Frogmore has prelet its 6,317m2 (68,000 sq ft) office development in Staines to US IT consultancy the Gartner Group. Gartner is taking a 25-year lease at £285 per m2 (£26.50 per sq ft) with a break option after 16 years. Construction on the 0.8ha (2.1 acre) site, located near the M25 just outside Staines town centre, will begin in March. The four-storey building has parking for 325 cars and will have an investment value of around £27m on completion in spring 2000. King Sturge advised Frogmore and Healey & Baker acted for Gartner Group.
The new managing director of Berkeley Homes, Tony K Pidgley, son of Berkeley Group founder Tony W Pidgley, is shaking up Berkeley Homes and restructuring its eight companies.
Berkeley Homes, the largest division of Berkeley Group, is to open one new company, Berkeley Homes Western, and merge its divisions of Surrey, Sussex, Kent, North London and Thames Valley, a move that will cause redundancies.
The division plans to revise the companies’ geographical boundaries and push the business into new regions.
Pidgley said: “We have had duplicity of work, where agents have been dealing with the same local authorities. With this structure, each company can concentrate on its core skills and areas. Also, we can concentrate on new areas. Berkeley Homes Western is a new division that concentrates on the M4 corridor. We also want to focus on the Bedfordshire area.”
Nineteen people have been made redundant and managing director of the Surrey division, Peter Owen, has resigned.
Berkeley has promoted Fred Veevers as managing director for Western and, according to Pidgley, further promotions will be announced.
