Office Parks

Office Parks (sometimes known as Business Parks) are edge-of-town or out-of town developments that are purpose-designed for concentrations of offices, commerce and business enterprises.

The need for more office space has grown significantly over the last 30 years due to:

Structural factors: Larger size of organisations, requiring more administrative support.

Functional factors: Greater amount of information being generated, processed, stored and informing decision-making.

Technological factors: Increasing range of office technology from computers, photo-copiers, web-conferencing suites etc.

The previously favoured central city location for offices that offered face-to-face contact between commercial organisations and customers or decision-makers in different organisations has lost its appeal. Office functions are increasingly moving out of central areas to more peripheral locations.

Push and pull factors influencing Office Parks

Push factors from the central city location:

• Very high cost of rents
• Difficulty in car-parking for employees
• Long, unreliable commutes for employees
• Unsuitable premises (out-dated office blocks)
• Lack of room for expansion
• Recruitment difficulties

Pull factors of edge (out)-of-town locations:

• Cheaper rents with long lease-times
• Adjacent car-parking to office blocks
• Close to suburban and fringe residential areas
• New, purpose-built office developments.
• Room for expansion.
• Attractive environment with range of facilities

Key features of Office Parks

• Extensive development of newly built office and business premises available to rent with a range of floor-space options.
• Good accessibility being adjacent to motorways, dual carriageways, rail links and/or air connections.
• Attractive landscaping with greenery, water features interspersed with multiple car-parking provision.
• Facilities for employees and visitors such as motels, gyms, shopping and leisure amenities and crèches.
• Persuasive media images of satisfied employees and customers, modern and spacious working conditions and user-friendly environments.
• Advantages over central city locations are implied or made explicit.

A Key Issue to Consider

Similar to out-of-town retail parks, some question whether office parks are creating new business opportunities and increasing the business base of an urban region, or simply displacing activity from one location to another.

Many cities, such as Newcastle and Reading have promoted Office Parks to attract commercial operations to their region. But some claim that the occupants of many premises have simply relocated from the central region of their host city to new developments on the periphery, contributing to city-centre decline. New large out-of-town retail developments have been discouraged in recent years due to their negative effect on the traditional High Street.

The question remains whether Office Parks are part of the same decentralising trend that will need actively managing or whether they are part of the commercial regeneration of the whole urban area and to be encouraged further.

Case Study: Cobalt Business Park (Newcastle)

Cobalt Park is the largest Office Park in England set on the northern edge of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Its 39 acres include a biodiversity park as well as range of office units of various sizes to rent.

Most of the business office users involve administration processes.

Well-known companies have office premises here including Hewlett Packard, Siemens, Balfour Beatty, IBM as well as local city administration in the form of North Tyneside Council.

Amenities on site include leisure centres with gyms, regular public transport, hotel chains, restaurants, cinemas, shops and child-care facilities.

It is easily accessible via the A19 running alongside (which links to the A1, motorways and Tyneside airport), by rail and bus via the Newcastle Metro, and is cycle-friendly being part of Tyneside's 'Waggonway' cycle network.