Muse Developments and Basingstoke and Dean Borough Council have secured a 45,000 sq ft prelet for an office building in Basing View.
The deal with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly will be the first office prelet on the M3 corridor for seven years.
Once completed, the building will be owned by the borough council, bringing in additional rent to help fund council services.
Essential levelling work on the land to enable construction work to begin has secured £4.5m funding from the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, as part of its commitment to enabling sites for development to boost economic growth in the town.
Under the proposed deal, Lilly’s out-of-town Priestley Road Campus, which no longer meets the needs of the international pharmaceutical company, will be freed up for brownfield regeneration. The council plans to sell the site to Lilly for redevelopment once the company has moved into its new offices in Basing View in around two years’ time.
Councillor John Izett, cabinet member for property and development at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, said: “This pre-let demonstrates Basingstoke’s renewal as an office market on the M3. We are able to offer Lilly good value first-class office space.
“The pre-let building is adjacent to the new 60,000 sq ft Florence building, which is currently under construction, and together they strengthen Basingstoke’s position as a key destination for businesses in the South East.”
Rebecca Morison, vice-president and general manager at Lilly UK and Northern Europe, said: “Lilly has a long-term commitment to the Basingstoke area, where we have been based since the 1940s, and the UK remains an important location for Lilly’s global business.”
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