Birmingham’s newest co-working space, at The Colmore Building, AshbyCapital’s 14-storey office building in the city centre, has seen exceptional levels of demand, with average daily occupancy in its business lounge hitting 73% within the first four weeks of opening.
AshbyCapital has worked with Orega, which also operates 17,000 sq ft of serviced office space on The Colmore Building’s mezzanine floor, to create a new ground-floor co-working area, as well as a further 11,000 sq ft of serviced office space.
As part of the reconfiguration of the ground floor, the on-site &More coffee house has been expanded and rearranged, with a new island bar serving both the existing café area and the new Orega reception and co-working space.
The works further improve the building’s facilities, which are the most comprehensive of any office building in Birmingham and include a gym, treatment rooms, bicycle parking, luxury changing rooms and a drying room, as well as the coffee house. Since these amenities were added, ten lettings deals have been secured at the building. Most recently, the sixth storey has been let to an international occupier, making the building over 90% leased, with just the seventh floor, at 23,000 sq ft, remaining via agents GVA and JLL.
Tom Smithers, Head of Asset Management at AshbyCapital, said:
“Birmingham has the highest number of start-ups in any city outside London. As more people choose to work for themselves, set up their own business or freelance, it’s important to provide working environments that meet their needs. We’re excited to have completed the works to our ground floor at The Colmore Building, where the new business lounge and reconfigured café are buzzing, adding to the building’s appeal to new tenants. With flexible workspace operators accounting for around 20% of take-up in the city over the last 12 months and reports that WeWork is looking for space here too, co-working appears to be well and truly booming in Birmingham.”
Robin Pugh, Real Estate Director at Orega, said:
“We’re enormously proud of the co-working space we’ve created with AshbyCapital at The Colmore Building. The popularity of our new business lounge, which flows seamlessly into the building’s coffee house, has exceeded even our expectations and is testament to the space’s contemporary design and the building’s exceptional facilities and enviable location at the heart of the Colmore Business District. Clients love the mix of casual meeting space alongside the more formal state-of-the-art meeting rooms and dedicated work areas.”
The Colmore Building comprises 310,000 sq ft of Grade A office space and has achieved an ‘excellent’ BREEAM environmental and sustainability rating, along with a ‘platinum’ WiredScore connectivity rating – the highest available.
