A £10 MILLION office development in Cheltenham could create up to 350 new jobs in the town.

Developer Formal Investments Ltd wants to build the complex – called Honeybourne Place – next to the Festival House offices in Jessop Avenue.

And an unnamed international business is set to take up at least half of the office accommodation if the scheme is given the go-ahead by Cheltenham borough planners.

The site opposite the Waitrose store is a private car park used by Vertex, which is based in Festival House, a previous development by Formal Investments.

Honeybourne Place will provide a 75,000sq ft (6,986 sq m) six-storey mixed-use development. A detailed planning application has been made to Cheltenham Borough Council, which will decide whether it can go ahead.

The development includes mainly B1 office space, with A2 and A3 retail units on the ground floor, plus a gym, créche, and café on upper levels.

The top floor will House seven penthouse apartments.

Nicholas King, a director at Formal Investments Ltd, said yesterday: “This is a major investment for Cheltenham; the construction phase alone for Honeybourne Place is worth £10 million, which will benefit local construction businesses and their workers and supply chains.

“An investment of this size also represents a significant vote of confidence in the town and the local economy.”

The pre-let of at least half of the planned office space to a major company was exciting news for Cheltenham, added Mr King.

The letting agent for the development is Richard Crabb of Nick Bevan Consulting.

“Such inward investment brings job opportunities and increases demand for private housing and services.”

The development incorporates a sustainable design, created by Roberts Limbrick, the Gloucester-based architects, using high quality materials including limestone, glass and rain screen cladding.

It maximises the use of daylight and high insulation. A “living roof” across a large section of the building’s top level will reduce rainwater run-off and create a new ecological habitat.

Adjacent Festival House is home to conference, meeting and office facilities for businesses.

Between Honeybourne Place, named after the former Honeybourne rail line, and Waitrose is a pedestrian plaza, while to the south lies the river Chelt and the Honeybourne cycle and pedestrian track, an established “green corridor”.

The developers say the name Honeybourne Place reflects the history of the former Honeybourne railway line.