UK Office Space News

Workspace and the way it changes are always constant issues within the office space market. The British Council for Offices held their annual conference in London, and a panel discussed issues within the office space industry.

The Westminister event looked into what the Blackberry or smartphone generation was doing for their work time. It means that office workers were extending their hours and dealing with work issues well outside their office and their working hours.

Technology friendly office space is becoming more popular and helping teams to be more creative away from their desks, with many tools apps available to help them communicate further.

Interaction amongst staff is cited as being one of the key factors of re-enforcing loyalty to the company and keeping morale high. This will further push creativity and the work rate of team members.

Business Centre Association conference also highlighted this subject, which had representatives from Google and other technology provides. They helped to highlight the changing demands of what office space providers will go through in the future, its time to embrace the smartphone generation.

10 South Parade office space was developed in the premium section of the city centre of Leeds, it finally can celebrate its first letting.

The tenant coming is Xafinity Consulting, who have moved part of their operations from Reading. They added part of the 36,000 sq. ft that the new office space provided.

Wilton Developments released a statement to the press from Adam Cockroft, director of office agency at DTZ who said, “We are delighted to have such a high profile occupier as Xafinity committed to the scheme.”
They really have voted with their feet and, given the conversations we are having with other potential occupiers, we expect to have more positive movement in the near future.”

The Grade A office space takes up 8,200 sq ft and Xafinity will be using it as a regional headquarters as they expand further through out the UK.

Their director David Emptage detailed his excitement of taking on the new office space, “The accommodation in our new office space will benefit both our staff and clients. We looked at other Grade A office space elsewhere in Leeds City Centre, but believe the finished article here will be exactly what we and our clients need.”

Development in London is set to be completed on a range of building hoping to bright up the drab, dull bricks of regular office space towers.

This is all part of a retail, residential and office space project, with buildings that will be mixed in terms of their size and colour. There will be private apartments and homes available in a 15-storey block, which is around 24,500 sq ft, and in an 11-storey building there will be approximately 400,000 sq ft of office space.

The colours cover all the basic spectrum in white, blue, orange, yellow, red and green. The developers didn’t comment on any other colours at this stage.

The permission for this was granted back in the summer of 2006, with construction getting under way around a year later. The building has been on schedule thankfully and will be fully opened this year in the autumn.

The buildings also have some green measures as part of their design, with 80% of heat being from renewable sources and 90% of the demolition rubble being recycled.

Peel Land & Property have released a statement detailing that they will make 14,200 sq ft available as part of  the Princes Dock development.

The Princes Dock already has prestigious clients in the form of Coutts Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland, and the whole complex measure out at an impressive 14.5 hectares.

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The leading handbag and accessory company have announced plans to a London office. complimented by having their showroom there as well.

It’s existing office locations in Shepherd’s Bush and New Bond Street respectively, will now be sold with a number of interested parties already expressing an interest.

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Office space has been created out of the shells of former shipping containers, it is part of a new complex that will be called the Sharp Project.

11 new companies have come on board to the premises, which is situated in Newton Heath. The intention was to create more affordable office space to the area, in the hope that new jobs would be created whilst the country comes out of the recession.

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ITV will be adding its support to the new MediaCityUK development, including retail and office spaces in Manchester.

The complex is not expected to be ready until the summer of 2011, but businesses are already making plans to be part of it.

ITV bosses and Peel Media allegedly had a fall out between each other, which led to talks about moving to MediaCity being canned. It is now understood that these talks have started again, after the TV Channel appointed a new broadcast chairman Archie Norman.

The company have negotiated a lease which will see them move from Quay street in Manchester city centre, to 100,000 square feet of office space as part of the first tenants to move into MediaCity.

MediaCity is based in Salford Quays, which boasts a great waterfront view. It shows a great future for the area that has lacked an kind of spark to rejuvenate itself.

Residents will be steps away from the Lowry arts centre which attracts millions of tourists every year, as well as the Imperial War Museum North.

Mediacity will accommodate tourists as well as new business, it will have a block of hotels built by the end of this year. It will contain 218 beds as well as have gym facilities.

Great Portland Estates own retail and office space in London, predominately  in the West End. They have seen a trend of rents being picked up and demand for office space increase.

The figures showed an impressive rise of 15. 5 percent in value, and they also announced that it had made two new aquisitions.

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Jobs are still not being created fast enough even though the UK economy has seen an upturn in fortune. However, some industry experts have predicted a further decline in the economy.

The solution put forward is the hybrid business model. This will mean many UK businesses will have to adopt changes in their thinking and operations, otherwise they’ll find themselves behind the competition.

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20 Fenchurch Street will have a new skyscraper built in plans confirmed by Land Securities, the London office property developer.

The value of this construction is estimated at £300 million, which will make Walkie Talkie 150m-high and the expected time for completion is mid 2013.

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