Timely victory for Nurton’s Waterloo Street scheme

A Birmingham developer has filled the last space in its Grade II listed city centre scheme – just as its next office project is about to come on stream only yards away.

Nurton Developments says the consistent demand for 11 Waterloo Street, and the inquiry level on its new No 4 Temple Row, reflect the dearth of smaller, high quality office units in the Central Business District (CBD).

The former, which saw the last of its refurbished space taken by software specialist Cloud Operate, in a suite of 1026 sq ft, was built as the Bank of England’s first Midlands regional headquarters and has been a landmark for some 180 years.

Almost 24,000 sq ft of Grade A space will be available at No 4 Temple Row this autumn, in 7 floors ranging from 2,505 sq ft up to 4,400 sq ft. Nurton acquired the building in November 2015, via a jv with a private investor.

Young says some £2.5m is being invested on features such as high-speed lifts, raised floors, air conditioning, suspended ceilings, LED lighting and a new reception area, and the facade will receive a long-overdue facelift including new windows.

Both schemes have underlined Nurton’s reputation for investing in properties they can add value to and successfully asset managing them to attract tenants from both the public and private sectors.

CBRE and JLL are joint agents for No 4 Temple Row, as they were for 11 Waterloo Street, and Andy Riach, JLL’s associate director was understandably pleased to have secured the last letting at the latter scheme.

“It’s easy to see why these locations are sought-after, the amenities in the area keep getting better and the new Metro line is now operating, but it’s also about the quality of the landlord offer,” he says.

“Cloud Operate are experts in IT, communications and software, but they were perfectly happy to take their broadband and phone services straight from Nurton, which is a very satisfying tribute to the quality of their offices and understanding of what the market demands.”