The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is moving from its current Coventry HQ to a new site after agreeing to lease 36,000sq ft in the city’s Friargate development. The organisation’s pre-let is the second major signing for the 37-acre scheme.
The £59m Friargate project, adjacent to Coventry railway station, will create the city’s first ever business quarter and, when complete, is expected to offer at least 15,000 permanent jobs. The developers, Friargate Coventry, has already promised 8,000 construction jobs and claims the development will inject an estimated £80m into the local economy annually — just through staff eating their lunch in the city centre.
To underline its backing for the project, the biggest since the city’s precinct was built soon after the Second World War, Coventry City Council has already agreed to take space in the first Friargate office block due for completion late in 2016 and will relocate 2,000 local authority employees. Work on the new RICS building is expected to start in 2015.
“We already have a significant office in Coventry, but to be able to move to such a central location and be part of one of the most ambitious business-district schemes in the country is incredibly exciting,” said the society’s chief executive Sean Tompkins, who added that the attitude and professionalism of the city council and the Friargate team was a key factor in its decision to re-locate UK headquarters.
“At the RICS we are keen to continue our strong relationship with Coventry and believe our new building will be a fitting destination for surveyors from across the country and indeed the world,” said Tompkins. “It will connect, complement and support our global headquarters on Parliament Square, London.”
For the developers, Stephen Reynolds said: “It is wonderful news that the RICS has chosen to relocate to Friargate and it affords us the opportunity to deliver much-needed speculative office development into the region.” Tenants are already being sought for the remaining 64,000sq ft of space within the second building. “Friargate has now moved from the drawing board to delivery with the infrastructure works underway and work on the first office building due to commence within months,” he added.
Coventry’s assistant development director David Cockroft is equally optimistic about the scheme’s potential. “I can’t overstate the importance of Friargate,” he said. “It will change the face of Coventry forever. Rather than piecemeal office developments across the city it represents a quantum change — a national office centre right beside Britain’s fastest-growing railway station, and within an hour’s journey time to London. Friargate will allow Coventry to snap at the heels of Birmingham.”
Both the developer and the city council have also hinted that a second tenancy announcement could be made within days, this time for one of Friargate’s two hotels. Negotiations with a number of chains have been on-going for some time. “Interest is so high we are confident of securing a national name to run the 150-200 bedroom hotel in the very near future,” added Cockcroft.
