Rockspring acquires £22m office development in Staines

Speculative office scheme purchased from Hammerson for £5.2m

Article posted: 16 Dec 2011

Rockspring Property Investment Managers has acquired a speculative office development in Middlesex from Hammerson for £5.2m on behalf of a pension fund client. This marks the second funding of an Exton Estates scheme by Rockspring, following the deal for 105,000 sq ft offices in Weybridge, Surrey at the Velocity scheme in Brooklands.

The joint venture plans to implement an extensive redevelopment programme to create two new, Grade A, self-contained headquarter office buildings, arranged over three and four floors totalling almost 60,000 sq ft of office space in Staines at The Causeway. With an estimated development cost of £17m, construction is due to start on site in Spring 2012, with the aim of releasing the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ offices to the occupational market in Spring 2013. The new development will be called Flow.

The purchase follows a number of recent development acquisitions by clients of Rockspring, including 70,000 sq ft of office space in the City of London at 63 St Mary’s Axe, and Centurion House, a speculative 80,000 sq ft office development, also in the City, where planning consent was secured earlier this year. Other major projects outside of London include offices in Kingston at Kings House and Conquest House, where Rockspring secured the largest letting of office space in the South East outside Central London so far this year; a 100,000 sq ft speculative Grade A office development called Velocity in Weybridge which will be delivered to the market in the autumn of 2012; and The Stanza Building which will be delivered in Summer 2012 providing 81,000 sq ft of Grade A office space in Uxbridge.

Neal Shegog, Partner at Rockspring, said: “Having made significant progress on our South East office portfolio already this year, including securing the largest pre-let outside central London, this purchase further strengthens our development exposure in this market, where we believe limited new supply, coupled with strong demand, makes it an attractive investment opportunity.”

Strutt & Parker advised Rockspring/Exton and CBRE have been retained with Strutt & Parker as letting agents.

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Posted by Jo