Southampton Looks Ahead

While the office market in Southampton is at a low ebb, the city council is offering its own positive image for the future. It has appointed David Luck Associates, urban planners, for an ambitious development plan to be achieved by 2026. This envisages 325,150 sq.metres (3.5 million sq.ft.) of offices, a substantial amount of retailing and 5,000 residential units.

The focus of this will be a 133 acre site from the train station to the Royal Pier on the Southampton waterfront which is likely to be the first part of the scheme. One element in the council’s ambitions has been achieved with a £7.2 million Arts Council grant for a new arts complex, which will be built by Grosvenor as part of a wider scheme on the site of the former Tyrrell and Green building in Guildhall Square at the heart of a new cultural quarter. Councillor Royston Smith, leader of the council, commented: “As well as the emerging centre, we are on course for a massive new retail centre with Watermark WestQuay, as well as development of the Royal Pier.”

As far as the current office market is concerned, Jason Webb of King Sturge reports a dormant office market in which take up has been only 6,317 sq.metres (68,000 sq.ft.) so far this year with no large deals in the city centre. Webb said: “There are no new developments on the horizon, although there are plenty of sites, because of a lack of appetite for funding speculative schemes. There is a glut of second hand space in the city centre partly due to the offices Carnival left for its new headquarters.” “The out of town market is faring somewhat better,” said Webb, ”with half a dozen or so active enquiries seeking accommodation of over 2,787 sq.metres (30,000 sq.ft.) mainly wanting space along the M27 between Chandlers Ford/Eastleigh in the west to Portsmouth in the east.”

The enquiries are agent led and should some of them convert by the end of the year, it will probably mean the difference between an average and a bad year in terms of take up.

The South Coast Central Commercial Property Register

The South Coast Central Commercial Property Register for the South Coast is a leading UK business property publication from Martin Austen Publishing. The aim of the publication is to offer a simple and effective means of finding Offices Space, Serviced Offices and Commercial Property along the South Coast of the UK. You can also find the latest commercial property news for the South Coast region.