Bristol city centre office building starts to take shape

Halo, one of the only office buildings under construction in Bristol city centre, starts to take shape. The landmark building for Finzels Reach is set to be the UK's ‘most sustainable' office scheme outside London.

The steel frame, which will form the main superstructure of Halo is beginning to appear out of the ground.

Over the coming weeks and months, passers-by will begin to see the building take shape on the skyline, on its corner plot on the former fire station headquarters site in Bristol city centre.

Contractor Willmott Dixon has been pressing ahead with the works on site, having dug out and poured in the concrete for the basement to pave the way for the construction of the superstructure.

The sustainable Grade A office building of 116,000 sq ft can cater for around 1,000 staff, with international legal firm Osborne Clarke having already agreed a pre-let to take two thirds of the space.

Peter Walford, managing director at property developer and urban regenerator Cubex, which is delivering the property, said: "It's fantastic to see such great progress on site at phase two of Finzels Reach, with Halo one of the only office buildings currently under construction in Bristol city centre. The importance of staff wellbeing and standout environmental credentials has risen up the agenda significantly during the last year, and rightly so. We are proud to be delivering a smart, green, leading-edge office that has these principles at its heart."

Halo is set to be the ‘most sustainable' office building in the UK outside London, with the developers targeting a BREEAM Outstanding accreditation to meet the toughest new sustainability assessment criteria and achieving a ‘best in class' Platinum Cycling Score rating.

Halo forms a key part of the second phase of Finzels Reach, the new mixed neighbourhood by Bristol Bridge and the Floating Harbour,

Earlier this year Cubex secured a major forward funding deal with Tesco Pension Investment.

Three remaining floors of around 42,000 sq ft are available to let through agents Knight Frank and Lambert Smith Hampton.

This year, Cubex, backed by Fiera Real Estate, agreed a forward funding deal with Grainger, which saw the UK's largest listed residential landlord acquire the 231-home build-to-rent development that will sit alongside Halo. In addition, Cubex, backed by Fiera Real Estate, recently agreed a contract with housing provider Abri to deliver 66 affordable homes at Coopers Court, also part of phase 2 of Finzels Reach.

Cubex bought the former fire station site in summer 2018 on behalf of Fiera Real Estate Opportunity Fund IV (UK), a programmatic joint venture by FRE UK that is exclusive to clients of CBRE Global Investment Partners (CBRE GIP).  FRE UK is currently fundraising for FREOF V, targeting £250m of value add and opportunistic real estate transactions in the UK.