Our story
From farm buildings to modern offices — twenty years in the making.
Grovelands is a long-term agricultural diversification project — what began as a site of derelict farm buildings in 2006 has been steadily converted, phase by phase, into a modern office park that now houses a solar farm and has planning permission for further expansion.
Timeline
Site acquired
The site at East Haddon is purchased — a mix of derelict farm buildings and poorer agricultural land with longer-term potential for commercial use.
Planning renewed for industrial units
Planning permission is renewed for industrial units, and the site access is relocated away from the original farm buildings to improve the layout for commercial use.
Change of direction: high-grade offices
A new planning application is submitted to convert the industrial units into high-grade office space — the location and surroundings made it well suited to something more ambitious than a standard industrial scheme.
Phase 1 complete
Construction of the first office conversions begins in 2013. The first phase completes in 2016, converting former agricultural buildings into modern, flexible office suites.
Phase 2 complete
Planning is approved to convert the remaining derelict structures into further office space. The second phase completes in 2021, finishing the courtyard of office blocks on the site today.
Grovelands Solar Farm
Planning is approved for a 1.5MW solar farm on site. The array is completed in 2023 and now feeds renewable energy directly into the offices, supporting the park's move toward carbon neutrality.
Phase 3 — café, gym & offices
Planning permission has been granted for a new building with a gym and fitness studio, a ground-floor coffee shop, and a first-floor conference suite with meeting rooms — plus an expanded car park.
The original farm buildings, before development began
The converted office suites — Phase 1 complete
The completed park — Phases 1 and 2
Ample free parking for tenants and visitors
The 1.5MW on-site solar farm, completed 2023
Phase 3
What's coming next
Planning permission has been granted for a new building with a gym and fitness studio, a ground-floor coffee shop, and a first-floor conference suite with meeting rooms — plus an expanded car park to serve the whole site.
Yvonne — business park administration
Mission & vision
A flexible, well-kept setting for growing businesses
Grovelands is run with a simple aim: give local businesses office space that's modern, flexible and well-maintained without losing the character of its rural setting. That means fibre connectivity and well-kept buildings, alongside the kind of countryside surroundings you don't get on a city business park.
The approach that's guided the site since 2006 has been the same throughout — convert and improve what's already there rather than demolish and start again. From the original farm buildings through to the now-approved Phase 3 expansion, the goal has always been to create long-term commercial value from land that wasn't performing as agricultural use.