New office operator and six leasing deals secured.
The Mailbox in Birmingham has announced six new lettings in addition to a significant agreement with IWG plc to operate Level 1 at the mixed-use scheme as coworking office space.
IWG has agreed heads of terms on a 10 year management contract under its Spaces coworking and flexible office brand. The agreement will see Spaces manage the entire 50,000 sq ft of Level 1 of the Mailbox, which will be converted to office space following receipt of planning permission in May 2020. The office conversion is due to start before the end of the year, with the new Spaces facility expected to open in Autumn 2021.
The six new lettings at the Mailbox total 16,913 sq ft, and include four units on Level 2 and two on Canalside.
Midlands-based bakery and café, Medicine, will join the Mailbox with a new restaurant on Level 2, in addition to running the central deli within the centre’s Urban Room. Premium kitchen designers, Kitchen Gallery and Harvey Jones, will move from their existing locations to Level 2, to accommodate the office conversion on Level 1.
Joining the Mailbox’s popular food and beverage offer on Level 3, high end Italian restaurant and bar, Lucarelli’s, has signed a fifteen year lease. Situated in a premium location, with views overlooking Birmingham’s iconic canals, the new restaurant will seat around 150 covers and include a glazed terrace. Zizzi’s on Canalside has also signed a new ten year lease for its existing restaurant including its extensive outdoor seating area.
Richard Croft, Executive Chairman of M7 Real Estate, owners of the Mailbox, said: “This collection of lettings reflects the ongoing momentum behind the implementation of our asset management strategy for the Mailbox, despite the challenging backdrop.
“Once the market normalises following the pandemic, they will provide amenities for our office tenants and, having secured the important agreement with Spaces, we are well on our way to realising the full potential of the Mailbox as a pre-eminent ‘Live Work Play’ destination building in Birmingham with a complementary, ancillary retail and leisure offering. Our rental collection figures have remained robust throughout the pandemic and our repositioning of the property will ensure that it will be very well placed to further benefit from the expected recovery.”
Mark Dixon, CEO of IWG said: “The Mailbox is one of the premier office sites in Birmingham and a great location for our next Spaces location in the city. As a low rise building which offers a wider rage of retail and F&B amenities in a superb canal side location we believe it will be enormously appealing to potential customers, especially given the lack of office supply in the city.”