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A serviced office business centre in Croydon has attracted positive feedback via officebroker.com's online review facility.

Birmingham City Council has revealed the second stage of its “Big City Plan” – a development scheme stretching over 20 years that promises to deliver far reaching changes to the city and that will include over 1.5m sq. m. of new retail, leisure, cultural and office space.

Last week we asked any keen writers to step forward and create a guest article for publication on the officebroker.com blog.

Our very first guest blog has been written by Centre Manager Barbara Brazil. Barbara is located at a historic business centre in Leeds, and has written a fascinating article about the history behind the building, which includes the legendary Stanley Matthews, a bit of ballroom dancing, and a lot of building work...

Vacant office space in Bristol could be redeveloped using publicly suggested ideas as part of the city councils “Area Action Plan”, which will seek to generate a “better central area” for both residents and visitors to the South West city.

officebroker.com's Business Centre of the Month award for September has gone to The Office Group's Farringdon Too - a sustainable office property in the heart of the City of London.

Find out more about officebroker.com's September award-winner, Farringdon Too, here.

Next week officebroker.com will begin work on the latest round of its quarterly research series, the Serviced Office Review. The next instalment of this research, which tracks regional activity within the serviced office space market, will compare Q3 2010 to Q3 2009 as well as presenting market activity since the beginning of 2010.

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has called for an international benchmark to help landlords, investors and occupiers identity and define Grade A office space in leading world cities, a move echoed in a poll of the serviced office industry via the Alliance Business Centers Network (ABCN) website, officeingtoday.com.

In August, Melvin Byres of serviced office provider The Executive Centre embarked on a 1,000-mile cycling route around the UK, in memory of his friend Matthew Elvidge.

In August, officebroker.com awarded its Business Centre of the Month award to Stirling-based Touch Business Centre, an 18th century estate that was converted into serviced office space in 2000, and which is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

As part of the award, Touch Business Centre received a free video courtesy of officebroker.com, displaying both the exterior and interior of the property, which is designed to offer a mini tour to prospective clients who are interested in taking space.

Warrington Borough Council have committed themselves as a “guaranteed large scale” tenant to the office space created by their “Bridge Street Quarter” – A proposal designed to attract potential development partners to the redevelopment of Warrington Town Centre.

Eleven employees from serviced office provider Orega took to the skies over the weekend to jump 12,000 feet in aid of CHASE Hospice Care for Children.

Leading the way were joint directors of Orega Paul Finch and Zach Douglas, who were joined by nine other employees from Orega centres throughout the UK.

Office space that will house 20,000 members of the international media during London 2012 is open to offers, as the company charged with insuring the lasting legacy of the London Olympics seeks to secure an anchor tenant and avoid the office space becoming a disused relic after the final medal is handed out.

The Co-operative group have chosen to keep their staff up-to-date on the groups new head office in Manchester by launching a podcast – allowing them to get involved and excited about the project that sits at the heart of a joint regeneration project backed by Manchester City council.

Google's UK Managing Director Matt Brittin is paying a visit to Birmingham next week as part of a drive to encourage more British businesses to get online.

Serviced office space in Newcastle-upon-Tyne has experienced a surge in interest according to BNP Paribas Real Estate (BNPPRE), with the decision of high profile clients such as the BBC and ITV to choose serviced offices being cited as prime examples of the growing demand and appeal.

Leeds certainly seems to be getting its fair share of development at the moment.

One of the latest schemes is an office property - claimed to be the greenest in Leeds - which is set to launch next week.

Serviced Office Space provider Orega, whose Chertsey office was crowned officebroker.com’s Business Centre of the Month in April, has announced that it will open a new business centre in Bristol this November – marking the brands first foray in to the south west office space market.

Severn Trent Water have begun filling the office space of their new £60m centre in Coventry, with the first of 1,700 employees taking to their desks in the 170,000 sq. ft. building as the company begins the process of transferring staff to the new site.

In preparation for the move to their new office space staff were given the opportunity to get a taste of the new building through a series of taster sessions organised by the firm – all designed to familiarise them with the layout of the building and the new facilities on offer to them.

Richard Quigley, CEO of data management specialist DataGenic Ltd, has recently signed up to a new office in the City of London with the help of Central London Account Manager, Rebecca-Jane Strawford.

Established in 2002, DataGenic Ltd specialise in the delivery of data management solutions, primarily for clients in the Finance, Utilities, Oil and Public sectors.

Elland Road, home of Leeds United football club, will once again host the Yorkshire Property Charity Football event - a yearly competition involving professional footballing stars and representatives from Yorkshire's property industry.

The date has been set for 14th October 2010, and professionals from the world of business and football will take part in the annual clash followed by a fundraising dinner, that will see proceeds sent to children's charity Barnardo's.

A number of local businesses who are located in a popular Camden business centre have shared their views on the office space, via officebroker.com's online customer review facility.

