Member Article

Office take-up in Sheffield soars

Sheffield City Council’s Inward Investment Team have announced a city-wide upsurge in office activity. The team cite Sheffield’s business friendly reputation, quality building stock, skilled work force, transport links and lifestyle offering as driving demand for office space across the city.

Office take-up in Sheffield has risen by over 100 per cent on the same period last year according to figures released by Invest Sheffield. The data shows that in the first 6 months of 2015, occupier take up totalled over 305,000 sq ft across the city centre and out of town areas of Sheffield. This is up from 140,000 sq ft in the same period in 2014.

Of the 54 deals completed so far this year, the most notable include The University of Sheffield taking over 65,000 sq ft at Velocity on Solly Street, XLN Telecom, who moved to the city in 2014 and expanded earlier this year by a further 14,000 sq ft at North Bank, and Sky Bet recently opening a new 6,000 sq ft office at Electric Works.

Cllr Leigh Bramall Sheffield City Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Business Skills and Development, said: “Seeing these levels of office activity in the first half of the year is testament to Sheffield’s winning business proposition. A core part of our appeal is having a dedicated team in Invest Sheffield. A specialist unit that is business savvy, commercially connected and with expert local knowledge, supporting Sheffield’s economic growth and attracting new business in the North.”

Peter Whiteley, Partner at commercial estate agents Knight Frank said “This is great news for Sheffield. The level of demand shows that Sheffield continues to be a successful business location for growing companies. We hope that with new developments such as 3 St Paul’s Place underway and major refurbishments taking place we will continue to attract new companies and provide the much needed space for our growing business community.”

The data has been compiled by Invest Sheffield, who work closely with Sheffield’s commercial estate agents to create a definitive voice to investors, developers and occupiers about the Sheffield office market. Invest Sheffield sits within Creative Sheffield, the economic development arm of Sheffield City Council.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .