Outside the Circle

Estates Gazette – 7 May 2005

South Wiltshire has not been an obvious choice for occupiers, but a business park near Stonehenge is set to change this. Within spitting distance of Stonehenge a major new construction - 21st-century style - is taking shape on the wind-blown South Wiltshire landscape. The £250m, aptly named Solstice Park is being built on a 160-acre site on the A303, the major trunk road linking the South West to the M3 and South East.

The area is anchored by the headquarters of the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory and the recently formed Health Protection Agency - both based at Porton Down - and defence and security technology firm Qinetiq, the MOD's R&D facility, based at Boscombe Down.

At Solstice Park, the Amesbury Property Company - a consortium of local landowners and developers - completed infrastructure works in 2004, and now construction is under way on an 11-acre services phase of the complex and Abbey Manor’s 20-acre office park.

Deals have been completed recently with national operators of roadside services. Armani Hotels has acquired a 2.5-acre site for a 149-bed budget hotel. Margram has bought just over half an acre for a petrol station and a 4,000 sq ft convenience store that will be let to Somerfield. Whitbread has taken one acre for a Brewers Fayre. Life Property, meanwhile, has bought a 0.7-acre site where it will build around 3,000 sq ft for Pizza Hut and 2,550 sq ft for KFC.