Basing View business park on course (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Basing View business park on course

4:00pm Tuesday 14th August 2012 in Local By Gazette reporter

An artist's impression of the £200m Basing View regeneration

A £200MILLION scheme to redevelop the Basing View business park in Basingstoke town centre – one that aims to deliver thousands of new jobs – is on track.

An annual business plan has been agreed with developer Muse Developments, and it includes spending £3.3m of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council cash on improvements to the “public realm” and infrastructure around Basing View.

The first phase of works is expected to begin next spring, and the business plan says they are “of the utmost priority”. They include pavements, street lights, landscaping, and road resurfacing.

The latest updates on the 15-year scheme to redevelop 15 acres in the business area, were approved by the borough’s Basing View executive committee. The committee also agreed to back the purchase of another unnamed and confidential site as part of the regeneration scheme.

In his report to the committee, Simon Hope, strategic project manager, said the majority of the £3.3m Growth Point funding is earmarked for public realm improvements between 2013 and 2015.

He added: “In terms of the wider Basing View regeneration strategy, the public realm improvements are seen as a vital first phase that helps to demonstrate that comprehensive change is happening on the ground, which combined with the branding and marketing initiatives led by Muse, are aimed at attracting new occupiers to Basing View.”

Design work on the regeneration of the business park is already well under way. The revamp includes a business class hotel, new office space, and supporting facilities. It is hoped that the overall regeneration scheme will double the number of jobs on the business park to about 10,000, when it is finished.

Muse Developments, which has operations in London, Leeds, Manchester and Glas-gow, last week announced that its parent company Morgan Sindall Group had posted “a solid set of half-year results” with pre-tax profit of £20m on revenue of £1 billion.

Mike Auger, regional director for the south, said: “Our plans clearly demonstrate our ability to deliver major regeneration projects in a challenging market.”