An £80m finance deal has secured the development of a Cambridge office block, thought to be one of the biggest speculative schemes outside London. The scheme will be known as One the Square and is being developed by Brookgate with funding coming from Orchard Street Investment Management.
The 142,000sq ft office and retail development will provide the largest chunk of Grade A office space in the city centre, and goes a long way to delivering the half-a-million square feet of offices included in the council’s regeneration blueprint, CB1. There will be 13,000sq ft of ground floor retail space specifically designed to attract fast food and convenience outlets.
Chris Bartram is chairman of Orchard Street Investment Management. “We are delighted to be able to invest further in the city,” he said.
“A number of our clients have already invested in Cambridge, with one acquiring the Microsoft Research Building on Station Road through Brookgate.
“One The Square provides us with another good opportunity to acquire a high quality speculative development that is situated within a vibrant and growing local economy.”
For Brookgate, chief executive Sven Topel, said: “One The Square represents the most significant speculative office scheme in Cambridge and will deliver the type of modern high quality office space that is in demand in the city. Like all our CB1 developments it has excellent connectivity and will continue to attract investment into Cambridge.”
The funding announcement comes just months after news that another Brookgate project at Twenty Two Station Road, and also within the CB1 area, would be developed with the benefit of £32m worth of forward funding from Tesco’s pension fund. The 65,000sq ft office development is already more than 90 per cent pre-let.
“This investment is in line with our strategy to purchase well located, high quality property assets in growth centres like Cambridge,” commented Jenny Buck, head of property at Tesco Pension Investment.
“We were attracted to the growth potential of Twenty Two Station Road given the regeneration of the Cambridge station area, as well as the quality of the building and its tenancy profile.”
First mooted in 2008, and granted final approval two years later, the CB1 master plan includes 576,515sq ft of office floorspace, 56,500sq ft of retail units, art workshops and student accommodation, and more than 300 new homes.
A 231-bedroom hotel, which will be the largest in the university city, was pre-let to hotel operator Accor last November. Access roads to the redevelopment will also be upgraded together with a new transport interchange and station square, which will include the UK’s largest cycle park with 3,000 cycle spaces.
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