Fujitsu buildings could be turned into apartments
THE old headquarters of an IT giant could be turned into housing if plans are given the go-ahead by Wokingham Borough Council.
Under the proposals, 75 flats could be created on the former Fujitsu building in Thames Valley Park.
Website tvproperty.co.uk reports that F&C Commercial Property Holdings has given Wokingham Borough Council prior approval notice of its plans to convert Building TVP1, (also referred to as Building 440) on the south side of Thames Valley Park Drive and close to the River Thames.
The 73,108 sq ft building would become 25 one-bedroom, 30 twobedroom and 20 three-bedroom flats on the ground, first and second floors.
If it goes ahead, it would be the first residential scheme for the business park, which is home to the UK headquarters of Microsoft and Oracle.
A new Aldi superstore and a drivethrough Costa coffee is currently being built in Suttons Seeds business park.
Speaking to tvproperty.co.uk, Vail Williams Charlie Nicolson said: “Thames Valley Park is in transition as occupiers have fundamentally changed their way of working along with their space utilisation and requirements.”
Mr Nicholson added that there is already a gym and nursery on site, but the area would benefit from a hotel.
“The larger corporate occupiers such as Microsoft, Opentext and Oracle for example, have a large requirement for employees travelling from across Europe to use the Heathrow hub and visit these EMEA HQ buildings for meetings and training,” he added.
And he said that plans to convert office blocks into residential homes can be profitable, saying that market forces would “win out”.
“The appetite for these type of residential conversion opportunities shows no signs of slowing, with the types of sale prices achieved for micro studio flats in excess of £300,000 (or £650 per sq ft) you can understand why investors continue to seek these opportunities.”
Cllr Simon Weeks, executive member for planning and enforcement at Wokingham Borough Council said: “Permitted development rights are where a development can be undertaken without applying for planning permission. These derive from a general planning permission granted by parliament, not permission granted by a local planning authority. But before some permitted development rights can be used, the developer must first get Prior Approval from the local planning authority in relation to specific aspects of the development.
“Permitted development rights currently relate to a change of use of premises from a B1(a) office to C3 residential. The application for the change of use of Thames Valley Park 1, to 75 residential units, will be considered under this process.
“This is different to the normal process for planning permission, where a full application would be submitted for the change of use and all planning issues relating to the proposal would be considered.”