Scarborough Developments has secured Admiral Group for its Cambrian Centre development in Newport.
The motor insurance firm will take 77,000 sq ft at the scheme opposite Newport railway station on a 20-year lease with a break in 16 years. It will move 1,200 staff in by 2013.
Rents have not been disclosed, but Huw Llewellyn, head of property for Admiral Group, said the firm had negotiated a 12-month, rent-free period with collar and cap fixes on the rent increases.
The city attracts headline office rents of £15 per sq ft.
Llewellyn said: “Including these incentives, we have secured a better-than-market deal.”
The firm had also shortlisted Midas and Network Rail’s Central Point development next to the station, but said the Cambrian Centre’s proximity to the transport hub, and its car parking ratios, tipped the balance.
The deal is a huge boost for Newport, which saw take-up of around 40,000 sq ft in the year to end of October 2011.
Scarborough Developments bought the site in 2010 as part of the £37m portfolio of Modus retail sites from administrator Ernst & Young. It was granted planning permission for 42,000 sq ft of the office space, a 68,000 sq ft supermarket and four high street shopss at the centre in 2010.
Huw Thomas represented the Admiral Group.
nadia.elghamry@estatesgazette.com
