Member Article

Newcastle’s Cobalt Business Park welcomes Leeds Building Society

Leeds Building Society is expanding its presence in the North East, procuring a 20,168 sq ft office space at Newcastle’s Cobalt Business Park.

Property investor Praxis acquired a trio of buildings on the out-of-town business park in October of last year, two of which were let to security firm G4S and Formica, whilst the third had sat vacant since Highbridge Properties completed a speculative development in 2008.

Cobalt Park is the UK’s largest office park and is situated 5 minutes from the A1, 10 minutes from Newcastle city centre and 20 minutes from Newcastle International Airport.

Gary Roberts, director and head of capital markets at Praxis, said: “This letting adds another prestigious tenant name to an already diverse mix of occupiers on Cobalt Business Park, thus demonstrating its continued appeal and is further testament to the scheme’s quality.

“We are particularly pleased that we have been able to secure the Leeds Building Society in such a timely manner as it corroborates both our investment thesis and judicious stock selection process.

“The North East office market has been a relative underperformer since the global financial crisis and this property has suffered as a result, however, we recognised a change in occupier momentum during 2015 and felt that it was the right time to increase our exposure to this specific market segment should we be able to acquire the right assets”.