The continuing march of the student accommodation market across Exeter’s city centre is tightening availability of city centre offices more than ever, as demonstrated by recent developments at Beaufort House.
Beaufort House is a large, multi-tenanted office on New North Road where occupiers include Capita, Step One, Elite Training and Funeralzone. Two suites, totalling around 7,500 sq.ft, have been vacant recently. One of these suites has been let to Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, who are involved with a number of major developments in the city centre including the student housing being built on the site of the Stagecoach depot on Summerland Street.
The other suite is currently under offer to an office occupier which is being forced to relocate from one of the other sites in the city where an office building is being converted to student accommodation. This suite was let so quickly that the landlord will not experience a void period between the end of the current lease and the start of the new lease.
Stratton Creber Commercial are now marketing ground floor offices of around 5,500 sq.ft in The Forum on Barnfield Road, where there is already interest following the relocation of Savills last month. This space is now some of the only modern office accommodation in the city centre which is immediately available and ready for occupation.
The current situation is a massive turnaround from five years ago, when many sizable office suites had been empty for some years, often well before the Credit Crunch. A repeat of that situation is unlikely given the amount of office space which has been converted to residential use in recent years, but the current shortage of available space is predicted to continue, whatever happens in the economy as a whole.
