The One City Park office development is due to be completed later this month – with the first tenant to be announced around the same time.
Representatives from businesses across Yorkshire were given a tour of regeneration sites in the city this week, and were told that the first tenant would be based on two floors of the Grade A office development in City Park.
They were told that the development – the first newly built, Grade A office in the city centre in two decades, had put Bradford “on the radar” of businesses that would normally look no further than Leeds or Manchester.
The £35m development has been funded through a mix of Government grants and funds from Bradford Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Image: LDRS
Simon Dew of Muse Developments, the company that has developed the office building, spoke to business representatives on the tour in front of the building.
The final works include the creation of a set of “Spanish steps” leading from the office development to City Park and the completion of a new public park area behind the building.
Mr Dew said: “This will be a Grade A office. It is the only new Grade A office that has been built in the city centre for 20 years.
“Developers didn’t come forward to build Grade A office space because they said there was no demand – but there was no demand because there were no buildings here. The quality of office space hasn’t been good enough for some time.
“This will entice developers that are currently favouring Manchester or Leeds.”
He said businesses now were much more concerned with what was on offer for their workforce beyond their office walls than in the past.
He said: “It used to be when you spoke to prospective occupiers you’d speak to the property and estates manager. Now we end up speaking to HR managers who are asking about what else is on offer in the area for staff.”
He told members that One City Park was two weeks away from completion, and the announcement of the first occupier, who will be taking two floors of the building, would likely be tied in with the completion.
Image: LDRS
Business leaders on the tour were told that the other floors were still on the market.
Mr Dew added: “The sort of companies we are speaking to are Yorkshire based companies wanting to come into Bradford.
“Bradford is on the radar of a lot more companies because of this development.”
Manoj Joshi, Chair of the Bradford Economic Partnership, asked if there had been any issues with finalising the first occupier – pointing out that an announcement was expected in June.
Mr Dew said the delay was mainly down to signing off all the legal documents over the Summer holiday period.