Yet another mothballed office development in Central London is being revived according to a report published in The Scotsman, with the property company owned by former Rangers Football club chairman Sir David Murray apparently planning an £80m rebuild of Plumtree Court – abandoning the original plan of simply refurbishing the Central London building.

Office solutions firm Ricoh have become the latest tenant to take office space at 20 Triton Street, an office development in London’s West End recently completed by British Land.

JP Morgan’s plan to build a £1.5bn head office in London are being called into question in today’s Independent, with reports suggesting that the construction of their new office space in Canary Wharf could be abandoned in favour of a move to the former offices of Lehman Brothers.

Wellington Place in Leeds has been given the green light for a new office space development, located just off Wellington Street.

As part of a separate project, Victoria Gardens in Leeds city centre is set to get a facelift following approval by city councillors, despite some objection to the proposed style of 'loo brush' trees.

Office plants – you know the ones, often limp and a slightly yellow lodged around the edges of the office space to keep them out of the way?

Well before you perform the last rites and commit them to the great garden in the sky - you may want to consider giving them a last minute reprieve…

Over 40,000 sq. ft. of office space has been taken by Balfour Beatty at the Quorum Business Park in Newcastle, generating 200 new jobs as the company seeks to centralise its accounting, payroll and procurement services at Balfour Beatty’s businesses here in the UK.

A serviced office property in Dorking, which has been listed on the officebroker.com website since 2005, has undergone an extensive £2m refurbishment that has reduced its carbon footprint and created an open and supportive business environment for clients.

Read more here:

£2m Refurbishment Creates Sustainable Office Space in Dorking.

IGN, a leading media & services company who are synonymous with the world of computer games, are offering independent game developers free access to their San Francisco office space so that they can benefit from the support and collaboration of a unique games community.

Two storeys of new office space, added to the top of a high profile building in Leeds, may have to be pulled down after the owner of a neighbouring building complained that construction of the additional office space had interfered with the amount of natural light reacting his building.

Over 200,000 sq. ft. of high grade office space has entered the market in Bristol, with the One Glass Wharf development completing its journey from being part-finished and in administration to fully functioning office block in just 18 months.

Serviced office company Avanta are celebrating two years since their serviced office business centre was first launched in New Delhi.

And to mark the occasion, the company have a double reason to celebrate, as occupancy figures at their India location are now at 95%.

In 2010 to date, officebroker.com has sold over 10,000 serviced office workstations throughout the UK, with the largest single placement being for 100 workstations in Guildford.

This 10,000 figure is solely based on space sold in the UK, and doesn't include any other locations represented by officebroker.com, such as the US, EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), or Asia Pacific.

The officebroker.com blog attracts around 1,000 visitors every week, thanks to its team of authors that make daily contributions on all things office space.

Now you have the chance to take the reins!

The office space market in Blackpool has received a boost this week with confirmation that two healthcare businesses will occupy nearly 9,000 sq. ft. at the Kincraig Business Park – becoming the new neighbours of one the great serviced offices advertised right here on officebroker.com.

The Central London office space used by Prince Charles’s Charities Foundation is too expensive and will relocate to less expensive offices in an attempt cuts costs according to a report published in The Sunday Telegraph.

The construction of nearly 50,000 sq. ft. of office space is to get underway in Wakefield following the official launch of the Merchant Gate project in the West Yorkshire City, a development which promises to deliver an exciting space that will become “a new destination for business and leisure”.

On Saturday 11th September, members of officebroker.com's UK head office in Tamworth gathered at Priory Park kart racing circuit for an afternoon of tyre-screeching, pit-stops and strange blue hair-nets.

As part of a team-building event courtesy of officebroker.com MD Jim Venables, the afternoon soon descended into a flurry of banter as the ten teams - all grouped into twos apart from one-man-band Azeem Khan - secretly discussed tactics and planned out their best strategies as they prepared to face-off on the track.

Altrincham is yet another area of Greater Manchester to begin a regeneration scheme, with two office buildings located in the town centre due to be demolished as the controversial £100m Altair development begins.

A brand new office property located in the heart of Macclesfield, boasting high quality office space spread across five floors, has recently been completed.

After sharing a stage with the likes of Ellie Goulding, The Maccabees, The Noisettes and Dizzee Rascal in July, officebroker.com Account Manager Tom Stiles and his band the Unfriendly Neighbours will once again be performing at a major event when they take part in the artsfest event this weekend in Birmingham – and as part of the promotion he will be appearing on BBC Midlands Today at 6.30pm this evening!

As the BBC appoint property agent Lambert Smith Hampton to sell their Manchester studios, as part of their move to their much-publicised new home at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, more development is planned for the region that suggests it is certainly not grim up North.

This week the great North/South divide has once again been making headlines, with the lesser fortunes of “the north” being highlighted in data from Experian / BBC that lists only one location outside of the “south” in the UK’s top 50 sites in terms of the value of its office space.

In order to view this phenomenon from within our specialist office sector, we here at officebroker.com decided to explore the effects of this divide via the fortunes of the serviced office space sector within both the “north” and the “south” since the beginning of 2010.

