Three words can sum up the UK’s business park sector in 1984, 2004 and 2024: non-existent, peaked, and obsolete. Twenty years ago, parks were fledgling US-inspired ideas. Today, developments have reached a zenith, with new schemes increasingly unlikely because of continued empty space – the hang-over from economic downturn – and planning, environmental and transport hurdles.
In 2024, pure business parks will no longer exist. They will be replaced by mixed-use schemes that will effectively be communities in their own right. And the signs of such a future are already evident today.
Gone are the days when business parks were concrete blocks, far out of town with limited facilities. Already emerging in their place are eco-friendly buildings with grass-covered verges, sporting gyms, crêches, top restaurants, shops and, increasingly, housing, either on the park or immediately adjacent.
But out of the several key elements making up the future business park, the development of good transport links is crucial.
Transport
In 1984, when business parks were first opening in the UK, the car was still king. As such, building huge parks – such as the 2m sq ft Stockley Park, west London – was seen as an excellent way to satisfy the growing demands of the burgeoning hi-tech sector.
Car parking ratios were then roughly 1 per 200 sq ft. Fast forward to 2004, and clogged up roads and environmental concerns have made cars social pariahs. Ratios on parks are now 1 per 350 sq ft. In 2024, it is estimated the ratio will be 1 per 1,000 sq ft. “The problem with some parks is that they are no longer accessible. There is road access, but the roads are becoming bunged up,” says Greg McCulloch, a member of Lambert Smith Hampton’s national business team.
In addition, office workers’ environmental expectations have increased. Overlooking a mass of car parks is no longer acceptable. “Instead of looking over this sea of metal, people want to be looking at landscaping,” says Craig Watson, head of business space at Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker.
Underground car parking, like that at Edinburgh Park, or even multistorey parking, are options. Another is car sharing; and of course, promoting public transport.
For the past few years, developers have been working on a series of options to convince occupiers that they can get employees to and from parks without the need to use private cars. Last year, the 18-year-old Stockley Park launched its first transport plan — a five-year campaign aimed at encouraging car sharing and disseminating public transport information and advice.
But Michael Broke, chairman of the Stockley Park Consortium, admits: “Any business park is not going to be as good as being in the town centre, next to a tube.”
Highbridge Business Park’s 1m sq ft Cobalt Park in Newcastle is forging ahead with the £11m Route 19 (Stephenson Jobs Corridor Link), a kerb-guided bus link north of the park. It also plans to upgrade existing freight lines. Guy Marsden, director at Highbridge, says that, when the initiatives are complete, “we will be able to draw on all the demographics from Northumberland”.
Last June, Prudential’s 2.25m sq ft GreenPark in Reading got permission for its own railway station. It will be located on the west side of the park, on the Reading-Basingstoke line, and will open in 2007. A mass rapid transport system is also planned for south Reading.
All these links will be crucial for the planned residential schemes that several park developers are considering.
Residential
The third phase of GreenPark is set to be a 450-acre residential scheme called Kennet Valley Park. Work will start on the site, adjacent to the business park, next February. By 2024, it will accommodate 7,500 residential units, several schools and a church.
“Kennet Valley Park will be linked to the rail system and mass transport system. Around the railway station will be hotels and shops,” says Mike Rolls, director at Prudential Property Investment Managers.
Highbridge Business Park’s transport work at Cobalt Park is also based around getting workers to the site. The Duke of Northumberland is developing a 2,800-unit residential scheme near to the business park.
“Developing residential in close proximity to work space is a critical thing for the business park, as well having a robust public transport link,” says Marsden.
The Stockley Park Consortium also plans to develop a residential scheme beside the park, although planning has yet to be applied for.
The changing nature of future parks prompted Andy Martin, head of national agency at Strutt & Parker, to comment that “business parks have to be redefined. They are now becoming business communities.”
Facilities
At the heart of any community are its facilities. Increasing housing will require even more of them. But developers also want to pander to the demands of occupiers.
The old days of small canteens and vending machines are distant memories. Developers now boast of the hotels, crêches, restaurants and gyms on their business parks.
Strathclyde Business Park is among those with quality restaurants, while hotels and cinemas are making appearances. Watson believes facilities will also turn parks into retail destinations, “with much more in terms of retail to attract people out from the city centre just to shop”.
Location
By 2024, most of the planned transport links and extra facilities should be in place on the “business community parks”. But some commentators believe that, by then, towns will have expanded and spread so much that parks formerly out of town will be embraced by suburbs.
Planning restrictions are also likely to prevent the development of many more large business parks further out of town. And those that are built will, where space permits, more likely be either on the edge of-town or in town.
Warning
Amid the changes, Martin is concerned that some parks will stop growing cohesively. “Individual phases have been sold off when they were completed,” he says. “This means they have become fragmented. So how do you drive change when it’s fragmented? The brands created by developers have disappeared, so how do you maintain a community?”
Martin believes this could become an issue over the next decade. He says the solution is to ensure individual parks remain under the ownership and control of just one or two firms.
“They would either need to be owned outright, or at least the have the majority of the park under one ownership.” Martin adds that sole ownership could also allow for occupiers to move tenants around, and overall to take more charge of the parks.
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The future office building will be defined by a list of buzzwords. Multispace, convertibility, flexibility and adaptability will all sum up what the office building of the future will look like. Reid Architecture is the firm behind multispace, a concept based on adaptable building design (see illustration). The company believes developers and agents consider flexible buildings to offer substandard accommodation compared with purpose-built ones. But Bob Dalziel, office specialist at board level with Reid, says that is not the case. He believes that more adaptability will increase the longevity of schemes and add to their flexibility in a fast-changing market. “Developers are trying more and more to identify what a property is going to be used for,” he says. Reid argues that, by using multispace models, buildings can be designed to accommodate a variety of uses without predetermining their location or extent. “For any new buildings being put up, a fundamental aspect of the brief should be its long-term use,” says the company’s brochure. It goes on to say that “long-term” should be more than 25 years, and concludes that any new building should have a multi-use facility.- |
