Two Bristol city centre office buildings are now fully occupied as the market continues to strengthen and available quality space falls to a new low.
The Ardstone Regional Office Fund has signed its fourth and final tenant at 90 Victoria Street, resulting in 100% occupancy at the high-quality refurbished office building. And a brace of lettings at Newminster House on Baldwin Street, pictured, means the refurbished office is also now full. 
At 90 Victoria Street, RINA Consulting, which provides engineering consultancy services to the defence and space industries from its Bristol office, has taken the final 5,000 sq ft on the ground floor of the building on a 10-year lease with five-year break.
The Ardstone Regional Office Fund, a programmatic venture funded by clients of CBRE Global Investment Partners (CBRE GIP), acquired the building at the end of 2015. It has also recently let the first floor to IT consultancy BJSS, who join WYG and Mazars completing a strong tenant profile. GVA represented RINA Consulting and acted jointly with JLL as letting agents.
Lucy Bannerman of Ardstone Capital said: “The refurbishment has been extremely well received, with the property now fully let within just 18 months of our purchase of the building. This final letting at 90 Victoria Street demonstrates the continued demand for well located, high-quality office accommodation in Bristol city centre.”
Richard Kidd of GVA’s Bristol office, who represented RINA, added: “The quality of the refurbishment of this building along with its excellent location close to both city centre amenities and rail and road networks meant that it provided an excellent solution to RINA’s requirements.”
Rhys Jones from Bruton Knowles’ Bristol office said the Newminster House deals would further reduce supply in the city centre.
“Digital agency Edico Media has taken 922 sq ft on the second floor while Simitive, a global leader in organisational effectiveness, has snapped up 2,700 sq ft on the fourth floor.
“The fact that this stylish, seven-storey property is now full underlines the strength of the market for smaller, quality office suites which ideally suit the SME sector.
“Newminster House has proved popular with TMT and service businesses such as recruitment consultants or other professional services uses. Add on benefits of this building include the Foundations café on the ground floor.
“With an on-site commissionaire, air-conditioning, refurbished open plan offices, a modern and spacious reception area, plus on-site parking, Newminster House ticks all the boxes for city centre space.
“It also offers bike storage and showers, increasingly seen as a must have in today’s office market.”
Rhys Jones said many SMEs were finding it difficult to source cost effective office space in the city centre following the high volume of office space which has been or is being converted to residential use.
“There was considerable interest in taking the space at Newminster House and we are actively seeking similar buildings to meet demand from businesses on our books.”
Bruton Knowles acted jointly with Burston Cook on behalf of private clients. Edico Media was represented by Savills.
