Owner of Westcott Venture Park, PATRIZIA Hanover Property Unit Trust, has completed the development of 65,000 sq ft of Grade A factory and production space for garden room company Green Retreats.
The £6m flagship project is set on 4.5 acres of the 650-acre Westcott Venture Park located mid-way between Aylesbury and Bicester.
Green Retreats has taken a 10-year lease on the first phase of the development which was constructed in under seven months by Milton Keynes based contractor Parkway.
Planning consent is in place for a second phase of similar size.
The development has achieved a BREEAM ‘very good’ rating and particular attention has been paid to the reduction of embedded carbon within the construction process.
Nigel MacKenzie, Development Manager at Westcott said: “We are delighted to see construction of this flagship project come to completion. This new facility has enabled one of our largest occupiers to scale up for the fourth time at Westcott, accommodating growth for a further 250 jobs.
“From the very beginning, our close relationship with Green Retreats ensured that we and our contractor Parkway understood their specific requirements and could complete the development successfully within the agreed timescale and budget despite the very challenging conditions being experienced in the construction industry currently.
“This is our largest new development scheme to date at Westcott and it is a superb example of the high-quality buildings we can create for occupiers seeking accommodation in the region.”
The project team included Parkway Construction MK Ltd working alongside McCurdy Russell Architects, Civil and Structural Engineering Consultants HDR Bradbrook Consulting, Building Services Engineering Consultants Shepherd Brombley Partnership and Health and Safety Consultants Building and Workplace Solutions Limited to deliver the project.
Green Retreats is the largest, leading and most trusted garden room company in the UK and has been based at Westcott for the last eight years, now occupying a total of 115,000 sq ft of space at the park. The company is undertaking a £1 million fit out of its new facility which is expected to be fully operational on 12th September.
The company currently employs 330 staff, and this new facility will enable Green Retreats to scale this up to 580 employees and will provide the additional capacity to increase turnover from £35million to £70 million for Phase 1 of the development.
Green Retreats Managing Director, Roy Wetherall said: “We have enjoyed significant growth and our new facility will provide us with the space to expand in order to realise our full potential. Our company is now in great shape to exploit significant market opportunities this year and beyond. We feel good about the future and being part of the Westcott family of companies.”
Westcott Venture Park is now home to over 80 businesses, the Westcott Space Cluster and the National Space Propulsion Test Facility and is managed by Lambert Smith Hampton.
