Former Hallmark printing works on the market

Offers of around £2.25m are being sought for the site at Dawson Lane in Tong, Bradford.

The site, which includes 180,000 sq ft of single-storey manufacturing and distribution buildings, is located next to Hallmark’s new headquarters in Dawson Lane by the South Bradford Ring Road.

In December Hallmark cards announced it was moving its head office from Bingley Road, where it had been based for around 30 years. That site will also be sold. Hallmark said no job losses were expected.

The former print works closed down after Hallmark ended in-house production.

Mike Dove, partner at agent Dove Haigh Phillips, said: “This rare and outstanding opportunity for the refurbishment or redevelopment of a top Bradford industrial site has arisen because of Hallmark’s commitment to its European headquarters in Dawson Lane.”

Steve Wright, Hallmark’s international chief executive, said: “We’re excited about the opportunity that moving to Dawson Lane presents. The essence of our company is design and creativity and the relocation gives us an opportunity to re-shape our head office and ensure that it fits our needs as both a creative and customer focussed business.”

The news comes as Knight Frank’s new industrial property Logic report revealed that total take-up of industrial units over 50,000 sq ft across West Yorkshire reached 1.7m sq ft in the second half of 2015.

This shows a 58 per cent increase on the first six months of 2015 and was 16 per cent higher than the same period in 2014.

Among the main deals, TK Maxx signed a lease for 635,000 sq ft at Cross Point in Wakefield and BSS acquired 50,000 sq ft at Trident Park, Normanton.

Design and Build accounted for two-fifths of take-up in this period, while take-up of second-hand space more than doubled to just over one million sq ft. Design and Build has been mostly focussed on prime regional sites in Aire Valley, Leeds and Trident Park, Normanton.