Member Article

Quorum marks completion of mammoth office build

Building work is finally compete at Quorum Business Park Newcastle, marking the end of the largest speculative office build in the country.

The eight new buildings have taken 3 and a half years to build and have provided work to almost 2,000 local builders from North East contractors.

While the new build was a speculative one, the scale has been matched by its tenant attraction with over 300,000 sq ft of lettings achieved over the same period. Big name occupants including Tesco Bank, Balfour Beatty and Convergys have now made the move to the site.

The final two buildings to be completed are Q10 and Q3, which are 104,000 sq ft and 26,000 sq ft respectively, and have both achieved BREEAM excellent environmental awards, reflecting green technologies used during their construction.

Fergus Trim, development director at Quorum said: “The development of the site has been a huge project which has transformed the business environment in this part of Newcastle.

“The build programme began in summer 2008 and has continued without pause, despite the property market dipping during 2010 and 2011, with Quorum securing funding for the entire build before the downturn materialised.

“We have been ambitious and financially able to continue building and now have a prime business location to offer new incoming tenants - a strong position to be in whilst many competing markets across the country are starved of high quality office space.”

There are currently 4,000 people employed at the park, with that number expected to rise further this year with existing Quorum tenants continuing to create jobs there.

Building work has begun on the parks’ 10,000sq ft retail scheme which is due for completion in autumn 2012, with GREGGS and Tesco Express among the tenants who have committed to new shop units.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .