulation materials, a sustainable air conditioning system, low-energy lighting, solar panels and a green roof.

With an A rating for its energy performance and an expected excellent rating from the building industry’s green architecture scheme, BREAAM, Queen’s Place will be the greenest place to work in Mansfield town centre.

Executive Mayor Tony Egginton will officially open Queen’s Place at a community launch on 17th November.

View Queen’s Place at www.queensplacemansfield.com or contact Matt Hannah or Giles Davis at Innes England with retail and office space enquiries on 0115 924 3243.