Avonmouth distribution base agrees with call for office improvements

The conversion of a former brewery into “trendy” offices is being touted as a further sign of the improving commercial property market, and the call for the offices to be more “funky” is one that our Avonmouth distribution base agrees with.

Developer Verve Properties, the firm behind the Paintworks in Bath Road, is taking on the Brew House on Tower Hill, close to Old Market and Cabot Circus. The firm thinks there’s a gap in the market for funky workspace for the creative sector and plans to redevelop the four-storey period building, more recently known as Company House, into 25,000 square foot of flexible work space to fill it.

Many of the original features had been covered over and the site had become somewhat run down, but Verve believes the character of the building has potential. Tom Dugay, office agency specialist at property consultant Alder King, said: “Last year we saw the return of speculative new build office development, with schemes now under construction at 66 Queen Square and 2 Glass Wharf in Bristol city centre, after a four year gap.

“We are now seeing the return of speculative office refurbishment after a similar period, as property owners and developers capitalise on the pent-up demand for flexible space.” Of the Brew House scheme, he added: “Bristol’s growing creative and cultural sector values space with character. Verve’s aim with this scheme is to bring some trendy Shoreditch character to the Bristol office market specifically to appeal to this sector which now accounts for 12 per cent of all businesses in the city.”

Source: Bristol Post