THE company that bought prominent roadside land on the A390 has explained what it intends to do with it. 

Acting on behalf of private vendor clients, Vickery Holman property consultants have recently sold 2.28 acres of freehold roadside development land in St Austell for an undisclosed sum to Britannia Lanes who were represented by BLS Estates.

The land, located on the eastern fringe of St Austell is 'highly prominent being' on the junction of the A390 Holmbush Road and the A391, the main road linking St Austell with the A30. Planning permission exists for two commercial buildings under a Class E consent which permits a wide variety of uses.

Britannia Lanes intend on developing a new self-storage facility on the site as Mark Lane explained: "We are looking to replicate our very successful self-storage facilities in Exeter, Truro and particularly our latest facility in Falmouth, which opened in January 2023. 

"This purpose-built, self-storage facility in St Austell will have the latest access control system delivered via an APP allowing customers to open and close the main access doors and the doors of their unit/s 24hrs a day, 365 days a year.

"We will offer a range of different size units from 25 sq ft (the size of a broom cupboard) to 250 sq ft (the size of a large double garage) there will be ten different sizes to choose from which, will be ideal for both business and private customers alike.

"All units are individually alarmed and will be located over three floors, a goods and passenger lift will allow access to the units on 1st and 2nd floors. The contracts are very flexible with only a minimum storage period of 28 days, there after the customer will only pay for the number of days used.’

The sale resulted after a request for best bids by the agents.

Joanne High from Vickery Holman said: "We received several competitive bids for this land which demonstrated its appeal to a wide variety of potential occupiers. The fact that it already benefitted from planning consent was useful to some of those interested parties, including Britannia Lanes."

Britannia Lanes plan to develop the top section of the site starting the build in the spring of 2024. They plan to resell the lower plots which have excellent visibility from the A390 and A391 and have already received interest from two blue-chip companies.