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‘BUOYANT’
Office sector in 2006 looks set to continue |
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DORSET experienced
a “buoyant” office sector in 2006 with one of the
area’s leading commercial property players seeing a year-on-year
doubling in business.
Nettleship Sawyer handled transactions totalling 140,000 sq
ft of office space in the 12 months compared with 70,000 sq
ft in the previous year.
Among the headline grabbers was the Bank of New York’s
decision to rent five floors of Merck House in Poole –
next to the Lighthouse – totalling 32,000 sq ft.
Fast-growing Castle Cover also took 16,000 sq ft in the same
building.
Meanwhile, in central Bournemouth, Nettleship Sawyer were involved
in the letting of the
remaining 25,000 sq ft of space at Richmond House on Richmond
Hill.
According to Chris Nettleship, Joint Managing Director, 2007
is already on track to be equally busy.
“We
will see work start on the St Paul’s Square development
in Bournemouth, providing a total of 103,353 sq ft of office
accommodation, while a new development at 69 to 89 Holdenhurst
Road will add a further 40,000 sq ft of office space”
said Mr Nettleship.
“Both
of these are developments are speculative and it will be a very
interesting test of the market to see the actual uptake.”
So why the buoyancy in the office market – and is it likely
to continue?
“For
years, Bournemouth and Poole have been an ideal relocation area
with a really good quality of life and excellent, road, rail
and air links,” said Mr Nettleship.
“It’s
that combination which attracted Abbey Life, Barclays and Chase
Manhattan (now JPMorgan Chase) to move into accommodation specifically
built for their needs. They joined the likes of Frizzell (now
Liverpool Victoria) and Portman, already firmly established
in the area.”
According to Mr Nettleship, the change started in 2002 when
Swiss insurance giant Zurich announced the loss of 400 jobs
at its Eagle Star call centre, housed in the Marshall Point
office at the top of Richmond Hill.
The distinctive building, known to locals as the ‘pepper
pot’, was built specifically for Zurich with the pull-out
releasing, at a stroke, 50,000 sq ft of office accommodation.
To the surprise of many, letting of the building was achieved
with relatively little difficulty.
Next came the development of Wessex Fields on the outskirts
of Bournemouth, near the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, by Troika
Developments.
Although built as a speculative development, 75,000 sq ft of
office space at Wessex Fields was quickly snapped up by specialist
insurer RIAS (now owned by Fortis) in 2004 for its headquarters
and call centre.
“Wessex
Fields realised higher rents of about £16 to £17
per sq ft demonstrating that there was, and continues to be,
a demand for this kind of office accommodation,”
said Mr Nettleship.
He believes the trend towards more people – and companies
– escaping London and the crowded South East can only
work in Bournemouth and Poole’s favour.
“We
were always regarded as on the ‘edge of civilisation’
by many with Ringwood seen as the very limit for anyone wishing
to be within reasonable close proximity of London,”
said Mr Nettleship.
“But
thanks to our transport links, that’s all changed. And
with the high cost of office space in central London where rents
can be three to six times higher than local rates (in the range
of £40 to £80) then I believe we can, justifiably,
have high hopes for the future.”
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For
more information, please contact:
Chris Nettleship, Joint Managing Director, Nettleship Sawyer.
Tel: 01202 556491
or Andrew Diprose, PR Account Director, Deep South Media Ltd.
Tel: 01202 534487. |
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