Summary
Office and warehouse premises on a 0.119 hectare site with potential for residential development STPP available for sale in Theale
Location
The property occupies a prominent position at the eastern end of the High Street in a mixed residential and commercial location. There is residential development to the front and commercial uses to either side of the property with open storage land to the rear.
The property offers easy access to the M4 motorway (Junction 12) and to the various retail, restaurant and other facilities available in Theale High Street. The major regional town of Reading with its multiple facilities, including the Oracle Shopping Complex and Reading Railway Station, lies approximately 2 miles to the east.
In the near future the 14.8bn Crossrail service (Elizabeth line) will depart from Reading Railway Station twice an hour (four an hour at peak times), providing direct services through the city of London to Shenfield, with Bond Street accessible in under one hour.
Crossrail will deliver cutting edge, high capacity trains which will help reduce overcrowding at peak times and provide a cleaner, more environmentally friendly rail service into central London.
We would refer you to the location plan within the particulars of sale for further information.
Description
A copy of an Ordnance Survey plan within the particulars of sale shows the approximate boundaries of the property edged in red.
The property comprises a level triangular site on which sits a two storey office building attached to a largely single storey warehouse. There is a hard surfaced car park at the eastern end of the site and a further hard surfaced yard area in front of the warehouse for parking or other uses.
The buildings are of modern and traditional brick and block construction with a pitched tiled roof to the office and metal profiled roof to the warehouse.
The accommodation provides some 720 square metres (7,752 square feet) of floor space as follows:
Office - some 184 square metres (1,980 square feet) on the ground floor and 122 square metres
(1,315 square feet) on the first floor.
Warehouse – some 368 square metres (3,956 square feet) contained within three rooms.
Mezzanine Store/Office – 46 square metres (500 square feet).
We would refer you to the photographs of the property above for further information.
Tenure
The property’s freehold interest is held under Registered Title No. BK171586. The property will be sold with full vacant possession given on completion.
Rating
The Rateable Value (RV) is £XXX The Rating Authority is West Berks Council.
Energy Performance Asset Rating
Assessment rating: (E:105)
VAT
We understand that the property is not elected for VAT.
Planning
The property’s current lawful use is as offices and warehousing. We believe the offices were built in the 1980’s and extended subsequently to provide the warehouse buildings. Do note the property was previously used as a Texaco petrol filling station which we believe was constructed in the early 1960’s.
Pre-application planning advice has been sought from the Local Planning Authority which supports the principle of the property being redeveloped for residential use.
At the time of publication there is a planning application before the Local Planning Authority to demolish the warehouse to be replaced by a two and a half storey building containing 9 flats (4 2-beds and 5 1-beds) with car parking. The proposed GIA is 432 square metres (4,672 square feet). The application includes an indicative site layout plan and schedule of accommodation. All of the planning documents are included within the Technical Information Pack.
The policy requirement for the proposal is 30% affordable flats but the application includes a viability assessment supporting a justification to include zero affordable flats due to the value of the extant commercial use. In addition the principle of Vacant Building Credit should apply when assessing the development’s liability to CIL.
We believe the two storey office building, not included in the above planning application, has the benefit of PD rights for a change of use to residential.
The adjacent commercial property nos. 74-76 has planning permission for a small residential development.
Any planning related queries should be directed to the Local Planning Authority:
West Berkshire Council
Civic Offices
Market Street
Newbury
Berkshire
RG14 5LD
Telephone: 01635 519111
Web: www.westberks.gov.uk
Services
We are advised that mains electricity, gas, water and drainage services are connected to the property. However, prospective purchasers are advised to make their own independent enquiries of the individual authorities to verify the capacity and availability of such services.
Disposal
The property is offered for sale by way of informal, non-binding tender with the vendor reserving the right not to accept the highest or any offer and also reserving the right to withdraw the property from sale or to vary the method of sale at any time without notice. In the event that a number of competitive offers are received, the vendor reserves the right to request ‘best and final’ offers from selected parties.
Offers are preferred for the freehold interest as a whole on a conditional on planning or unconditional basis subject to contract only.
Note: The vendor may consider selling the property as two separate lots namely the warehouse with a residential planning permission independent of the office building subject to the completion of suitable accommodation works. The office building would be subject to a separate sale.
Please refer to the particulars of sale for further details on the Disposal.
Written offers should be submitted by 12.00 noon on Friday 8th March 2019 marked “78-80 High Street Theale – Offer to Purchase” and addressed to:
Mr Steven Smith, Haslams Surveyors LLP, County House, 17 Friar Street, Reading, Berkshire,
RG1 1DB.
Technical Information Pack
A copy of the Technical Information Pack is accessible via our Data Room. Login details are available upon request.
Viewing And All Other Enquiries
All enquiries should be directed to the vendor’s sole agent.
Viewings of the property will be strictly by appointment only.
Email: julianpacey@btinternet.com (joint agent) or stevensmith@haslams.co.uk or edponting@haslams.co.uk
Block viewings of the property will take place on the following days (No appointment necessary during these times):
Tuesday 12th February 2019 at 10.00am
Tuesday 19th February 2019 at 10.00am
Tuesday 26th February 2019 at 10.00am
Tuesday 5th March 2019 at 10.00am
Please note that parties must not enter the property outside the block viewing times without our prior authority and any inspection of the site is at the prospective purchaser’s risk.