Expansion cued up for Boho Zone

Middlesbrough Council’s executive has given the go-ahead for officers to explore a 35,000 sq ft expansion of the popular workspace project.

Billed as Boho 11, such a development would add to a cluster of office space made up of a number of new build and older renovated spaces.

The most recently completed facility, Boho 8, is fully let while Boho X, due to open in April, is fully pre-let to a tech occupier.

JM Architects designed the 60,000 sq ft Boho X, with Hive Land & Planning, Arup, Layer and Turley Heritage also on a professional team working with contractor BCEGI.

Boho 11 is planned for a plot just off Feversham Street, next to the site of Boho X, near to the Old Town Hall in view of the Transporter Bridge.

The council’s executive has now approved feasibility works to scope the potential costs and delivery of the project.

Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston said: “Demand for high quality offices in Middlesbrough is sky high – we are bucking national trends and optimism is huge.

“We’re very confident if we build another building there will be fantastic booming local companies who want central Middlesbrough as their home.”

The report put forward to the executive stated: “The Council has received a number of enquiries already for any available space within the existing Boho buildings. Upon completion of Boho X, once any residual space within Boho 1 and 5 have been filled, the Council-managed assets within the Boho area will be at capacity.

“Whilst the digital sector is rapidly expanding and companies are experiencing growth, the nature of the sector is that many maturing companies have ambitions to expand into high quality offices but do not have the capital resources/strength of covenant to fund their own development and the relatively low financial yields on development means the private sector will not deliver. Without public sector intervention the sector is unable to expand further and mature.

“The development of additional office space within the Boho area would further support the rebalancing of the town centre economy which is heavily reliant on retail. The digital sector has a very positive impact upon wealth creation within the local economy.”

The report concluded that depending upon the sector definition used, it is estimated that GVA within the digital sector is £57,000 per year, higher than the Tees Valley average of £48,000.