Winchester: Skanska takes lease on flagship building in city centre

Acting on behalf of Gentian Development Group, Goadsby and CBRE have secured one of Winchester’s largest ever office lettings. Skanska was recently awarded a contract to maintain Hampshire’s roads and has agreed a new 20-year lease on Trafalgar House, a circa 15,000 sq ft office in the heart of the city centre.

Gentian acquired the building in early 2016 and had secured planning consent to convert the offices to residential. However, Nick Ekins, Gentian director, said: “It made perfect sense to let the whole building to Skanska on a long lease to satisfy their premises requirement; they now have a local HQ to service the HCC contract and Winchester is a beautiful city to work in.”  The property is currently undergoing a major refurbishment programme to include the installation of air conditioning, a lift, raised floors, LED lighting, WCs and showers which is on schedule to be completed in early 2018.

Trafalgar House is a traditional Grade II listed building which was substantially extended in the 1970s to provide a four-storey predominantly open-plan office building with its own parking. The rear of the building overlooks a large plaza with outdoor seating and access to Winchester Law Courts and The Castle.

Goadsby’s head of Hampshire agency, Allan Pickering, added: “Trafalgar House’s location right in the centre of Winchester makes it one of the City’s pre-eminent locations. Office rents across the South have been increasing in recent months and achieving Winchester’s highest recorded rent comes as a result of a continued reduction in quality space coupled with increased demand.”