DEVELOPMENT OF THE YEAR Sponsored by


WINNER:


Development of the Year, sponsored by Hicks Baker, the Thames Valley commercial property advisers, was the next focus of attention for an animated audience.


Here the judges were focused on ‘future’ commercial projects; buildings either recently completed or with consent to be built in the near future.


Three projects were shortlisted:


• 329 Bracknell • One Valpy Street, Reading • Slough Trading Estate


McKay Securities, the Reading-based REIT, acquired 329 Bracknell (the former Doncastle House) in late 2011, and comprehensively refurbished the property as a speculative development, with work completed in October 2014. The space has been designed to be particularly suited to businesses looking for small office suites on flexible terms, thus serving a specific need in the Thames Valley.


Property developer Landid and its joint-venture partner Brockton Capital took the old Minerva House in Reading, vacant for some time, and transformed it from the entrance and foyer up. Changes at One Valpy Street now include a restaurant/café with al-fresco dining, tailored


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2015


ONE VALPY STREET


fit-out options to create ‘Shoreditch-style’ spaces for vibrant high-growth technology and other tenants. With cost and carbon-efficient features throughout the building has already been called ‘an environment fit for the future’.


SEGRO’s world-famous Slough Trading Estate is embarking on a new phase, with a pipeline of projects. A 70,000 sq ft speculative office scheme at 234 Bath Road has started; a pre-let warehouse will create 250 new jobs; and there are plans for two hotels, a restaurant and two retail units. In addition, SEGRO is investing in new infrastructure including a two-way bridge across the railway.


Giles Blagden (pictured right), managing director of Hicks Baker, announced the winning development: One Valpy Street.


Andrew Clarke (pictured centre), development director of Landid Properties, said: “We’re naturally thrilled to win this award. We took this old, quite unusual and yet loved building and put it back with something new, vibrant, and exciting.


“Rather than doing the plain old Cat-A approach of boring old ceilings and flooring we wanted to bring the centre of London to Reading – the Shoreditch, Farringdon, Hoxton approach which is rightly in vogue because people want something different.


“It tends to be seen as exposed services but it’s not just that. It’s sense of place, of community. Reading has a different sense of place. There are a lot of young people, and businesses who want something different.”


Clarke mentioned One Valpy Street not only having a restaurant/cafe, but also touchdown places to plug in and work, a concierge service, on-site showers, cycle spaces, etc – “facilities that most office buildings don’t deliver.”


And also sustainability. “We were offered the opportunity to knock the building down, but re-using it and the embodied energy in the building, felt the right thing to do.”


So, all the facilities you might get in a top London office, but in Reading and better? “Yes, in a nutshell.”


Before the break for dessert and coffee, Gyles Brandreth urged everyone to fill their donation envelopes for the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service, which is aiming to build Berkshire’s first children’s hospice.


Fiona Devine came to the stage and gave a moving personal insight on the charity founded as the legacy of her son Alexander. He died, aged 8, after battling a rare brain tumour – without a local centre of expertise, respite and specialist palliative care.


www.businessmag.co.uk


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