Regent Works

Regent Works occupies a substantial site on Lawley Street in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, just off the A50 with direct access to the A500 and M6. AMCO was instructed in May 2022. What the client owned was a large former works building with deep ground, lower ground and first-floor floorplates, plus an open compound — around 74,000 sq ft in total. Substantial, well located, but configured for a single industrial occupier at a time when the demand in Longton was coming from small independent businesses needing a few hundred square feet with flexible terms.

Rather than convert the building in one exercise, we've run Regent Works as a rolling phased development — designing, releasing and letting space in tranches, with each phase informing the size, specification and pricing of the next. Unit mix built from live enquiry data. Space now runs from 150 sq ft storage containers, through creative studios of 297–651 sq ft, mid-sized studios and workshops at 770–1,412 sq ft, up to larger light industrial units above 3,000 sq ft. Where a size band fills faster than we can release it, the next phase is cut to match. Specification aimed squarely at small business. Individually metered three-phase supplies, LED lighting, electric roller shutter or double-door access, and private WC and kitchenette provision to selected units. Shared facilities that make small units work. Communal kitchen, purpose-built shower and WC facilities, on-site parking, a forklift loading bay serving the upper floor, and full CCTV coverage — amenity no 400 sq ft occupier could fund alone. Occupancy cost engineered down. Units are sized and assessed so qualifying businesses fall within small business rates relief, with several units carrying rateable values low enough for a nil rates bill. Rents optimised release by release, priced against current enquiry levels and take-up on the preceding phase rather than to a fixed schedule. Full in-house management from the first letting — lettings, referencing, rent collection, service charge, compliance and day-to-day occupier liaison.

In just four years Regent Works has gone from a single large works building to an established business community of 70+ occupiers, spanning fitness, boxing, beauty, photography, fashion, e-commerce, training, auction and light industrial use — a mix that generates footfall and cross-referral between tenants. Demand has consistently run ahead of supply. Units let quickly on release and the site operates close to full occupancy throughout, with the only availability at any given moment being the current phase. That is deliberate: rather than hold the estate static at full occupancy, we keep converting and releasing new space, so there is nearly always something coming to market.