Thinking ahead - Mark Ashall ( right ) believes Six Centre Square is the ideal base for a blue-chip company .
NEWS
Centre stage
Centre Square team looking ahead to a blue-chip future
The team behind Centre Square –
Middlesbrough ’ s flagship office development – believes the multi-million project will continue to fulfil its promise in 2021 .
In the last 18 months , One and Two Centre Square have been completed and are now being prepared for their first four occupiers .
The quality of the scheme has been recognised with a prestigious award from the construction industry , and now Middlesbrough Council is being asked to approve plans for the next phase : a four-storey 40,000 sq ft Grade A office building .
The developer , Mark Ashall , has revealed that even at this early stage , talks are taking place with a blue-chip multinational company which is keen to take much of the space when – subject to planning permission – Six Centre Square is built .
He said his faith in the project has never wavered despite businesses facing one of their toughest periods , caused first by uncertainty over Brexit and – throughout much of 2020 – the pandemic . Middlesbrough Council also shelved plans to relocate to One Centre Square .
Mr Ashall was nevertheless sufficiently confident in the future of the scheme that his company Ashall Projects bought the land for Six Centre Square a year before any occupiers were confirmed for buildings One and Two and , during lockdown , it also went ahead with the demolition of the vacant office block on the site .
Throughout October , Centre Square made headlines as four major employers – GB Bank , Causeway , XPS and Firstsource – announced they were moving in , bringing hundreds of jobs and safeguarding many more . The agreement with Firstsource marked the largest office letting in Middlesbrough for a quarter of a century .
“ It ’ s all about the quality ,” said Mr Ashall . “ The decision by these businesses demonstrated that there is significant latent demand for Grade A office space in the region and that Centre Square and Middlesbrough has the potential to become a major office hub in the north of England .
“ Forward-thinking companies understand that making their staff engaged and productive is a key determinant of their success and that one of the main ways of achieving this is to provide them with a great working environment , with easy access to local amenities and the transportation network .
“ Centre Square provides the tools for them to achieve this in a way that many alternatives in the area cannot .”
Plans for the development began five years ago when a study identified that Middlesbrough lacked the topquality office space it required to attract employers providing good , well-paid jobs . The town and the whole of the Tees Valley had fallen behind other city regions , such as Leeds and the West Yorkshire area . But thanks to Centre Square , that picture is already beginning to change .
Alex Hailey – who worked on the deals to bring the first occupiers to Centre Square – is a director of CBRE , one of the world ’ s biggest commercial property companies . He works across the North- East and Yorkshire .
“ Through lockdown , the Middlesbrough market has probably been one of the most buoyant in the UK ,” he said . “ We ’ ve let over 70,000 sq ft of space in the town and , to put that into perspective , in Leeds during the same period only 15,000 sq ft was let .”
Fellow agent Stephen Brown , senior partner with Middlesbrough-based Dodds Brown , has worked in commercial property in Teesside for more than 30 years and believes that the Centre Square development is a game-changer .
“ We ’ re on the radar . We ’ re out there fighting for more occupiers and more jobs and more investment ,” he said .
But with much of the space in the first two buildings already occupied , he said it is vital that Six Centre Square gets the go-ahead to maintain the momentum . “ We need to have that availability to attract jobs ,” said Mr Brown . “ Otherwise we will miss out on future opportunities .”
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