Private property investment firm Charles Street Buildings Group has secured the largest city centre office letting in Nottingham for four years.
Pharmaceutical giant Parexel International has agreed to lease the group’s entire 62,000 sq ft 2 Castle Wharf office building on Maid Marion Way.
Charles Street will undertake a comprehensive refurbishment of the building as part of the deal.
At present, Massachusetts-headquartered Parexel is based in a series of buildings on Nottingham’s Bellside Road.
The company has agreed a 15-year lease with a 10-year break clause at 2 Castle Wharf and a rent of £930,000 pa. With parking included, the rent breaks back to £15 per sq ft.
The 15-year-old building was formerly home to BT.
The deal will have a significant effect on supply within Nottingham’s city centre office market, where less than 100,000 sq ft of grade-A space is available.
According to the latest figures from the Nottingham Office Agents Forum, grade-A office take-up leapt by 110% in Nottingham’s city centre in the first half of 2014, compared with the same period last year, with take-up totalling more than 150,000 sq ft across the city and out-of-town markets.
Charles Street also owns the building that secured Nottingham’s last significant deal, a 105,000 sq ft prelet to energy giant E.on in 2010.
Miller Birch developed the offices on the site of Nottingham city council’s former Treasury Building and forward-sold the investment to Leicester-based Charles Street in February 2012 in a £30m deal – a 6.62% yield.
DTZ is advising Parexel.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
