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The flexible workspace operator is launching its second office flex space in Birmingham having made a new Partnership Agreement with abrdn to create a high spec flexible workspace at Ingenuity House in Solihull.
The 30,500 sq ft flexible workspace, which will open in January 2024, will be newly refurbished to provide around 550 workstations on the ground and first floors of the building. The building offers a unique communal atrium where all customers can enjoy hospitality led amenities and facilities.
The new workspace is designed to be a modern, flexible base for the area’s professional and financial businesses, and will also offer a wide choice of different working zones space, large meeting room suite, more space person than the industry norm, on-site shower and changing facilities, unlimited barista-quality coffee, secure bike parking, and carparking and EV charging points.
Ingenuity House is a unique, highly sustainable office building comprising 114,635 sq ft on five storeys, with a Grade A specification. It is an intelligent building and utilises top grade integrated technology to successfully create a healthy and inspirational working environment, including using space occupation analysis systems to maximise space utility and energy consumption. It received both the Gold National and the Silver Regional Awards for Innovation at the BCO Awards in 2019 and the Celebrating Construction 2017 Digital Construction Project Award. It has a BREEAM score of 70 per cent.
The building is located on one of the UK’s best commercial hubs, adjacent to Birmingham International Airport and Railway Station and close to the NEC, Resorts World and the Birmingham Interchange at HS2, currently under construction. Once complete HS2 will cut the Birmingham to London journey time from 1 hour 21 minutes to 52 minutes.
It is the second flexible workspace that Orega has launched in Birmingham. It already offers space at The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus, Queensway.
Ben Hutchen, Real Estate Director at Orega, commented: “Ingenuity House is a unique building, which will attract a lot of interest from businesses who are increasingly looking for a flexible way to occupy property but also require high quality ‘state of the art’ space. The popularity of flex space has been growing in Birmingham. According to CBRE, the city now has 650,000 sq ft of flex space, an increase of 37 per cent on 2022. Average occupancy rates in the city are high- at 85 per cent.
“We are also delighted to have secured an early pre completion letting to a prime financial services business, which clearly demonstrates the quality of ‘flex’ demand. We are thrilled to have captured this within our joint venture agreement on behalf of abrdn.”
Les Ross, Fund Manager, abrdn said: “We look forward to working with Orega on this new partnership, Ingenuity House is a high-quality asset with strong ESG credentials. We are committed to reduce the environmental impact of our buildings and we also have a responsibility to investors who want to ensure the way they invest is environmentally relevant. Given the high specification of this building we expect to attract significant interest from occupiers.”
It is the second flexible workspace that Orega has launched in Birmingham. It already offers space at The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus, Queensway.
