Official Ground Breaking Ceremony for the new Bicester Office Park takes place
Bicester Office Park
The official Ground Breaking Ceremony for the new Bicester Office Park took place on, Friday 23rd January, at which Cllr Alastair Milne Home – Chairman, Cllr Barry Wood – Leader, Sue Smith – Chief Executive of Cherwell District Council, and Cllr Lynn Pratt – Bicester Town Mayor, were present. (See attached photo)
Bicester Office Park will comprise circa 500,000 sq ft net of high quality office space situated in a beautifully landscaped setting and designed by Bennetts Associates Architects, who are renowned for such office projects throughout the UK.
The Park will have a frontage stretching from the A41 Aylesbury Road to the Bicester Avenue Garden Centre and the initial landscaping currently being undertaken will comprise a lake, a major sculpture and mature trees along a central avenue from the new entrance on Oxford Road.
The Chief Executive of Tesco has recently confirmed that they will be proceeding with a major new food store as part of the Office Park, to replace their existing one in Pingle Drive next to Bicester Village. This Tesco store will be located adjacent to the A41 Aylesbury Road and will be a most useful facility for occupiers of the offices as well as the residents of Bicester.
Christopher Harris, Chairman of the Park’s developers, London & Metropolitan said, “This project has been many years in the making and will be implemented at a time when the UK economy is growing stronger and Bicester itself is enjoying a most exciting newperiod in its evolution.
With Bicester having recently been given Garden Town status by the Government, which will bring major investment to the community including a new motorway junction on the M40 to the south of J9 and with the new rail service from Bicester Town Station to both London Marylebone and Oxford being opened in September this year, everything looks good for Bicester going forward.
The Graven Hill development adjacent to the Office Park to the south, the commencement of construction of the North West Bicester Eco Town project and the existing Kingsmere development will all give employees at the Office Park the opportunity to be able to both live and work in the town, so providing a truly sustainable way of life.”
The infrastructure works which are already underway and associated costs involved in the implementation of Bicester Office Park will cost circa £5.5million and are being carried out by J Breheny Contractors, Ltd. Completion of these works is due to take place by early July of this year, following which work will commence on office construction at the end of the year. The Park, when fully developed will provide some 3,000 jobs.
