Seven office buildings could make way for industrial

A screening request has revealed plans to redevelop much of Watchmoor Business Park in Camberley for industrial.

Acting for Anglesea Capital, Savills has applied to Surrey Heath Borough Council to ask if the plan to demolish seven office buildings, totalling around 200,000 sq ft on the park, and to build up to 35,000 sq m of industrial and logistics floorspace up to 18.5 metres tall, along with sports provision and a café, constitutes an environmental impact assessment development.

The plan stretches across 10.65 hectares of the 1990s-built park and includes Buildings One, Two, Seven, Eight, Nine, 10 and 11 but does not include Building Three which houses the park’s management office and would be the only building within Anglesea’s ownership to survive.

Buildings Four, Five and Six are not within the plan.

Of the seven buildings earmarked for demolition, Savills reports that that space is just 34 per cent occupied.

The proposed scheme is for industrial and logistics units for use classes E(g)(iii), B2 and B8, with surface car parking, access, landscaping, and associated works. Those plans are still being worked on.

It is proposed to retain Riverside Way, the main access road through the site, potentially with some new access roads created off it.

A similar application was made for another of Anglesea Capital’s Thames Valley assets last year.

In October Savills applied to the Royal Borough to ask if an environmental impact assessment was needed for its proposal to demolish all seven, two-storey buildings at Maidenhead Office Park, totalling 27,697 sq m, and replace them with a mix of industrial buildings of up to 61,000 sq m.

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