Property consultancy Vail Williams has been appointed to let the remaining 56,000 sq ft of office space at Abbey Gardens on behalf of Palm Capital, the pan-European real estate private equity and special situations specialist.
Based in the heart of the city’s vibrant King’s Quarter, Abbey Gardens has gained a reputation as one of the ‘smartest buildings in town’, over its use of technology to create a modern, user-friendly environment for tenants.
The building, which recently underwent extensive refurbishment to provide a variety of contemporary office suites, gives occupiers access to a unique smart building platform, Savvy.
Designed for landlords and tenants to optimise building efficiencies and encourage people back into the office, the app is used by employees to gain access to the building by touch-ID, creating a secure handsfree working environment.
It also provides a visitor management system and information on the building’s air quality, which amid COVID-19 will be important to businesses, as well as access to a range of shopping offers at retail and hospitality providers within the local vicinity.
Guy Parkes, partner at Reading-based Vail Williams who are marketing the space, commented: “Abbey Gardens is a building designed to cater for the post-pandemic occupier – one who is looking for much better value from their office space, not just in lease terms, but also technology and amenities too.”
“Palm Capital has been quick to react, creating a business community at Abbey Gardens which provides collaborative spaces whilst offering value-added services including a concierge and fitness studio to support employee health and wellbeing.
“This amenity-rich approach, together with the range of office sizes on offer, creates an attractive proposition for those businesses looking for something more from their working environment.”
Major occupiers currently include Entrust IT support consultancy, Huntswood, NatWest and RBS.
Gabe Rudert, director at Palm Capital, added: “Large office spaces like we have on offer at Abbey Gardens in Reading are rarely available in town centre locations. They give businesses the flexibility to create a unique and inspiring space for their people in a post-pandemic world.”
The building has exposed services for a more creative working environment, as well as space with more traditional flat ceilings for a more corporate feel, creating something for everyone, as Guy explains:
“As businesses help their employees to move away from the isolation of working from home, buildings like this, situated in vibrant city-centres with lots of amenities on offer, will be in high demand in 2021.
“Situated in the King’s Quarter, with direct access to London, Abbey Gardens is the ideal space for those businesses that don’t want to settle for vanilla, but want to be part of a real community, within a city-chic setting.”
The building has a variety of Grade A+ office units available across seven floors, ranging from 2,300 sq ft to single floors over 24,500 sq ft.
Knight Frank are joint agents alongside Vail Williams.
