Eco-offices will drive business park forward

EIGHT energy-efficient office units are being planned as part of the second phase of a Yorkshire business park.

The units at Broadhelm Business Park in Pocklington will have a £2.75m development value and will create 25,000 sq ft of office space.

Full plans are to be submitted to East Riding of Yorkshire Council later this spring.

Outline planning consent has been granted for the offices, which will have an open-plan layout, and, if planners back the new detailed application, work will start on site before the end of the summer and be completed early next year.

The individual offices, ranging from 1,500 sq ft to 6,000 sq ft, have been designed by York-based DSP Architects, for the Broadhelm venture, a joint venture between Helmsley Securities, the development arm of property company, The Helmsley Group, and Broadvale Developments, Pocklington, which is developing the £20m mixed-use scheme on a 22-acre site next to Pocklington Industrial Estate.

Winning the design contract has allowed DSP Architects, of Clifton Moor, to continue its development of energy-efficient building design following its work for the historic Blake Street scheme for The Helmsley Group in York city centre.

Eco features for the new offices include a recycled aluminium standing seam roof, as being used at York Business Eco Centre, rainwater harvesting, solar collectors for hot-water heating and feature-timber screening.

DSP Architects partner, Simon Carrington, said: “The office phase is crucial to first impressions of Pocklington as one enters the town from the main road.

“The design aims to harness the aspirations of local people to trade and work in modern surroundings which reflect and respect the local environment in terms how they look and function. We believe we have achieved that balance.”

Infrastructure work for the first phase, which will incorporate a Travis Perkins builders merchants and trade units, will start this summer with the first occupiers moving in next February.

Ian McAndrew, director at Pocklington-based Helmsley Securities, said: “Sustainability is the only way forward and makes sound commercial sense but properties also need to look good.

“We are working closely with DSP Architects which have risen to the challenge as usual. This is a prominent position and a high-quality, well-designed scheme will be good news for everybody.”

Also planned for later stages of Broadhelm Business Park are an eco centre, industrial units, convenience food outlets and a hotel or public house.