The government has given the Belfast office market a major boost by agreeing record-breaking deals to take 216, 000 sq ft (20,066 sq m) at the Gasworks business park in the city’s Laganside district.
The bigger deal represents the city’s largest single office letting in over a decade and accounts for all of JH Turkington’s 156,000 sq ft (14,492 sq m) James House, which the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) has prelet at about £11.25 per sq ft (£121 per sq m).
In the other deal, which ranks as the second largest office letting in Belfast this year, the Department of Social Development (DSD) has prelet Inislyn’s 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) Lighthouse scheme at about £11 per sq ft (£118 per sq m).
The DSD will be relocating from offices in Churchill House in the city centre while the DFP is moving to the park from offices in the Victoria Square district, which is being redeveloped by Dutch developer AM as part of a major regeneration project linking the area to Laganside.
The urban renewal project, approved in January 2003, has triggered a series of deals because it involved two large tenants vacating offices on the site.
There have been around 400,000 sq ft (37,160 sq m) of office lettings to public and private sector tenants in Belfast in the last six months.
The record figure contrasts sharply with the slack office market in Southern Ireland.
Robert Ditty, of agent Osborne King, said that J H Turkington & Sons had built 20,000 sq ft (1,858 sq m) of the £20m development speculatively as the first phase. It will be handed over this month.
A further 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) will be ready for occupancy by July, with the final phase scheduled for completion in October.
The 15-year lease will include over 100 car spaces.
Jim McKeag, managing director of J H Turkington & Sons, said: “We are very pleased the department opted for this landmark, high-quality office building in what is arguably Belfast’s premier office park.”
Turkington is one of the region’s major contractors and was previously involved in a PFI for the development of a court house scheme as well as building a B&Q retail warehouse in Craigavon.
References: EGi News 21/04/04
