Hertfordshire-based commercial property investor and developer Mantle is re-locating its central Cambridge business centre to Nine Hills Road, in the heart of Cambridge’s business district. The current centre at 20 Station Road is being replaced to meet growing demand for flexible office space, as enquiries across its seven business centres have increased by 27% every year.
Mantle has taken a 10-year lease from University of Cambridge at Nine Hills Road, a 30,000 sq ft building. This is double the size of Mantle’s existing CB1 Centre at 20 Station Road, which the new centre will replace.
Mantle set up CB1 business centre in 2013, under a management agreement with freeholder Brookgate. After seven years of running CB1, the property will now be redeveloped by Brookgate. The old centre will close on the 4 November 2020 and the current occupiers will transfer to Nine Hills Road.
Mantle’s new centre is just a five-minute walk from Cambridge’s station and a five-minute walk to the city centre. The new centre’s refurbishment has already begun, using Mantle’s London-based architects Selencky Parsons, which has helped Mantle design centres at Kings Court in Stevenage, The Lambourn in Oxford and Thremhall Park in Stansted.
Nine Hills Road is due to open on 1 November 2020 and will include brand new co-working spaces and offices in a range of sizes, as well as phone booths, breakfast bars, large meeting rooms, 80 parking spaces, cycle parking, showering and drying facilities.
Guy Baker, chief executive officer of Mantle said: “CB1 has been a huge success with 100% occupancy, so we look forward to having twice the space to meet the high demand in Cambridge from our current customers and those businesses looking for flexible workspace, including meeting the demand for our new ‘Home-flexi’ option.
“We continue to focus on the south-east office market and provide high quality and functional workspace that meets the fast moving and changing needs of our customers. August is traditionally a quiet time of year in our market, however, we have had an unprecedented number of new enquiries across our business centre portfolio during July and August with a 27% increase year on year. We continue to respond to the demand from people and companies who wish to continue to work from home while having flexible, well-connected space where they can meet and collaborate with their teams and other businesses. It has been great working with Brookgate over the years and we wish them continued success in their visionary and exciting regeneration plans for the area. We look forward to launching our latest business centre to Cambridge in November.”
The terms of the deal are a 10-year lease at a rent of £32.00 per sq ft.
Savills acted on behalf of University of Cambridge.
