Construction has started on a new 20,000sq ft office building for local housing association Flourish Homes at Cathedral Park in Wells.

Manchester-based property developer and investor Nikal Ltd are developing the Cathedral Park site and will deliver the new eco friendly office, designed by Bath architects Stubbs Rich.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 29 to commemorate building contractor McLaren starting construction. Flourish Homes staff, board members and residents joined Nikal and McLaren to watch as the diggers moved in.

The housing provider currently has about 200 staff. Around half of these work at its Shepton Mallet offices and will move to the new building at Cathedral Park during Spring 2011.

Flourish Homes owns and manages more than 4,000 properties in Wells, Frome, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury and Street and surrounding villages so a move to Cathedral Park creates a more central and accessible location for its residents.

“It’s great to see work starting on our new offices at Cathedral Park in Wells. We’re really looking forward to welcoming our residents into new accessible offices that will have some fantastic sustainable features and be a great place to work for staff,” said Alan Brunt, Managing Director of Flourish Homes which is a member of the Aster Group.

“Wells is very central to our ‘patch’ and we hope the new offices will prove much easier for residents to get to. And with much better meeting space we’re looking forward to hosting larger consultation events which means we won’t need to hire external rooms as we’ve done in the past.”

Jonny Wrigley, Director at Nikal Limited added: “We’re delighted to welcome Flourish Homes to Cathedral Park and, as our first occupier, we hope this exceptionally high quality and environmentally friendly building will be the stimulus for further development activity on the site.”





The new office has a host of eco-friendly features:

• The back of the building will be a wall of glass to allow plenty of natural light into the building. Windows in the roof above a floor to roof staircase in the middle of the building will increase natural light, cutting down on the need for artificial lighting.

• High ceilings and the open stairwell will ensure natural ventilation through the main office floor (which is on the first floor) so that air conditioning will not be needed in the building. The building will purge heat during the night from rooftop vents during the summer.

• Rainwater will be collected to flush WCs which will also have low-flow water devices to cut down on water use.

• Solar panels will heat water for handbasins and showers, which will be useful for people cycling to work or who want to use the new staff mini-gym to encourage fit and healthy employees.

• A green transport plan is to be drawn up to encourage staff to use other forms of transport or to car-share. The new office is near to a bus stop on Glastonbury Road and will have bike racks.

• The building will use a ground source heating system which harnesses the earth’s underground heat to warm the building. This process can also be reversed and used to cool the building in summer which means no need for air-conditioning. These types of system can save up to 40 percent of a building’s carbon emissions by not using fossil fuels.

• The building will be super-insulated so that it cuts down on heat loss during the winter.

Ends
For further information, please contact:
Pauline Davey, Media and PR Officer for Flourish Homes on:
01749 334322
pdavey@flourishhomes.co.uk

Flourish Homes is a non-profit making housing association that owns and manages more than 4,000 properties in Frome, Wells, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury and Street and well as 51 villages across central Somerset. It was set up 2001 as Mendip Housing to take over the housing stock of Mendip District Council and now has no more connections with the council. It changed its name to Flourish Homes in December 2009.

The association is based in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and provides quality affordable housing for local people of all age groups. It also seeks to help develop the communities where its houses can be found. Tenants play a significant part in its work through a network of consultation groups, including local tenant forums. They seek to represent the views of tenants and work to improve the communities where they live.

Flourish Homes is also a major provider of care and support services across the region, both to tenants and other local residents, and works closely with Somerset Support People Team, Social Services and Mendip Primary Care Trust.

Services include a full maintenance service with 24-hour emergency response and a 24-hour monitored helpline service used by more than 1,000 members of the local community.

It is a member of the Aster Group – an umbrella group which brings together like-minded housing associations across the South and South West of England to work together.