PRESENTATION IS EVERYTHING!

Office News

In March 2012 I wrote an article called ‘A Polished Pearl Waiting to be Discovered in Nottingham City Centre’ and I am pleased to announce that in less than 8 months we have managed to fill the building.  All four vacant floors are now let to three tenants.

I would like to say that this is purely down to good agency work and I would be lying if I did not say the team at FHP worked hard on this.  I would however, not be giving the property and clients themselves enough credit. 

The quality of space and presentation of the building has helped entice occupiers.  Some of them initially needed persuading to view having previously seen the space years before in an unrefurbished condition, but once in, the offices sold themselves. 

The first letting was on the Seventh Floor to Turner Townsend who were relocating from Lock House in the City Centre.  This was quickly followed by The Press Association and then more recently Direct Health, both of whom have moved into the building from period buildings.

It would have been easy for the landlords, Development Securities, to have listened to the bad press surrounding the office market, looked at the results on their other office schemes and taken a conservative approach to the space.  If they had done I am sure we would not have secured these lettings.  Thankfully they did not and instead embarked on a first class transformation which is hard not to be impressed by.  The reception and offices have been transformed leaving a positive lasting impression on people viewing the space. 

The Pearl is not the only beacon on light that we can report on within the office market in the Lace Market.  With good quality space starting to run at a premium within Nottingham we have seen this success story repeated elsewhere in the City.

We have had overwhelming success on Broadway, a former Mill building that we are marketing for local landlords Spenbeck.

We met with Spenbeck in March 2012.  Our advice was that they had two options for this building.  Firstly effectively leave the building as is and mothball it, or secondly, do a top class refurbishment and give themselves the best chance of letting the space.

Again, thankfully they listened and 8 months later we have let six suites in the building to four different tenants and are now embarking on a second phase of refurbishment elsewhere within the impressive former mill building.  This success has exceeded our expectation and this is in no small part due to the excellent refurbishment and lack of quality competing stock available. 

All the tenants that have been attracted to the building are existing Lace Market or surrounding occupiers who currently occupy serviced offices and want to make the step up in terms quality space but not leave the area. 

The feedback has been that Broadway is comfortably standing apart from the competition at the moment due to its high class sympathetic refurbishment that marketing modern day offices need with the period features of the building.

James Hartley, who is dealing with both The Pearl and Broadway commented as follows:

“The East Midlands office market is at a tipping point at the moment as much of the   high quality stock has slowly been occupied over the last few years.  With little or no   new development on the immediate horizon there is becoming a severe shortage of well presented high quality space.

Occupiers that are moving are tending to look for quality or an upgrade in the quality of space whilst capitalising on the current market conditions to not increase or minimise the income in rent paid on their new space. 

This means that in order for landlords to maximise performance of their offices a refurbishment in many cases is a must.  This work should also be carried out if possible when bringing the space to the market as it is not always easy for potential tenants to visualise finished space so they will often opt for an office that is finished and ready to go.”