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The continued uptake of office space across Sheffield during 2010 has raised expectations of a strong opening six months during 2011, with commercial property firm Knight Frank forecasting an uptake of over 80,000 sq. ft. between January and June of this year.

110 Bishopsgate, now the tallest building in the City of London, has reached completion and firms are already moving in to enjoy the sweeping city views and 5-star quality of the brand new landmark office property.

Also known as Heron Tower, the 755 ft building provides almost 440,000 sq ft of commercial office space, 37,000 sq ft of which is available as serviced space via Landmark PLC, along with a restaurant and sky bar.

Serviced office provider MWB Business Exchange, which operates over 70 business centres throughout the UK, is reshaping its Meeting Venue offering to clients with the intention of becoming the UK's market leader by 2012.

Manchester office space is now the third-most expensive of any regional city in the UK, with only Edinburgh and Birmingham recording higher office prices according to commercial property agents DTZ.

The winner of officebroker.com's Business Centre of the Month Award in March 2011 is Liverpool Business Centre.

Operated by Harley Scott, which operates three other centres in Blackburn and Burnley, the Liverpool Business Centre was chosen as this month's award-winner due to its excellent offering to clients, supportive business environment and the efficient on-site management team.

Read the story in full in our press release:

officebroker.com Business Centre of the Month: March 2011

The Iconic Stock Exchange office building in Birmingham City Centre, which recently underwent a £1.85m refurbishment, has been sold to Capital Trust for £7.95m.

For almost 170 years, the Royal Mint Court at Tower Hill played its part in English history by providing the location for the manufacture and minting of coins. Today, this iconic landmark is home to numerous businesses large and small, which occupy office space within the walls of the former Royal Mint and continue its legacy as a key player in UK trade and industry.

Serviced office provider Magnus Limited, which operates a number of office properties across the North West including Manchester, Macclesfield and Congleton, has launched a free online community for clients.

The growing trend for businesses to offer Smart phone applications has led to one Redditch based company expanding its office space, with marketing firm Kadfire relocating to a 10,000 sq. ft. office on the Trafford Park Industrial Estate.

A Highbury-based business centre in North London, The Busworks, which is host to regular business networking and development events, has recently announced its latest diary entry which is to take place on Thursday 31st March.

Co-hosted with the adjacent Pleasance Theatre, 'Women Like Us' will take place from 6.30pm and will offer a drinks reception complete with a discussion panel and presentations by six inspirational female speakers.

Avanta has helped to raise in excess of £6,500 for children’s charity Sparks, with over 70 guests attending the charity dinner and auction hosted by Olympic legend Sir Matthew Pinsent which was sponsored by the serviced office space operator.

Victoria Hunt of Cobalt Business Exchange, a prestigious business centre located on the eastern edge of Newcastle, has recommended their video tour for the significant role it has played in their success this year.

A long-term redevelopment plan for Taunton Town Centre took a significant step forward this week, with property developer St Modwen gaining planning committee approval for 27,000 sq. ft. of office space.

Hersham Place Technology Park has this week welcomed the Kingston Trampoline Academy to its office space, a result of the Academy’s success and offering them a location from which the growing administrative side of the business can be managed.

Workplace conflict mediator True North Mediation Ltd has recently secured a new office near Newcastle with the help of officebroker.com Account Manager, Ally Maloney.

i2 Office, a serviced office provider with four centres located in Marylebone, The City, Milton Keynes and most recently Glasgow, has reported that the newest addition to their property portfolio has reached an impressive occupancy level of 59% since its launch earlier this year.

In September last year, officebroker.com reported on the aspirations and objectives of serviced office provider Citibase, who announced an informal target to reach 50 business centres by the close of 2011.

Now well into the new year, Citibase are continuing to expand and have successfully added a number of new buildings to their serviced office portfolio, which has reached the 32 mark and shows no sign of slowing down.

Read the full story here:

Citibase on Target following Nottingham Launch

Regular readers of our blog will know that we are always keen to publish news from our office providers. Whether it's a new business centre, a recent refurbishment or new team members, send your stories to our newshounds and give your centre an extra boost.

When a client fails to turn up at your centre for a planned tour, it's a frustrating experience and a waste of time for all concerned. While there are some unavoidable circumstances that can lead to a missed appointment, in our communicative age of mobile technology and wireless networks it is reasonable to expect a quick phone call to cancel or postpone a tour if the scheduled appointment cannot be met.

Here we outline our thoughts on No-Shows and what we do to try and reduce the issue of missed appointments.

National accountancy firm Crowe Clark Whitehill (CCW) has announced that it will merge its West Midlands office space into a single location, with the recently refurbished Black Country House in Oldbury chosen as the location for this new centralised office.

A Langstone-based business centre offering serviced space to SMEs, with particular facilities and support for those in the science and technology sectors, has recently celebrated a very successful first year.

The technology park, which is operated by serviced office provider Fasset Ltd, is located close to Havant and offers a range of space for businesses large and small, with particular emphasis on smaller office suites. These are available on flexible terms that are designed to help start-ups and small businesses get a foothold on the commercial property ladder, without committing to expensive rental agreements or long-term leases.

With over five and a half thousand office space locations available globally via the officebroker.com website, we thought it might be interesting to explore some of the far-flung places in which we help businesses to locate and secure serviced offices – starting with two of our newest additions in Tenerife, Shanghai.

Over the last three weeks members of the officebroker.com team have been hitting the road and visiting many of the office space providers we work alongside. Today it was the turn of Sales Manager Chris Mapp and Consultant Gerard Richards.

