ABSTRACT TO BUILD A NEW 60,000 SQ FT OFFICE DEVELOPMENT IN BASINGSTOKE

Mark Glatman's Abstract Securities has announced that its associate company, Abstract (Basingstoke) Limited, has exchanged contracts on the purchase of a site in Basing View. This landmark development will be one of the key elements in the regeneration of Basingstoke’s central business district and is the first large speculative office development for 15 years in the Town Centre. 

Abstract is to build its next “uncompromising value”, speculative office development providing 60,000 sq. ft. at Basing View, the central office core for the Town and just five minutes’ walk from Basingstoke Railway Station. The ‘Grade A’ building will be the most cost efficient new build office speculatively under construction anywhere in the South East and will be known as ‘The Florence Building’. It will include 203 car parking spaces and the building is designed to accommodate around 700 desks. 

Detailed work is well advanced by architects, TP Bennett, on the design of the building comprising ground and four upper floors and offering flexible, virtually column free floor plates predominately from 12,000 sq. ft.  With a full planning application due to be submitted within the next couple of weeks, Bowmer & Kirkland are appointed as contractors. The council has started site enabling works and work on the new building will follow on from the end of November when the Council’s works are scheduled to complete. Completion is targeted for late 2017. 

In line with all Abstract developments, the building will target a BREEAM 'Excellent' environmental standard and an EPC Rating of A together with a base building design occupancy capable of accommodating from 1 person per 8 m² and an ability to increase this to 1 person per 6 m² which will maximise the operational efficiency of the accommodation.

Mark Glatman, Chief Executive of Abstract Securities, said: “We are delighted to have commenced this latest speculative office development in Basing View, working with the team at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. We have great confidence in this product and Basingstoke as a business location.  We continue to maintain that while quality and environmental performance remain key drivers for occupiers, value for money is fundamental. By continuing to exercise tight design and procurement processes we can deliver a fantastic product at exceptional value offering a cost per work station (based on a 1 person per 8 m²) from only £3,200 per annum compared with competing areas at figures potentially as high as £4,700. This follows hot on the heels of our developments in Gatwick, Croydon and Glasgow where a similar methodology has been well received by the occupier market’’.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Property and Development Councillor, John Izett said, “Basingstoke is renewing itself and growing fast. Abstract Securities’ recognition of the opportunities here and decision to invest is evidence of the Borough’s new success. We are delighted that a development partner with such a great track record and market reputation is building and investing in our Borough”.

The site is centrally located in Basing View and only five minutes’ walk from Basingstoke Railway Station, (just 45 minutes to London’s Waterloo Station), the Festival Place Shopping Centre and a new Waitrose /John Lewis store.  It also benefits from excellent road communications being three minutes’ drive from the M3 motorway. 

Savills and RARE have been jointly appointed to market The Florence Building on behalf of Abstract Securities. Pinsent Mason are acting for Abstract on the project.

CGI attached shows Abstract’s ‘Florence Building’ in Basing View, Basingstoke’s Town Centre.

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