IN Brief:
- Phase two will deliver approximately 145,000 sq ft across five industrial and logistics units at Cressex Business Park.
- Booker has committed to 47,300 sq ft and Activeon to 25,600 sq ft, both on 20-year leases.
- The development targets BREEAM Excellent, EPC A+, and net-zero carbon in construction, with a further 120,000 sq ft phase proposed.
Planning approval for the second phase of High Wycombe X has cleared another 145,000 sq ft of industrial and logistics construction at Cressex Business Park, with more than half of the new floorspace already committed before the main build begins.
Railpen is developing High Wycombe X with Wrenbridge as a phased redevelopment of the former Castle Estate. Phase two will comprise five units, following delivery of the first phase for food importer and distributor RH Amar.
Booker has agreed a pre-let on 47,300 sq ft, while indoor trampoline operator Activeon will take 25,600 sq ft. Both have committed on 20-year leases, accounting for 72,900 sq ft of the new phase before completion.
That gives the scheme a stronger delivery position than a wholly speculative industrial development. Just over half of the phase already has identified occupiers and long-duration income attached, while the remaining units can be brought forward to capture demand from businesses requiring smaller modern premises in the M40 corridor.
The five buildings are expected to range from roughly 19,400 sq ft to 28,500 sq ft. Current specifications include clear internal heights of up to 12 metres, level-access loading, rooflights, parking, and provision for electric-vehicle charging.
Environmental targets include BREEAM Excellent and EPC A+, alongside an ambition for net-zero carbon in construction. Those metrics have become increasingly important in industrial property because the building being delivered today may remain under the same lease well into the 2040s.
A long lease magnifies the cost of getting the specification wrong. Warehouse lighting, heating, power capacity, loading arrangements, yard configuration, roof performance, and building controls all affect operating costs, while poor energy performance can create an expensive retrofit problem long before the structure itself reaches the end of its useful life.
High Wycombe’s location provides much of the commercial rationale. Cressex Business Park sits close to junction 4 of the M40 and the A404, giving occupiers direct routes towards the M25, M4, London, Heathrow, and the Midlands.
For logistics users, that connectivity has to be balanced with practical site requirements. Vehicle access, yard depth, servicing, employee parking, pedestrian safety, and charging infrastructure can determine whether apparently well-located industrial space actually functions once an occupier’s fleet and workforce arrive.
Railpen’s phased approach spreads those risks across several development stages. The first phase secured RH Amar as a substantial anchor occupier, the second combines two pre-lets with smaller speculative units, and the proposed third phase would add a further building of around 120,000 sq ft on a pre-let or build-to-suit basis.
That structure gives the development team more flexibility than committing the whole estate to one speculative construction programme. Infrastructure and estate works can support successive phases, while later buildings can respond to the scale and specification of demand demonstrated by earlier occupiers.
The current consent also marks a distinct step from Railpen’s position in 2025, when the second phase remained in design and the development team was consulting occupiers over unit configuration. The Booker and Activeon agreements show that the design process has now translated into identifiable requirements and planning approval.
Completion dates reported for the phase vary between the second quarter and summer of 2027. Rather than choose between those descriptions before a detailed construction programme is available, the relevant delivery point is that the buildings are scheduled to complete during 2027.
The difference of several months matters less at this stage than the transition into construction. Procurement, groundworks, steelwork, envelope, services, external yards, and fit-out interfaces still have to be sequenced around the requirements of two known occupiers and the need to keep the remaining units sufficiently flexible for speculative letting.
Railpen is pursuing similar industrial developments elsewhere through its X portfolio, including schemes at South Mimms, Dartford, and Waltham. That wider pipeline gives High Wycombe a degree of repeatability, particularly around environmental standards and unit specification, while still requiring each site to respond to its own access, planning, and occupier constraints.
High Wycombe X has now progressed beyond a land-and-planning proposition. One phase is complete, two occupiers have committed to the second, planning consent has been secured for the next five units, and a larger third phase is waiting behind them. The construction question is no longer whether Railpen intends to redevelop the estate, but how quickly the consented phase can be converted into completed buildings during 2027.