A business centre in London's prestigious Cheapside, the first serviced office property in this area, has now reached 75% occupancy and interest continues to flood in from prospective clients.

The Manchester International Office Centre (MIOC) has a new owner, with global real estate fund Infinity having completed the £13.5m purchase from developer Highcross and taken ownership of over 100,000 sq. ft. of office space adjacent to Manchester Airport.

In an attempt to secure major investment and encourage developers to get building, Liverpool Council has announced that it will sell 20 sites across the city, including a substantial amount of office space, in order to free-up resources and raise the status of the City.

Bruntwood, which operates serviced and conventional office space across the North West, has reported a 15-year high in enquiries for its key Liverpool locations and announced its intention to expand a number of business centres.

Planning permission to create modern open-plan office space and improved facilities for Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council has been secured, bringing the redevelopment of its historic town hall a step closer.

i2 Office, which provides serviced office space for companies in four locations across the UK, has recently set up a new business hub at their Glasgow location as part of a collaboration with the Institute of Directors (IoD).

The body charged with keeping MPs expenses under control, The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), has received criticism over its own use of taxpayer money after it emerged that they spent nearly £300,000 furnishing their office space in Central London.

According to a report in Saturday’s Telegraph, internet giant Google are considering a deal for 700,000 sq. ft. of grade A office space at the new King’s Cross Central development.

Lisa Risk, the Property Director of serviced office and industrial workspace provider Bizspace, has been appointed the 2011 Chairman of Women in Property's (WiP) South East branch.

Businesses located in London’s serviced office space are expecting the government’s spending cuts to have a major impact on business growth within the capital during the next 5 years according to a survey conducted on behalf of Avanta Managed Offices.

A business centre in Birmingham offering serviced office space for SMEs has announced record occupancy figures in the first six weeks of the year.

Located in St Pauls Square in the city centre, the building is now close to full capacity and continues to receive a steady influx of enquiries from businesses interested in the office space.

One of Bristol’s premier office space developments has been purchased for £83m, with Aerium, a European property fund, having agreed the fee for the landmark office scheme with administrators PwC.

Yet another Borough Council is to sell-off its office space after changes to its working practices and staffing levels, with The Insider reporting that King Sturge has been appointed to market a 54,000 sq. ft. office building own by Amber Valley BC in Ripley.

The Managing Director of an exclusive retail interior design company, 2 Breathe Creative Ltd, has praised officebroker.com for the "outstanding" service they received during their recent search for a new office in Richmond.

Commercial Property Firm Savills will relocate their Liverpool office space to Peel Land & Property’s Princes Dock development, joining the likes of Coutts Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG at the waterside scheme.

Serviced office provider Business Environment has been recognised for its employment and workplace ethics, which has seen it ranked 38th in the 'Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For' list.

A new office space project in Birmingham is being unveiled at the MIPIM event in Cannes this week, and it is hoped that a joint venture partner will be found to help fund the scheme.

Having grown their UK office portfolio during the last 12 months, flexible office space provider Orega have welcomed two new members to their team – with Alison Brady (left) and Mandy Holton (right) becoming the founding members of a new national sales office.

Serviced office provider i2 Office, which recently announced its intention to progress its expansion plans throughout 2011, has reacted to a glut of demand in the City of London by launching a new business centre on Lloyds Avenue.

The most popular offices in Central London are those that come with an EC postcode according to data collected by officebroker.com, the largest independent broker to the UK’s serviced office space sector.

Representatives from Birmingham and Coventry will be amongst those awaiting the start of MIPIM, the world’s largest property exhibition, which will begin in Cannes tomorrow and is expected to attract over 30,000 members of the global property community.

Elite Feet Football Development, a North London organisation that delivers football courses for youngsters aged up to 14 years old, has recently signed for a new office in Barnet with the help of officebroker.com.

Wigan is set to host the UK's first zero-energy business park, which will create around 21,000 sq ft of new business space.

Serviced Office Space provider Ventia have added another location to their growing portfolio of serviced office locations, with a joint venture between Ventia and consultancy firm Arcadis creating a new location in Midtown.

A landmark legal case has led to the High Court ordering a company to delete comments it made on social networking site Twitter.

The background to the high profile legal proceedings was that Instant Offices Ltd had unlawfully created web content by copying parts of the website of competitor officebroker.com.

Having already attracted the likes of Barclays, the Bank of Ireland and Liverpool FC to its office space, 20 Chapel Street in Liverpool City Centre would certainly appear to be getting things right.

But as one of the leading figures behind this successful office development explains, the expected shortage in Grade A office space within the city could seriously impact upon its ability to attract further blue-chip clients.

A science and technology park offering serviced office space in Caswell, near Towcester, has recently welcomed three new businesses on-site which brings its overall occupancy to 19 firms, between them employing 255 people.

February was a busy month for the officebroker.com team. Catch up on all the latest and find out what happened in the commercial property industry last month with our monthly round-up. If you have any news or press releases that you want to share with us, please send your stories to news@officebroker.com.

The Old Rectory, a Glenfield-based business centre in Leicestershire operated by dbs Managed Offices, has won officebroker.com's Business Centre of the Month award in February 2011.

Read the full press release here.

Land Securities will seek to address the diminishing stock of Grade A Office Space in the City of London, with planning permission having been submitted to redevelopment two 1960’s buildings into a fresh supply of modern office space.

South-East plumbing and heating firm Lab-Mech, which covers domestic and commercial requirements across Kent, Sussex and London, has recently found a new office near Bexley with the help of officebroker.com.