IN Brief:
- Stepnell has handed over the first completed industrial and office units at Hazeley Enterprise Park near Twyford.
- Earlier remediation removed asbestos, hydrocarbons and a redundant fuel tank while around 40,000m³ of site material was reused.
- Completed units incorporate solar PV and EV charging, with later phases and the Hazeley Hub continuing into 2027.
Stepnell has completed and handed over the first industrial and office units at Hazeley Enterprise Park near Twyford, Hampshire, moving a redevelopment that began with extensive contaminated land remediation into occupation.
The wider expansion is transforming a former chicken farm and feed mill into new commercial space for Hazeley Group. Stepnell’s latest project update states that the completed development will provide an additional 18 light industrial units and 12 Grade A office units, alongside a community hub and associated landscape and energy infrastructure.
Standalone industrial unit 29 and adjoining units 30 and 31 are among the first buildings handed over. Units 30 and 31 have been taken by one occupier and connected through a breakout opening, showing how the development has had to accommodate tenant layouts rather than simply deliver identical speculative shells.
Units 34, 35 and 36 have also been occupied by a single tenant. That fit out includes an office mezzanine and additional heating, ventilation, mechanical and electrical infrastructure to support plug-in warehouse equipment, adding load and services requirements beyond the base building specification.
Unit 20, a Grade A office building containing four suites, has also reached completion. Further units remain under construction, while the Hazeley Hub is scheduled to open in spring 2027 with café, meeting and event facilities.
The buildings sit above a more extensive enabling programme than is immediately visible in the finished development. Before vertical construction could progress, Stepnell coordinated remediation of ground affected by previous agricultural and industrial uses, including buried asbestos, hydrocarbons and a redundant fuel tank.
Rather than excavating all affected ground and replacing it with imported material, the project team treated and reused approximately 40,000m³ on site. Reusing material reduced disposal and replacement movements while allowing the development team to reshape a 12-acre field into a swale and biozone for surface water management and biodiversity.
That operation linked remediation with the final landform. Material that could safely remain was retained within the project boundary and incorporated into landscape and drainage features, reducing lorry movements and avoiding unnecessary export of treated material.
The remediation programme was completed before the first buildings rose, meaning early ground investigation and treatment controlled the sequence for everything that followed. Residual contamination beneath foundations or external areas would have been considerably harder to address after structural work began, particularly once tenant occupation started.
Energy infrastructure has been integrated into the completed buildings through Step Energy, another Stepnell Group business. Solar photovoltaic panels have been installed across the units and EV charging is provided as standard, giving occupiers on-site generation and charging capability without requiring those systems to be retrofitted after handover.
The scheme has also had to respond to individual tenants before practical completion. Warehouse equipment can change electrical demand, ventilation requirements and internal layouts, while mezzanines affect structural loading, fire strategy and access.
Bringing those requirements into the construction period allows final services and structures to be coordinated with actual occupation rather than leaving substantial alterations for tenants immediately after completion.
The current handovers follow the start of expansion work announced by Stepnell in November 2025. At that point, the contractor described the project as a mix of light industrial buildings, energy efficient offices and the community hub, with remediation forming the first major activity on the former chicken farm and feed mill site.
Project information from Hazeley Enterprise Park shows the wider redevelopment continuing into 2027, with further office and industrial units and the Hub following the first completed phase. The estate is set within the South Downs National Park, placing additional emphasis on landscape, woodland and ecological improvements around the commercial buildings.
Hazeley Group says the first phase is either occupied or under offer, including some buildings not yet handed over. Phase two is expected to begin before the end of the year, so completion of the first units does not mark the end of construction.
The project is instead moving into a mixed phase of occupation, fit out and continuing building work. Managing those interfaces will become the next site constraint as new tenants operate from completed units while construction continues elsewhere across the estate.
