THE first phase of Swindon’s new £350m business improvement district is set to be complete by late August.

Construction work is nearing completion on the £25m first phase of Kimmerfields, formerly Union Square, which is on the site of the old police station.

This includes an 850-space car park and 45 assisted living apartments.

Union Square is the office-led mixed-use development that is being pushed ahead by Swindon Council, economic development firm Forward Swindon, developer Muse and the Homes And Communities Agency Forward Swindon says the main structure of the car park and apartment block are complete and work is under way on the external finishing of both six-storey buildings. Terracotta fins are being installed which should make it an iconic building on a key Swindon gateway.

Chris Hitchings, Forward Swindon’s development director, said the buildings should be completed and handed over to their respective operators in late August – the car park to Swindon Council and the living apartments to GreenSquare Group.

He said: “A multi-storey car park is a box and so we have to make that box as attractive as possible. “The hoardings and the scaffolding around the residential block will be coming down in the next few weeks and you will see the brickwork and the main design of that.

“And then they will be starting to fit out the internals. “It’s all very positive stuff, it’s all starting to fly along and all come together.”

Kimmerfields will include 650,000 sq ft of offices, 150,000 sq ft of ancillary retail, 450 residential units, a new bus station, hotel and public square, and regrading of Fleming Way. The office accommodation is being marketed at £20 per sq ft, with a national marketing launch expected in the summer.

The next phase will focus on the site of the surface car park, diagonally opposite to Jurys Inn hotel, and will be mainly offices, with some retail and residential.

Coun Garry Perkins, Swindon Council’s cabinet member for economy, regeneration and culture, said there had been no major problems during construction and everything seemed to have gone exceptionally well.

He said: “They’re putting the final bits on the car park, so the car park must be nearly complete. “There’s just some internal fixing to be done. “And the building next to it looks nearly done as well, so it must just be the final fixing.

“I anticipate that Muse will be launching a marketing campaign in the future for the offices in phase two because they need tenants before they can build them up.” A new administration building for Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group is also planned to be built on the old police station site.