New investment in Faraday Plaza
Wilson Bowden Developments Limited has joined forces with Faraday Developers Limited
A MAJOR developer has announced plans to invest in Newbury's Faraday Plaza project.
Wilson Bowden Developments Limited has joined forces with Faraday Developers Limited, the developer behind the scheme, to bring homes, offices, a restaurant and a hotel to the Faraday Road area of Newbury.
Planning consent has already been granted for the mixed use site, and recently the developer applied to renew the dormant planning application, a precursor to the potentially significant investment in the town and another modern addition to Newbury's rapidly changing skyline.
The £50 million development on 26,544 square metres would create around 600 jobs, and would potentially site offices, retail units, a hotel, a restaurant, takeaways, a motor dealership and 160 residential units, alongside 330 spaces for car parking.
The deal is believed to be similar to the kind developers Standard Life Investments had with the Parkway project which opened last month.
Wilson Bowden's managing director Nick Richardson, said: “The fact that Faraday Plaza is an edge of town-centre regeneration on land in which the local council has an interest taps into our core capabilities.
“As well as investment in the project, we bring a highly experienced team to the project who are very enthusiastic about participating in such a progressive scheme.”
Wilson Bowden will make a significant investment in design and planning activities and will also move on negotiations for a new lease with West Berkshire Council.
Faraday Plaza will include a significant alteration to one of the Newbury's major gateways - the northern entrance to the town.
A new junction with the A339 and a pedestrian crossing to Victoria Park will be built, alongside the regeneration of former industrial land.
The development and road junction could also act as a catalyst to wider regeneration of the London Road estate, which is a strategic planning objective of West Berkshire Council.
The director of Faraday Developers Limited, Duncan Crook, said discussions had taken place with around a dozen candidate companies over the last year.
“As well as being a major boost to the Faraday Plaza project their involvement is also a massive vote of confidence in Newbury as a location, which is especially important in such uncertain times.”
In 2009 a radical redesign of the Faraday Road industrial estate appeared to be close as councillors voted unanimously to grant Renaissance Habitat planning permission to build a plush new mall.
Work expected to go ahead never materialised, the development stalled, and the land has since been made the subject of a £50,000 feasibility study to identify regeneration opportunities.
In May, Premier Inn completed a deal with Faraday Development Ltd to develop an 80-bedroom hotel and Beefeater Grill restaurant at part of the site, creating about 40 jobs.
