Basing View

Construction of a new 45,000 sq ft headquarters building for international pharmaceutical business Eli Lilly and Company, including a new retail/cafe unit, is now complete. The building is owned by the borough council and has been jointly funded by the council, the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership and the Invest to Grow Fund.

Benchmark, a new Grade A office pre-let opportunity adjacent to the new Lilly building, has been granted planning permission. The 42,528 sq ft five-storey building will include a roof terrace, green roof and double height entrance.

Plans have also been submitted for a further 45,000 sq ft office development at one of the main access routes to Basing View. The Neon building will replace the outdated Norden House, which was purchased by the council for redevelopment in 2018, with funding from the Enterprise M3 LEP. Demolition of Norden House has been completed and the site is now ready for development.

Designed by international architects BDP, this development will deliver high quality, energy efficient and flexible office space to meet BREEAM Excellent and EPC A standards. To encourage sustainable travel to work, it will be equipped with showers, changing and drying facilities and the adjacent three-storey car park will have electric charging points and 57 cycle spaces.

Other opportunities for investment a Basing View include:

• Plot C – a 0.5 acre site, located opposite the Waitrose store capable of delivering a new office building of 60,000 sq ft. Alternative suitable uses may be considered
• Plot K – a 0.9 acre site suitable for a commercial development of up to 66,047 sq ft. This plot already benefits from shared parking providing 136 spaces
• Plot V – a 1.4 acre site capable of delivering a new 90,546 sq ft office building
• Plot W – Located adjacent to the Village Hotel, the site is capable of delivering a new 60,000 sq ft office building.

Plant, a Grade II listed building on Basing View known as ‘the hanging gardens of Basingstoke’, will be restored to provide exceptional office space.

New owners Longstock Capital plan to make significant investment into an extensive refurbishment of the property and its terraced gardens, bringing it back to economic life.

The gardens are going to be fully renewed by designers Grant Associates who were responsible for the Sky Gardens in Singapore which will boast almost 30,000 plants and 90 mature trees, with some of them 8 metres high. Rainwater harvesting will irrigate all garden areas. As part of the property's transformation, Mountbatten House will be renamed 'Plant' in tribute to its cascading roof terraces and the wealth of sustainable features that will be delivered via the scheme.

Refurbishment work is planned or underway at a number of existing office schemes on Basing View.

In early 2021, Arena Business Centres acquired Grosvenor House, which will be the company’s third business centre on Basing View. Now open, the centre provides 56,000 sq ft of office space over 11 storeys, bringing new life to a prominent Basing View building that has been empty for some time. Now named The Grosvenor, this development has benefitted from being designed by award-winning architectural practice Western Design Architects, created by Arena Offices in-house fit-out company and finished to a beautiful and inspiring working standard by London-based interior designers, Holmes Interiors. The result is a spectacular working environment that features a light-filled reception, beautiful business lounge, state-of-the-art meeting rooms, bench seating and work pods. Complementing these business benefits are a roof terrace and bar for outdoor entertaining along with a café and gym.

Work is currently under way at Southern Cross, ready for a new occupier to move in.

Basing View has a thriving tech community with its hub at Belvedere House. A 5G commercialisation Living Lab is planned for Basing View to enable start-ups, SMEs and larger businesses to trial products, services and applications and bring these to market faster. The Living Lab, together with a planned Digital Growth Factory incubator, will provide a comprehensive 5G ecosystem, supported by indoor and outdoor 5G connectivity, that will include business incubation and acceleration, technical expertise and support, networking and events, commercialisation support, access to academic research, VR and AR facilities, skills development programmes and flexible incubation space.

Basingstoke’s tech credentials were highlighted in the 2019 Tech Nation Report, which ranked Basingstoke in 4th place in its list of top UK cities for scaleup tech investment from 2015 to 2018. In the 2018 Tech Nation Report, Basingstoke was also recognised as one of 16 tech towns in the UK with above average digital density and ranked in the top five for productivity. The town was also ranked as the 9th best UK city or town for careers in IT by a CompTIA study in 2019.

Village Hotel opened at Basing View in early 2020, bringing new amenities to the park. The 153-bedroom hotel has a gym, swimming pool, sauna and steam room, a group cycle studio with Les Mills workouts and a wide choice of fitness classes. There is also a Village Bar and Grill providing all-day dining, an on-site Starbucks coffee shop, conference facilities and co-working space.

Village Hotels agreed a 250-year lease with the borough council and invested £20 million in the hotel which has created more than 100 new permanent jobs. Funding for the ground levelling of the site where the Village Hotel is located, was provided by the Enterprise M3 LEP.

Find more details on the Village Hotel.

Companies based at Basing View are within easy walking distance of the town centre’s extensive retail and leisure facilities. A Waitrose store at the gateway to Basing View also offers a café, wine bar, sushi counter and juice bar as well as retail facilities.

The award-winning Eastrop Park with its boating lake, footpaths and trim trail is easily accessed via the footbridge by the Lower Basing View car park. In addition, a new pocket park in front of the Village Hotel provides outdoor seating areas and has been planted with trees, shrubs and wildflowers to increase biodiversity in this town centre location.

These amenities are important for increasing health and wellbeing opportunities and a sense of place and community for those working at the park.