BT has signed for 283,000 sq ft at M&G Real Estate’s Three Snowhill for its new Birmingham hub, marking the city’s largest ever office letting.
The telecoms giant, which is undergoing a radical office consolidation programme, has taken up two-thirds of the 400,000 sq ft available at the £200m scheme, the largest speculative development in the UK, outside of London.
Up to 4,000 BT staff will be moved into the 17-storey hub from the end of 2020.
In 2016, M&G Real Estate bought Three Snowhill off Ballymore, following its acquisition of Two Snowhill from the Irish developer in 2014.
Ballymore is the development partner on the scheme.
Graeme Paton, managing director of property and facilities services at BT, said: “Unveiling our new site at Three Snowhill follows our announcement last year, when Birmingham was revealed as one of the first locations that will house our workplaces of the future.
“The city was recently ranked one of the most rapidly improving places to work in Britain and, thanks to securing this office space, we will become one of the largest employers in Birmingham with a visible presence in a strategic and important location.”
EG revealed last June that BT had hired JLL as the agent to help the company slash its office portfolio by 90% in the largest office consolidation programme the UK property industry has ever seen.
BT will refurbish its existing offices and acquire new ones as it whittles down the company’s portfolio from more than 300 offices to just 30 hubs.
In September, English Cities Fund’s New Bailey development was tipped as the frontrunner for BT’s new 200,000 sq ft hub in Manchester, beating Ask Real Estate’s First Street, as well as its 100 and 101 Embankment, MEPC’s 4 Angel Square and Bruntwood’s SciTech Circle Square.
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