Minerva House
The Minerva House redevelopment works will include the partial demolition of the existing building and extension comprising of additional upper floors and a new lower ground floor.
St Jame’s Market Phase 2 will comprise an approximate 300,000ft² mixed use development. At the basement and ground floor will be retail and restaurant units together with two office receptions. Levels 1 to 7 will comprise new office accommodation served by two separate cores in order to provide flexibility for future leasing options. There will be two levels of basement housing plant, waste facility, cycle stores, changing room and shower facilities together with the usual building management space. Further plant areas are provided at roof level including for retail and office tenant’s use. At various levels of the building will be external terraces with a combination of private and communal use.
Sustainability is very high on both Client’s agenda including the team targeting BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating for the office accommodation and ‘Excellent’ rating for the retail space, along with a WELL Gold rating. The Crown Estate Development Sustainability Principles are being adopted throughout together with maximising amenity, biodiversity and renewable energy solutions.
The MEP services strategy for heating and cooling in all areas aligns with The London Plan in terms of utilising air source heat pumps with no burning of fossil fuel. In addition, the project is the “pioneer” related to the Design for Performance initiative and NABERS UK rating.
The Minerva House redevelopment works will include the partial demolition of the existing building and extension comprising of additional upper floors and a new lower ground floor.
The completed site now comprises four detached industrial warehouse units ranging from 14,000sq ft to 36,000sq ft, all with naturally ventilated and heated offices. The two larger units each have an 8 person MRL passenger lift, while the smaller units have been provided with platform lifts. The warehouse area was designed as a shell for future fit-out with capped off utility services.
The MEP services were all replaced with a focus on energy efficiency using air source heat pumps, LED lighting and natural ventilation where possible.
The property situated on the A23 near Brighton was granted permission by the council under permitted development rights to change to a residential site from office development to provide 63 apartments. The apartments are separate over seven stories consisting of one, two and three bed apartments. The redeveloped to offer 59,000ft² of high quality residential accommodation, for which Watkins Payne supplied building services engineering and energy consultancy to achieve an EPCs between B – C rating.
Sustainability is incredibly important for the Client and as such the building is BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, WELL ‘enabled’ Gold, alongside WiredScore Platinum. In addition, the Design for Performance approach is been adopted in order to minimise operational energy and hence carbon emissions.