What is the huge new building going up beside Waitrose/John Lewis on Futura Park in Ipswich – and could it give some households the chance to join the latest home-improvement fashion?
Within the last few weeks a huge new warehouse has started taking shape on the business park next to the Audi car dealership – it is to be a new storage centre for Lok’nStore providing space for individuals and businesses who want somewhere to store items.
It is due to open later this year – just as “decluttering” is becoming a popular theme for many families with the release of Marie Kondo’s television series urging people to reduce the amount of items in their homes.
Her mantra is that people should only keep items that “spark joy” – but many feel reluctant to throw out or give away things they feel they might want again one day. So storage centres like Lok’nStore could be very useful.
When the company was given planning permission for the centre by Ipswich council last year, their application said that households made up of 80% of their customers – although business users hired more than a third of their space because commercial clients tended to hire larger storage units.
Lok’nStore has several units across southern England – currently its nearest is at Harlow in Essex. There are several other companies providing storage space in the Ipswich area.
The centre is expected to be open seven days a week between 7am and 8pm – and to employ four members of staff on site.
It is one of the last units to be built on Futura Park which was the site of the Crane Engineering works until its final closure in 2008.
The redevelopment of the site began with the opening of the Waitrose/John Lewis store in 2012 – and has been followed by more retail warehouses and car showrooms.
The final section of Futura Park to be developed is 40 industrial units for small and medium sized companies around the back of the storage centre and the two stores.
This application was submitted to Ipswich Council at the end of 2018 and is expected to be discussed by its planning and development committee within the next few weeks – the units would be of varying sizes, some aimed at new-start businesses.
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