CBRE recently hosted the “Southampton – city of opportunity” presentation at its London offices, to an audience of over 100 interested investors and potential occupiers.
Dawn Baxendale, Interim Chief Executive at Southampton City Council, and Councillor Simon Letts, Leader of the Council, were joined by the authority’s inward investment team to showcase the wealth of business and development opportunities available in Southampton.
The city is looking to attract developers, investors and occupiers for short, medium and long-term projects to ensure its ambitious City Centre Master Plan becomes a reality and to drive the future prosperity of the region.
Sally Lynskey, CEO of Business Solent, said: “It was great to see the proactive promotion of the city as a great place, to work, invest, study, live and enjoy. There was a great turn out of investors, developers and occupiers from London and there was a real buzz at the event.”
James Brounger, CBRE’s Regional Managing Director joined the panel and set out the prospective business landscape of Southampton and talked about why it was good for his organisation to host Southampton. He said: “We saw this as an ideal opportunity to attract occupiers to the city. Occupational costs for Southampton are much more affordable than many other towns and cities across the UK and with some excellent developments planned, now is the time for businesses to move to Southampton.”
Dominic Monkhouse, Managing Director of Peer 1, agrees. He said: “Southampton is proving itself as the central business hub on the south coast. We secured a prime location in the city and other businesses are doing the same. Now is definitely the time to invest in this buoyant market.
“We’re confident the city’s existing and planned business, residential and leisure offering will continue to attract more and more people to Southampton which will ensure our business continues to boom. There is a strong political will to drive forward the city’s ambitious plans for economic development and investors and developers that are still on the fence should certainly feel confident that Southampton can deliver.”
Dawn Baxendale said: “Southampton really is a city brimming with opportunities. Our ambitions are based on the reality of what we know we will be able to achieve, which in turn is based on what we have already delivered. The team made excellent contacts on the day and we anticipate welcoming a number of potential investors and developers to Southampton over the coming months.
Cllr Simon Letts, Leader of Southampton City Council, said: “We are absolutely committed to establishing Southampton as the commercial capital of the south coast. I see it as my key responsibility as leader of the council to drive investment into the city, to nurture public/private partnerships and to raise awareness of Southampton’s opportunities with landowners, developers and other businesses for the benefit of the city and the wider region.”
Once realised, the proposed projects under the Master Plan will create over 24,000 new jobs, 5,000 new homes and generate £3 billion of investment into the city by 2030. With £1 billion of investment already underway or in the pipeline, developers and partners such as Hammerson, Grosvenor, Morgan Sindall, Development Securities, Buoygues, Allied Developments and Peer 1 are already reaping rewards in this prime business location on the south coast.
