Office building development put forward to meet city centre demand
A PRIME site in Sheffield city centre is set to be developed to meet demand for businesses wanting to relocate into the city.
There is a growing demand for Grade A offices in the city centre but no high-quality offices are readily available at the present time in the Central Business District for the first time in a decade.
The developers of St Paul’s Place, CTP, are planning to meet this demand by building the third office block on the remaining vacant site on Norfolk Street.
It will sit alongside the two developments overlooking the Peace Gardens and complete the Heart of the City development.
Coun Bryan Lodge, Sheffield City Council’s cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “The city centre is a major driver of the City Region economy, but in the last five years development of new office development has virtually stopped. By enabling this development to proceed now, it will help complete the development of St Paul’s Place at the Heart of the City – one of the key projects in the City Centre Master Plan – and help to support business growth in Sheffield.
“These are challenging economic conditions and the council is taking the initiative to make things happen. We firmly believe this new development will assist several existing businesses that want to move into good quality new offices, and could also attract new businesses into the city. The building can accommodate more than 700 jobs.”
The council is working with the developers to help them to secure the funding necessary to build. The intention is that CTP will sell the completed building to a private sector buyer.
If the council is able to guarantee a minimum sale price, this will enable the development to go ahead, provided that CTP obtain an ERDF grant it has applied for.
An agreement is proposed to be made under which the council will buy the property, 12 months after it has been built, unless CTP decide to retain ownership or sell to another party at a higher price.
Subject to approval of the ERDF grant a start on enabling works for construction of the building will begin as early as December and complete in 2015.
David Topham, director of CTP, said: “We know that there is a great deal of demand from professional businesses wanting prestigious office space in the best location in the city centre. At the present time this demand is simply not being met with the right product, the new offices that we intend to build at 3 St Paul’s Place will provide that.
“We are confident that the development will be very successful both in terms of lettings and the subsequent sale in the private investment market.”
Martin McKervey, partner at Nabarro in Sheffield and chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP Property and Construction Sector Group, added: “It’s great to see the council responding in this way. Without this sort of intervention the scheme would simply not take place for some time and the city would lose out on companies that want office space quickly.
“This is exactly the sort of innovative, collaborative approach between the public and private sector that the property and construction sector has been calling for to help get the economy moving.”