Italian-born contemporary artist Irma Irsara is exhibiting a selection of her works at a serviced office property in Highbury, North London.

Commercial office space in Reading is finally on the up according to The Thames Valley Office Market Report from Lambert Smith Hampton, with its transportation network, skilled workforce and convenient location identified as key to the Berkshire town’s position.

But while the commercial market may only be taking its first steps, the market for serviced office space in the area has enjoyed a far more active start to 2010…

Plans for a new Central Business Quarter in Chester, which would deliver 500,000 sq. ft. of office space, are to be discussed by the city’s council as they seek to build a framework that would allow the historic city to realise its full commercial potential within the North West region.

Following the successful relocation to their new office in Stevenage, Mark Wilkinson of Pinnaculum Ltd - a consultancy and outsourcing firm for the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector - shares his views on the company's new office premises.

Fizzy drink giant Coca-Cola Enterprises has agreed to take 108,884 sq ft of space at New Bakers Court, a new town centre office scheme in Uxbridge - the 'Venice of West London'.

Currently based at Charter Place, also in the centre of Uxbridge, Coca-Cola are set to relocate 550 staff to the new location, providing property management firm Invista can obtain detailed planning permission for the building.

National trade union Unison, who have just given their backing to Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership contest, have secured funding for a new office space in Central London, with a former hospital in WC1 making way for the 75,000 sq. ft. development that will provide office space for the unions 300 staff.

There are many issues that can make the stomach of the average office space worker turn, from the overly perfumed co-worker to the used coffee spoon poking its still sticky handle from the sugar bowl. But for one set of office workers in Newbury, the problem is more nautical in nature…

Lloyd Dorfman, founder and Chairman of currency exchange company Travelex Group, is set to buy serviced office company The Office Group for a reported £43.3m.

The properties, of which all seven are currently advertised on the officebroker.com website, offer serviced office space to businesses looking for flexible lease terms in prominent locations. Six of The Office Group sites are based in London, and one is situated in Bristol city centre.

Following the addition of two new properties to bring their portfolio up to 27, serviced office provider Citibase have clear targets in mind as they continue to explore new territories in the UK.

Read the press release in full here:

Citibase on Expansion Course with "more good news" to Come.

After four weeks of voting, a record number of 680 nominations have been collected from clients of Abbey Business Centres' 13 locations throughout the UK.

The nominations, which were submitted as part of Abbey's annual 'Best of the Best' awards, celebrates centre staff and back office employees who go above and beyond the call of duty.

Richmond-upon-Thames council is the latest to announce the “centralising” of its office space as it seeks to save £1.4m per year – but if these potential saving to the tax payer have always been possible, why is it only now that a horde of local and central government organisations are choosing to take action?

Following on from our latest stop in Germany, where we focussed on the serviced office market in Hamburg, we continue our tour by moving South East across Europe to Vienna, the capital city of ski-lovers paradise, Austria.

Vienna is the largest city in Austria, lying on the East side of the country close to neighbouring Slovakia and Hungary. In 2001, Vienna's city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city is renowned for its historical and cultural associations. Recent studies have ranked the city as one of the best in the world for quality of life, alongside Canadian favourite Vancouver.

The Persian Gulf State of Qatar faced an office space “dilemma” a few years ago when the supply of office space within its designated commercial districts began to run dry. In what was deemed at the time as an “emergency” measure, the decision was made to allow businesses to operate out of residential property in order to keep business moving.

Now however the office space shortage has been reversed and Qatar has a vast reservoir of vacant office space to deal with – and deal with it they will…

The winner of officebroker.com's Business Centre of the Month award in June 2010 is living up to its status as an award-winning centre, by continuing to attract glowing feedback from clients.

Located in Stevenage, the centre has already accumulated a number of reviews from existing occupants, who have praised the service, flexibility and high quality facilities available at the property on Bessemer Drive.

Despite already operating three business centres in Birmingham City Centre, Regus, the world’s largest provider of serviced office space, has continued to roll out its expansion program by taking two floors at an office development opposite Brindleyplace.

August 31st marked a special occasion for storage and serviced office provider Evans Easyspace, as the company celebrated its 10th anniversary since the acquisition of their very first business centre.

Ten years on, the centre - which is located on Monckton Industrial Estate in Wakefield - continues to attract plenty of interest from clients looking for flexible office space in the area.

Learning from and exchanging ideas with others has always been a great way for business owners to help take their company to the next level, even open exchanges with those who share the same office space can deliver great rewards.

If however you are a doubter of such practices you should maybe think again…

Stirling-based serviced office provider Touch Business Centre has made 2010 a year to remember by becoming officebroker.com's Business Centre of the Month in August.

In addition to winning the monthly award, which was established by officebroker.com to recognise centres that show outstanding service and contribution to the serviced office industry, Touch Business Centre have another reason to celebrate as they mark their 10th anniversary this year.

Read the press release in full here: officebroker.com Business Centre of the Month: August 2010.