Reading Football Club has agreed to acquire some 120 acres of freehold land and buildings, plus the existing lake, at the Bearwood Estate, near Sindlesham on the outskirts of Reading, for a new purpose built state of art training ground for its first team squad and academy. Haslams advised the Club, a long standing client of the firm, on the purchase from the vendor the Royal Merchant Navy School Foundation.
The acquisition is conditional on the Club securing planning permission from Wokingham Borough Council for some 15 pitches as well as purpose built indoor facilities. A planning application will be submitted shortly. Haslams’s partner Steven Smith added: “With its lake side location it is an exceptional site for the proposed use which will go a long way towards maintaining and enhancing the site’s parkland setting”.
Reading’s current training facility is at Hogwood Park, Arborfield, where it has been since 2004, but with the Club’s academy being awarded an Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) Category One rating it has become necessary to relocate to a larger site
The Club was also advised by Barton Willmore (planning), Peter Brett Associates (infrastructure) and Field Seymour Parkes (solicitors).
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Steven Smith
BSc (Est Man) FRICS FCI Arb FCABE