Boom time for city centre

AN INCREASING number of businesses are choosing to relocate to the north of Sheffield's city centre creating a commercial 'hot spot', according to new analysis.

Banking giant HSBC has its regional headquarters at West Bar, which in turn has helped attract new occupiers to the location such as Tesco, RLF and PlusNet.

Additionally, a number of mixed-use developments have been launched in the area, including Velocity Village, which will comprise 127,000 sq ft of commercial space and 310 residential units.

Westbar Police Station is also set to be transformed into a major mixed-use development, to include a hotel and offices, retail and residential units.

Rebecca Schofield, of Knight Frank, said: “The available accommodation is the ground floor of an impressive mixed-use development. The location is ideal as it has the benefit of easy access into the city centre as well as being well-served by public transport with a number of bus and supertram services running close by which is a big attraction to incoming occupiers.”

Andrew Hine, director at developer Metier, said: “The amount of investment in the area has been steadily rising in recent years and the location is experiencing much higher footfalls as a result.

“The northern section is close to the Cathedral Quarter which has a range of good restaurants and shops and is also close to the ring road, making it easily accessible.”

Metier has built five new, self-contained individual business units at its Metis development on Scotland Street. The units, which are for sale or lease, range in size from 2,231 sq ft to 6,908 sq ft.

Agents for Metis, Knight Frank and Lambert Smith Hampton, have reported an increase in enquiries from businesses who have noticed the surge in investment in the northern area of the city.