Planning practice, Quod North, is relocating its Leeds office into Evans Property Group’s newly refurbished Capitol office building within Bond Court.
Quod North has signed a 10 year lease for a 3,500 sq ft suite on the first floor, east wing of Capitol and has exclusive use of the roof terrace overlooking the transforming Bond Court in the heart of Leeds City Centre. CBRE and JLL are agents on Capitol and Quod North was represented by DTZ.
Quod North was set up in 2014 by Tim Waring as the northern office of London-based Quod Planning. In the last 12 months, the practice has experienced significant expansion and has outgrown its existing offices at Park Square.
Quod North has grown the team to 12 professionals in the last 15 months and is looking at more growth in the short term. The team is responding to an improving local and national property market, and is advising a range of clients including The Crown Estate, Hammerson, Land Securities, Commercial Estates Group, Lands Improvements, GMI, Evans, Wykeland, IKEA, Legal and General, amongst others. In the region, Quod is advising on the extension of the White Rose Shopping Centre (Leeds), redevelopment of the Yorkshire Post Building (Leeds), Princess Quay (Hull), and the proposed new settlement at Whinthorpe (York).
Last year Evans undertook a comprehensive 6 month refurbishment programme at Capitol to create 20,000 sq ft of high quality office accommodation on the first and third floors in addition to external improvements to the windows and elevation, a new double height enlarged feature reception, lift and stair core refurbishment and full common area modernisation.
Capitol has been a long-term investment for Evans and is home to occupiers such as Cap Automotive and Lifesearch. The transformation is part of a circa £20m investment programme being undertaken by Evans at the Bond Court area of Leeds. The Minerva office building on East Parade has become a flagship, Grade A office building for the city and demolition work will soon be underway on the development of a 90 bed 5* hotel.
Tim Waring, Director at Quod North, said; “We have experienced phenomenal growth in the last year or so, and Capitol will provide us with a long term base to continue to expand our team and our business.”
Alan Syers, Portfolio Director at Evans Property Group, said; “We are delighted that Quod North has selected Capitol as its Leeds base. The extensive refurbishment works have created high quality space in one of the most strategically positioned buildings within the city. Now that Capitol and Minerva have been launched and are steadily filling up with occupiers, the next phase of the Bond Court works will be the hotel and the public realm.”
Richard Bean at JLL added; “The works to Capitol were undertaken at just the right time, as supply of Grade A stock within the city is at an all-time low but occupier confidence is returning. Both Capitol and Minerva are proving very popular with occupiers who are keen to have presence in the core commercial area of Leeds with the added benefit of being on the doorstep of the retail quarter.”
