Largest Birmingham office letting of 2018 agreed
West Midlands Trains has helped put Birmingham’s office market take-up figures on the right track after completing the largest letting of the year so far.
220 staff are moving into 21,743 sq ft at 134 Edmund Street in the city’s business district.
The company is a joint venture between Dutch firm Abellio and Japanese partners and it took over the West Midlands rail franchise from London Midland last year.
The building’s German landlord TRIUVA spent £1.5m on the property to upgrade the reception area, common parts and three vacant floors to bring it up to Grade A office specification.
TRIUVA director Nick Taylor said the deal “supports our decision to refurbish the common parts and vacant 2nd to 4th floors to a grade A specification.”
Theo Holmes, director in CBRE’s office agency team, expects the supply of Grade A space to continue to fall until the next wave of speculative developments in the city are completed.
He said: “At 21,743 sq ft this is the biggest completed office letting in the traditional core this year and takes another significant chunk of Grade A space out of the market, leaving less than 400,000 sq ft of new and refurbished Grade A space in the market.
“With Birmingham continuing to attract significant inward investment, particularly from companies in the rail and construction sectors, on the back of HS2, and further government department relocations, we can expect supply levels to be eroded even further for the next 12 to 18 months, until the next big tranche of speculative office space is delivered, most notably at Three Snowhill and Two Chamberlain Square.”
CBRE and JLL advised TRIUVA.
