City centre office market stumbles to a lacklustre finish
A lacklustre end to the year and delays on some deals being finalised meant the take-up of office space in Birmingham city centre finished with something of a whimper.
Deals for a total of 104,893 sq ft were completed in the final three months of the year, one of the lowest quarterly totals in recent years. It meant that the second half of the year delivered deals for only half of the floorspace as the first six months, with the annual total stumbling to finish on 780,095 sq ft.
However there is some optimism about 2020, with PwC’s Christmas move into One Chamberlain Square as well as the start of the trams up to Centenary Square both key milestones for the Paradise and Arena Central developments.
A spokesperson for the Birmingham Office Market Forum, which compiles the data, said: “Office enquiries remain encouraging moving into 2020. With low levels of grade A supply, the delivery of the next generation of new build developments will be well received with both Three Snowhill and 2 Chamberlain Square, Paradise completing at the start of the year and 103 Colmore Row also progressing at a pace.”
The biggest deals in the quarter were DLA Piper taking 40,300 sq ft at Chamberlain Square and Npower’s 15,600 sq ft at 125 Colmore Row. Only one of the other 24 deals was for more than 5,000 sq ft.
2019’s biggest deals have been dominated by serviced office provider We Work – which has taken sites with 92,670 sq ft, 81,280 sq ft, and 55,092 sq ft – and public sector deals by the Government Property Agency and the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
These deals were key to boosting the annual total slightly above 2018, but it was well below the record 1m sq ft achieved in 2017.
2019’s biggest office market deals:
1. Government Property Agency, 110,780 sq ft at Platform 21
2. We Work, 92,700 sq ft at Six Brindleyplace
3. We Work, 81,300 sq ft at Louisa Ryland House
4. Birmingham 2022, 72,261 sq ft at One Brindley Place
5. We Work, 55,100 sq ft at 55 Colmore Row
