Ambulance Service letting buoys Liverpool office figures
Liverpool secured the largest out-of-town office letting in the country during the first quarter of 2017 according to GVA research, with the North West Ambulance Service taking 40,000 sq ft in Speke.
GVA’s latest Big Nine report said that new lettings in the out-of-town market exceeded the five-year quarterly average of 44,000 sq ft by almost 20%, reaching 52,000 sq ft.
This was largely down to the North West Ambulance Service, agreeing to let 40,000 sq ft from Gladman Developments at Estuary Point within Liverpool International Business Park. The deal represents the biggest out-of-town deal across all of the Big Nine cities in Q1 2017.
Hitchcock Wright is joint agents with CBRE at Estuary Point.
City centre take-up followed the national trend of being lower than the quarterly five-year average, at 45,000 sq ft.
GVA pointed to a number of deals which could contribute to a strong second quarter in Liverpool. Almost 18,000 sq ft has been taken by Griffiths & Armour at Princes Dock, 14,155 sq ft has been let to The Football Pools at No4 St Paul’s Square, and HMRC’s lease of 250,000 sq ft at India Buildings could be signed in the coming weeks.
Ian Steele, director at GVA said: “In a quarter when most cities have been below the five-year average in terms of new lettings, it’s positive to see Liverpool’s out of town market perform well and reverse the trend. However, the out of town market faces similar challenges to the city centre with an under supply of good quality stock.
“Despite the lower than average city-centre figures, there is in excess of 300,000 sq ft of deals in the immediate pipeline. If they all complete during Q2 then it’s likely to be a record quarter for take-up.
“However, when these deals do complete, it will also mean a further reduction in supply demonstrating the desperate need for new good quality space to be either refurbished or developed.”
Most importantly…Has this created any new jobs in the City Region?????
By Job Bob
No, but its good for agents. Those of us reading Place NW all have nicely-paid middle-class jobs already, so why should we care about new ones being created?
Hopefully a juicy development happens on their old site that we can all feed off for a few months. Mmm cash.
By Rooney
Well that’s a sweeping generalisation if I ever heard one. I suppose all Place NW readers paint their four bedroom detached houses in Farrow & Ball too?
In my experience, people who describe themselves as “middle-class” are often everything but that which they “portray” themselves to be. I prefer the term “aspirationals” – as you can’t earn or by class.
Back on topic – at least the agents got some work out of it then.
By Job Bob
What’s Farrow & Ball?
By Rooney
It’s not on sale at any £ shops…
By Man on bicycle