Development News

Software company chooses Compass Point for head office

Whistlebrook Ltd, a business application software house, has chosen the Compass Point business park as the home for its new head office. The company, which currently has three offices, will move into Raleigh House upon completion of its construction in June 2005.

Whistlebrook, which already has offices in Tring in Hertfordshire, St Ives and Clitheroe in Lancashire, will use the opportunity to move its head office from Tring to the new accommodation on Compass Point, where 15 of the 30 employees of the company will be based.

“We decided to take a building on Compass Point because it is a well designed business park with high quality buildings,” explained Steve Viney, director of Whistlebrook Ltd. “There is a big demand for offices of between 1,500 and 3,000 square feet and Compass Point is able to offer that – ideal for our company.

“We are delighted to have secured the space in Raleigh House, which will be a prestigious head office for our company.”

Stradbrooke Marketing joins Compass Point

Specialist promotion company, Stradbrooke Marketing, has moved into one of the last remaining office spaces of the first development phase of Compass Point Business Park in St Ives.

The company, which has been trading since 1997, specialises in working with its clients to promote and sell their products at trade shows, exhibitions and sporting events. The small team initially worked from home before moving to a small office in Fenstanton in Cambridgeshire.

In July 2004, Stradbrooke Marketing made the move to Compass Point to house its growing workforce of eight full-time employees.

Mike Francis, director of Stradbrooke Marketing, said: “We had reached a point where our previous office space in Fenstanton had become too small for us, so we started looking elsewhere. Every member of staff lives in the St Ives area so Compass Point proved an ideal location from that point of view. In addition, the offices on the park are of a very high quality, meeting our business needs perfectly.”

Final spot in Magellan House snapped up by start-up company

With building works on the next phase imminent, the final office space in Magellan House at Compass Point in has been snapped up by Ally Services, a start-up company offering human resource, employment law and health and safety services to companies throughout the UK. The current build site is now fully occupied and houses 11 companies.

Ally Services, which commenced trading on 1 July 2004, plans to take up occupancy of the office space in September 2004. Employing 7 full-time employees as well as utilising a number of freelance consultants, the company will use the two storey office space as both a head office and a training facility, which will be available for rent to other businesses.

Alistair Chatwin, one of the directors of Ally Services, said: “Having looked at possible office locations in London, Norwich, Cambridge and Leeds, Compass Point in St Ives proved to be the ideal location for Ally Services. It was the only option to offer an accessible location, with enough space for training facilities and ample car parking.

“For a start-up company such as Ally Services, Compass Point provides the ideal location at excellent value. We are starting a new venture and working with professional companies, we need to portray the right image – Compass Point certainly allows us to do that.”

Mid Suffolk District Council

District Council in a textbook example of urban regeneration redeveloping a former waterworks site at Stowmarket, Suffolk to provide 6,500 ft² (600 m²) of office space. A second phase of development will provide a retail unit of approximately 15,000 ft² (1,400 m²). This urban regeneration scheme has brought together both public and private landowners, being part funded by Capital Challenge monies, to bring forward the development of a derelict site adjacent to the town centre.

Westfield Park

Our Westfield Park development in Peterborough provided a 35,000 ft² (3,200m²) leisure unit for First Leisure. Further development at the site involved Lidl UK and a Fitness First Health Club. A third and final phase of the development is also planned.

Boden Relocates

Boden has finally found its ideal home with a relocation to the picturesque market town of Thrapston in Northamptonshire. The move to the old corn exchange building in the town centre follows a long term search for the company’s optimum location.

Dan Bould, managing director of Boden, explains: “Having started the business with an office in Kettering, we moved to Corby in order to gain extra room for our growing company. However, it has long been an ambition to be located in a period building ideally in a market town – with our move to the Corn Exchange building in Thrapston, our ambition has been achieved!”

The decision to move to Thrapston was not purely based on its search for a building with history. “Thrapston is ideal because of its transport links and central location within the UK. It also provides a pleasant working environment for our staff, who all live in the local area,” continues Dan.

Prior to moving in to the corn exchange, the team at Boden has transformed it from a tired and neglected building to a modern office unit. “We are very proud to be located in such a prominent and historically significant building. The office is perfect for us and we look forward to further success from our new base.”

Corby Borough Council

In partnership with Corby Borough Council, under the Single Regeneration Budget, we are involved in the development of 18 acres (7.3 hectares) of land for commercial and industrial use. This has included the demolition of obsolete buildings, the removal of contamination and the provision of servicing prior to development of the site for commercial and industrial use.

Work on Compass Point Phase III begins

Work on the third phase of the Compass Point Business Park in St Ives commenced in October 2004. The contractor appointed by Boden Properties to carry out the work is John Sisk and Son.

Phase III of the business park will contain seven units contained within four shells, including a purpose-built nursery and six business units. The four buildings, each named after famous world explorers, will be entirely self-contained with allocated parking areas.

Barents House will be home to a privately run nursery while the six business units will be housed in Amundsen House, Anson House and Raleigh House.

Anson House will provide a detached 6,510 square feet area building over two floors, while Amundsen House will contain two units. Unit A will be 2,758 square feet and Unit B will be 7,604 square feet.

The final unit, Raleigh House, will house three units, two of 1,949 square feet and one at 1,879 square feet.

Building works on the third phase of the Compass Point Business Park are expected to be completed by June 2005, including the construction of the infrastructure for this and the remaining phases.

Established nursery to open its doors on Compass Point

HRH Nurseries Ltd, the highly respected owner of three nursery schools in the Cambridgeshire area, is opening a new facility on the Compass Point Business Park.

Mr and Mrs Perrott, directors of the company, have agreed the design and construction of a 4,750 square feet nursery and will be occupying the facility when building is completed in June 2005.

HRH Nurseries Ltd, which stands for Hemingford, Ramsey and Hinchingbrooke Nurseries, has been offering high quality nursery services since 1991. A well regarded company in the area, the three existing nursery schools consistently scores very highly in the government’s OFSTED reports.

The new air-conditioned nursery will offer full-time child care for children from birth to eight years old, Monday to Friday. “We already run three nurseries throughout Cambridgeshire, including the child care unit at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon. When we learned of the opportunity to build a nursery on Compass Point, we saw the chance to provide high-quality child care for the St Ives area,” explained Mrs Perrott.

When the nursery opens in 2005 it will have the capacity to take up to 100 children from the St Ives are, including those receiving government early-years funding.

County Council chooses second building on Compass Point

Cambridgeshire County Council has secured a deal to acquire a second building on Compass Point. In a move that will see 60 people employed at a ‘one-stop’ enquiry centre, the council hopes to move into Amundsen House in September 2005.

Pat Harding, head of customer contact at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “We already have a property on Compass Point that acts as a contact centre – the new building will be an extension of this service with the introduction of public sector partners such as the district councils and the health authority. The new building will allow for a wider service for people within Cambridgeshire seeking information about any public service.”

The council drew up a shortlist of available properties and looked carefully at the benefits offered by each one. “We knew that the quality of workmanship of the Compass Point properties is excellent and Amundsen House came out as the best alternative for us on a number of other points, such as access links to the surrounding area, the central location and employment potential,” concluded Pat.