£1.5m refurbishment for Quadrant West, Birmingham
27 March 2006
King Sturge will be letting office suites at Quadrant West, 210-222 Hagley Road West, ranging in size from 1,000 ft² to 35,000 ft², with joint agents KWB
Guy Bowden (Nurton Developments), Duncan Scott (KWB) and Jon Carmalt (King Sturge)
One of the West Midlands' best-known office buildings has been acquired by Nurton Developments, in a £5.6 million deal that will see the landmark premises transformed to provide high-quality accommodation near to the motorway network.
Quadrant West, 210-222 Hagley Road West, Birmingham was the former corporate headquarters of Albright & Wilson. It is just minutes from the M5 motorway and enjoys a prominent corner position on the major crossroads with Wolverhampton Road, opposite Jonathans' Hotel & Restaurant.
It was purchased by Nurton Developments from a private in-house client of Colliers CRE.
Nurton will implement a £1.5m refurbishment programme to enhance the 3-winged, 73,000 ft² office building, and offer it as value-for-money, high-specification suites on the outskirts of the city centre. The quoting rent is £12.50 psf.
Development Director Guy Bowden said: "This is in ideal location for those occupiers who do not need a Birmingham city centre address, but do require city centre-standard office accommodation with a very high specification. Not only does it offer fast access to Edgbaston and Birmingham, but also to the M5, at both Junctions 2 and 3.
"We will be undertaking a comprehensive refurbishment in terms of the building profile, including recladding, making it unrecognisable from how it looks today. We will also strip the vacant office accommodation down to core and extensively refurbish the space, to include full air conditioning, and we propose to reposition and enlarge the reception area, and create further car parking to improve on the already generous current ratio of one space per 400 ft². At £12.50 per ft², I don't know of any other building that will offer such good value for money."
The six-storey building, best known as Albright & Wilson House in its time, is split into three wings, each of 3,896 ft², offering nearly 12,000 ft² in total on each level. Floors 2, 5 and 6 are completely vacant. Current occupiers include Provident Financial Ltd, Reliant Security Services and PPG Industries.
The joint agents are King Sturge and KWB. Duncan Scott, of KWB, said: “There are very few notable office landmarks on the Western side of Birmingham, of which Quadrant West is one of the most prominent, plus, it occupies an ideal location close to both the motorway and city centre.
"Nurton, with their ability and track record of providing high quality refurbished accommodation, will make this a very attractive building, which we will be letting in office suites, ranging in size from 1,000 ft² to 35,000 ft². The marketplace is improving, and we are anticipating very good interest."
