Out of office (space) – colloco founder Tim stays optimistic despite city centre office space shortage.
As you may have spotted in my Twitter bio, I like to see myself as the ‘most optimistic agent in Sheffield’!
So you may be a little surprised to find me opening this magazine’s column on a bit of a downer – because we’re facing a looming shortage of office space in Sheffield City Centre.
Three years of strong commercial activity and development has been an exciting time for the city and has led to increased take-up.
Good news, right? Well, yes – but it also means we’re now facing an under supply.
Over the last 12 months three prime office locations – Acero, 3 St Paul’s and Steel City House – have all nearly let. Over 105,000 sq ft of deals were completed in the second quarter of 2018, and with Sheffield’s potential now being widely recognised, this high level of market activity doesn’t look like slowing anytime soon.
While this is greatly positive news, we now face the issue of generating new spaces to accommodate the demand.
And the problem is not just space, but time. New product coming to market takes time … a long time. Design, planning, construction can take up to three years – and that doesn’t even take account of funding. Economic factors need to align perfectly to fund a speculative office development in a city like Sheffield.
Currently, if a business, whether local or an inward investor, requires more than 15,000 sq ft of space in Sheffield, then the choices are limited. 1 Charter Sq. is the only grade A office that suits and springs to mind. And if a business doesn’t require a building of this quality, but still needs to house 150+ staff, then 32 Eyre Street is the only real option.
We must create a balance within the market. Sheffield cannot support huge amounts of more commercial development. The challenge is creating a sustainable pipeline of schemes and opportunities in the right location.
In my opinion, office development needs to be focused in and around the office ‘core’ – the area stretching from the train station up to Heart of the City 2, a development scheme aiming to provide a mixture of retail and leisure space, as well as the development of Grade A offices.
This would leave other areas free for the non-corporate creative and digital sectors – those smaller companies that create texture in the local economy and crave interesting space who would be suited to the developing areas such as Kelham Island and Park Hill.
Speaking of Kelham Island, Eagle Works – a stunningly redeveloped former Cotton Mill – has recently been officially launched. Offering five unique office spaces over five floors and ‘all inclusive’ terms, businesses will have both flexibility and cost certainty.
And ending on another positive – and personal – note, we’re truly thrilled at colloco to have been placed third in the Estates Gazette’s league table of Top 10 Most Active Agents in Sheffield. Having only just celebrated our first year in business, this really is a significant achievement.
So colloco are among the city’s most active agents – and I’m STILL the most optimistic!
If you are looking for increasingly hard to find office space within the city, we’d be more than happy to help – just get in touch.
