In the February edition of Insider, our own Tim Bottrill comments on how the Sheffield commercial property market is dealing with the uptake of office space post-pandemic. With increasing interest on employee welfare, the office is no longer just the place where we work. Employers are factoring in how we get to work (ie are there showers, cycle storage, etc), and our life immediately outside the office (eg is there a gym, green space/public realm, are there restaurants, cafes and bars, etc).
We are marketing Pennine5 – the former HSBC premises – where our client is refurbishing the buildings into a business campus for 3,500 people which will include a £1.5m outdoor central plaza with art installations for employees to enjoy. Occupiers will like the community feel. The fact this is a redevelopment is also a lower carbon solution to improving the office space available.
Sheffield will also soon see more than 100,000 sq ft of offices with Elshaw House and the Isaacs Building ready for occupation as part of the Heart of the City scheme. Tim says “If you look at a 20-year cycle in Sheffield, at the beginning there was a lot of development on the periphery… Then, over the course of time, everyone has gravitated back to the centre…Sheffield is a very cost effective city in rents…”. Business rates are also less than our neighbours like Leeds.
The full copy of the article is available from the Insider website.
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