Hold Your Breath For That 200K SF Birmingham Government Pre-Let

Things appear to be moving at one of Birmingham's largest developments. 

Kier Property responded with “no comment” when Bisnow asked for confirmation that the Government Property Agency was on the brink of agreeing a 200K SF pre-let at its recently consented 5 Centenary Square office development, central Birmingham. The deal is close to agreement, CoStar reported.

There was equally no comment on reports that work on-site at the office development is due to leap forward any day. A start on-site in Q3 2021 was anticipated when Kier won planning permission for the revised, and slightly enlarged, office building in March this year.

Nor has there been any comment on suggestions that the pre-let is yoked to a £150M investment deal, as React News reported.

If the pre-let, investment deal and construction start are as imminent as reports suggest it will take central Birmingham’s office take-up for 2021 back to pre-pandemic levels. Earlier this month it was revealed that year-to-date take-up was 496K SF in 63 deals. It could match 2018 take-up of 754K SF

The deal would also seal the second big public sector coup for the Arena Central development of which 5 Centenary Square is the latest phase.

In 2017 HM Revenue & Customs signed up for 240K SF pre-let at 3 Arena Central as part of a development deal funded by Legal & General.

Arena Central is a 9-acre development site in Birmingham city centre, bounded by Centenary Square, Bridge Street, Holliday Street and Suffolk Street Queensway.

The site has outline consent in place for more than 1M SF of commercial space.

In 2019 Kier Property, the development division of Kier Group, bought out Arena Central developer Miller Developments.

The next phases are 4 Arena Central and 5 Arena Central, which will each offer 190K SF.