AS if Wrexham city wasn't already riding a wave of positivity, with business booming, it now looks set to be home to 'utopia'.

Planning is soon to begin on a new 1.5 million sq ft development, which is rumoured to be named 'Utopia City'.

Alex Lovén, entrepreneur and founder of online sports equipment retailer Net World Sports has recently announced his plans to further expand his empire. This announcement comes shortly after the opening of Net World Sports' new £25m, 411,000sq ft HQ, a stone's throw away from the expected new 'Utopia' park. The new park is set to include 18 units, a petrol station, a hotel, a drive-thru, and much more.

Net World Sports staff.

Net World Sports staff.

Alex is about to submit a planning application to develop 200 acres of land that he acquired two years ago. He hopes this new business park, which will be attached to Wrexham Industrial Estate, will help regenerate the newly named city, and sees no reason why Wrexham residents and those commuting from nearby towns should not have a world-class experience when they arrive.

"No one has described Wrexham as Utopia, but why not? We want to set the bar high and attract businesses from all over the world to come to Wrexham," he said.

Alex has always claimed Net World Sports is a business built by the people of Wrexham, for the people of Wrexham, and this was only further echoed when he cemented the business's long-term future to the city after the announcement of their new HQ in late 2021. Wrexham currently supplies about 70% of Net World Sports' workforce, and the new development is estimated to generate thousands of new jobs for the locals and will act as a boost for the community.

Read more:

'Utopia City' will include 18 mixed-use units, including but not limited to storage, manufacturing, and leisure facilities. The park will cater to unit sizes varying from 2,000 sq ft to 500,000 sq ft in a bid to provide diversity for all types of businesses.

The aim of the park is to support locals by giving Wrexham businesses an affordable place to expand, help retain business in Wrexham, and to attract outside businesses that ordinarily never would've considered Wrexham as a viable option. Through generating more jobs and business opportunities, Alex hopes future generations won't feel the need to leave Wrexham in order to gain employment.

The new Net World Sports warehouse in Wrexham.

The new Net World Sports warehouse in Wrexham.

There are also plans for the park to include a petrol station, a hotel, and two drive-thrus. Though generating business opportunities is at the forefront of the development plans, Alex is invested in not creating a stereotypical industrial park, and instead wants to create a place that people want to visit.

They have coordinated with residents to assess the visual impact of the site and have promised to include landscape bunds and buffers along with scenic footpaths and greenery. Alex will look to retain as many trees and wildlife as possible, after demanding that one particular unit is to be designed around a group of historic trees, instead of cutting them down. As an avid cyclist himself, Alex is also insistent on the park including cycle lanes.

The team is putting in a hybrid planning application in March 2023 and is estimating to be well into construction come early 2024. The build schedule will be led by demand.