Plans for £7m office village at Gateway, Norwich - News - Property and Construction - Business Weekly

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Plans for £7m office village at Gateway, Norwich

Written by Ben Fountain
Thursday, 03 April 2008
Cambridge based property company, Wrenbridge Land, is to start the next phase of its development of Gateway 11 Business Park, Norwich, this month with cash backing from its in-house war chest, the Palmer Capital Development Fund. The scheme, which received planning consent in the middle of last year, kicks off with construction of a new 26,000 sq ft Focus DIY store at the entrance to the site, which will progress over the next six months. The Focus DIY deal will have an investment value of around £6m. Ben Coles, development director for Wrenbridge, said: “It is a real achievement to have acquired planning and finally be ready to develop the unit at Gateway 11. “The deal also involves putting in the final phase of infrastructure on the park which unlocks the Apex of the site, where we are aiming to submit a planning application for a substantial new office village.” The proposed office village will be a £7m build programme over 12-15 months. Ewen McLeod, who is responsible for the office village project, said: “We are planning a series of new office buildings ranging from 5-15,000 sq ft and totalling 55,000 sq ft. The application will be submitted in May and we anticipate starting construction in Q4 2008. “We hope to announce further deals at the business park over the next few weeks; these are being finalised at the moment.” Gateway 11 is a 45-acre mixed use Business Park adjacent to A11 on the outskirts of Norwich. Some 250,000 sq ft of office and industrial development has been completed including a 170,000 sq ft communications and operations centre for the Norfolk Constabulary. Other deals have been with Harber Hire and Williams Lea at the opposite end of the business park. Just over three acres will remain on the Gateway 11 suitable for a mix of uses including retail, hotel, leisure, office and industrial/distribution. A further 28 acres of land is being promoted on Browick Road as part of the Local Development Framework, which would be suitable for similar uses. Wrenbridge has pulled another rabbit out of the hat with its Link 428 scheme over more than five acres at Papworth Business Park. Link 428 has become really sought after following the A428 dualling which has left Cambridge just 15 minutes down the highway. Link 428 provides flexible, new build opportunities for sale or let – ranging from 29,000 sq ft to 100,000 sq ft. Planning consent has now been granted for warehouse/production space up to the 100,000 sq ft mark. Now Wrenbridge has announced that it will also consider land sales from one to 5.5 acres at the site. Link 428 completes the second phase of Papworth Business Park, which – besides opportunities to buy major plots of land – offers many other options. These include:- • Option 1 – One building of 99,580 sq ft including 4,715 sq ft of offices at first floor level, 192 car parking spaces and 10 loading doors • Option 2 – Two buildings of 60,201 sq ft and 29,000 sq ft, respectively • Option 3 – Two buildings of 70,201 sq ft and 29,000 sq ft The high office content allied to major production and warehouse area makes Link 428 a highly attractive option to companies keen to expand their presence in the East of England or relocate from elsewhere in the UK or overseas. Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 435 Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Show/Hide comments Write comment Show/Hide comment form This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.