London property partnership invests £200m in Gatwick office developments

A London property partnership has announced that it is investing £200m to fund a series of new office developments near Gatwick Airport.

The Commercial Park Group, a partnership between Sir Robert McAlpine and the John Baker Group, has announced the investment to kickstart the development of two million sq ft of new offices across locations in the south east

The office developments will be in Crawley, near Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath and Bromley, totalling up to 500,000 sq ft of offices, as well as public space.

John Baker, chair of The John Baker Group, commented: “Even before the pandemic, we were seeing workers moving out of big cities to find a better work life balance and, whilst for many years they were prepared to endure long, uncomfortable and unhealthy commutes, they have been increasingly unwilling to make this trade off.

“Now, the pandemic has both restricted the ability of people to travel to the office and super-charged workers’ re-evaluation of how they want to live and work.

“It is not possible for us to meet our full potential at work without safe physical spaces that allow us to come together, collaborate and create, but the offices we build have to reflect the needs of workers, both in terms of location and design.”