Commercial Estates Group has committed to the largest speculative office start in Bristol in a generation.
Demolition work on the Aspire site at Temple Quay, close to the city’s main railway station, will start later this month. Construction of the £100m, 200,000 sq ft development, which gained planning consent in 2012, will follow early next year.
CEG looks set to lead the race to provide the city’s next wave of grade-A city centre offices.
Last month Bristol-based developer Cubex submitted a planning application for a 95,000 sq ft office building at Finzels Reach. It confirmed that it intends to speculatively build out the scheme as soon as planning consent is granted, which could be as early as this autumn.
If both buildings go ahead as planned nearly 300,000 sq ft of brand new grade-A space could be ready for occupation towards the end of 2017.
Although no major lease events are due in the city around this time, at least one large public sector requirement of between 80,000 and 120,000 sq ft is already circling the market via Bilfinger GVA.
Philip Morton, senior director at CBRE, joint letting agent on Aspire with Williams Gunter Hardwick, said: “Available grade-A space in Bristol is at an all-time low and there is significant demand.”
A surprise run of lettings at the start of this year on the current crop of speculatively built offices, including the majority of Skanska’s 61,000 sq ft 66 Queen Square to KPMG, has suddenly depleted the supply of top-spec space.
Salmon Harvester and NFU Mutual, which recently let part of their speculatively developed 100,000 sq ft 2 Glass Wharf, Temple Quay, to PwC, are also working up plans for the adjoining 115,000 sq ft 3 Glass Wharf.
