The former Met Office headquarters site in Bracknell (pictured), home to Britain’s weather forecasters for 50 years, has been bought by Fairview New Homes.
Fairview this week completed a deal to buy the 4.5-acre (1.8ha) site on London Road, Bracknell, from the Secretary of State for Defence without planning consent.
The deal is one of a series of packages of land to be sold by the Met Office, an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence, after it moved its staff to a 15-acre site in Exeter.
Fairview wants to redevelop the 150,000 sq ft (13,935 sq m) former operations centre as more than 250 flats. Around 38% of the £50m development will be allocated as social housing. Subject to planning consent, work could begin early in 2006.
The two other Met assets are an 82-acre (33ha) site at Beaufort Park and 40 acres (16ha) at Reading’s Shinfield Park, which has been sold to residential developer Kingsoak with outline planning consent for 310 homes.
CBRE is advising the Secretary of State for Defence.
Graham Cooper, head of property disposals at the Met Office, said: “We had Red Book valuations done on each of the properties and have sold them for the best deal we could obtain rather than waiting for planning consent for them all.
“We took part in working up a planning brief for the London Road site with Bracknell council, which wants a high proportion of affordable housing,” he said.
References: EGi News 30/07/04
