The Office Providers Talking Office Space and Flexible Workspace

Our Spotlight on Providers series gives an overview of individual office providers and operators in a particular location. In each episode, we randomly select three providers/operators/brands from the location giving a brief history and an overview of their products. Today, the spotlight is focused on Manchester and the randomly selected flex space brands are Bruntwood, Regus and ClockWork. Information about all flexible workspace providers in Manchester, including their social media feeds which give information about their latest products and ongoing responses to Covid-19, can be found in the Manchester Flexible Office and Workspace Providers Directory We hope it's useful!

Our podcast episode that was published earlier this week was recorded earlier this year and much has happened since then. It was a Q&A session so none of the questions related directly to the events that have occurred since February. We now have a whole new lexicon in the industry with terms such as ‘post-pandemic workspace’ and ‘COVID-secure offices’. We felt, therefore, that we should discuss what has happened in the flexible workspace market so far this year and, specifically, how office providers and operators have responded to this global pandemic. The associated post and, essentially, the transcription of the episode, How have office providers and operators responded to the Covid-19 pandemic? can be found on the link.

This is our first Q&A session on our podcast. Thank you for sending in questions as per the request made in our first episode. The podcast was published in October 2020 but the session was recorded in March (pre-lockdown), so this should explain why there are no questions directly relating to COVID-19 such as those about COVID-secure office space, the post-pandemic workplace, the rise in popularity of hybrid 'hub and spoke' workplace models and the like. These will, undoubtedly, be covered in our next Q&A. The transcript of these flexible workspace Q&As as well as additional resources are found in the blog section of our website. Subjects covered in this Q&A session include the history of the flexible workspace industry, how serviced offices work, co-working spaces, managed office spaces, what’s the best office in London and so on. The answers are read by the Managing Director of The Office Providers, Mike Gardener. We hope it’s useful! Details of how to submit feedback and questions for the next session are found in the episode and in the transcript in the Blog section of The Office Providers website. Edit: We have been advised that the answers to Questions 13 and 18 did not record correctly so these segments have been removed from the podcast. However, our answers to these questions can be found in the transcript.

Our latest episode is all about choosing office space to rent in Manchester. The city in which we have an office and the city that we love. This episode talks about Manchester’s office space market, who the large occupiers are, how much it costs to rent an office in Manchester, setting up or moving a business to Manchester, what it’s like to live in the city and so on. There is further information about flexible workspace in Manchester on the following page The Office Providers - Manchester There is a full transcript of this podcast on our website.

This overview discusses Mayfair as a district and the office space options within it. For further information regarding Mayfair office space please check out this page The Office Providers - Mayfair where you will find information on serviced office space, managed offices, co-working spaces and private member business clubs in Mayfair. You will also find details of how to arrange viewings.  The transcript of this podcast can be found on our website. - Mayfair is one of the most exclusive real estate districts in the world. It is an area of central London sat in between Hyde Park and Oxford Street and is also bordered by Piccadilly and Regent Street. It is located in the West End of London and has the postcode districts of W1J, W1K and W1S. It is a 300-acre district with a 300-year history - it actually dates back a bit further, to 1686, as the location of the annual “May Fair” - and is home to internationally renowned institutions, first-class hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants, luxury boutiques and international embassies. It is also home to some of the most expensive real estate in London, and the world. Why is real estate in Mayfair so expensive? Mayfair is one of the top 3 most expensive real estate locations in the world and often takes the top spot. In 2019, the UK’s record for the highest rent was broken when hedge fund, Steadview, agreed to pay £250 per square foot for its London headquarter offices at 30 Berkeley Square. The previous highest UK office rent record was in the neighbouring prime West End district of St James’s where fashion investment tycoon Lawrence Stroll paid £190 per square foot in 2017. Stroll is famous in the fashion world for bringing Pierre Cardin fashionwear and Ralph Lauren clothing to Canada, and is the father of Formula racing driver Lance Stroll. The capital values of non commercial properties in Mayfair average £2,000 per square foot with some super-prime new properties exchanging for well in excess of that. So, why is it so expensive? There is a large number of Grade-II listed properties in Mayfair, both residential and commercial. There are many modern, premium office spaces that are within these Grade-II listed properties that retain original period facades and other features. But this isn’t unique for central London and certainly not the West End. There are also several Grade I listed town garden squares which are certainly very pleasant features of a district, however, there are other districts in central London that also have garden squares. Is it expensive because of its central location? Maybe, but other locations such as Soho, Marylebone and Covent Garden and so on are just as central, some may be more so, yet are considerably cheaper. Is it because of its proximity to green space such as Hyde Park and Green Park, maybe, but many other parts of central London have green spaces, too. It is home to Bond Street, home of designer boutiques and high-end luxury goods, it is also the home of ornate Victorian shopping arcades such as the Burlington Arcade, and also some historical five-star institutions such as The Ritz, Claridge’s and The Connaught, which in turn would go hand-in-hand with first-class restaurants and private clubs, of which there are several. It is close to both Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace but neighbouring St James’s is closer to both of those. [The full transcript of this episode can be found on the link at the top of this page]

Hi and welcome to our first podcast episode! It’s the 23rd of February 2020 and this is a live recording – so apologies in advance for any clunkiness or unforeseen mishaps! This first episode is just me, Mike Gardener, and I’m the founder and MD of The Office Providers. This initial episode will introduce our podcast, our company and me. Firstly, I’ll introduce our company and what we do. Our company is The Office Providers https://www.theofficeproviders.com and we are an office space brokerage, office agency, office search service, office aggregator, office space portal… whichever way you'd like to term it, we help businesses and individuals find office space for their business by giving them access to the whole office space market. We work with all of the office providers and flex space providers in all locations globally. So, we have all the local markets in all global locations covered. These providers operate serviced offices, managed office space, co-working spaces, hot desking centres and other forms of flexible workspace. We also work with developers and landlords of leased office space. We are regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and our services are always FREE. Because we are paid a fee by the providers, operators and landlords. My background - I started in real estate 20 years ago working as a property manager for a residential letting agency. From there, my interest turned to commercial property and I then completed a masters in commercial property management. I then became a chartered surveyor and a member of the royal institution of chartered surveyors (or the RICS). I worked for two multinational real estate advisory companies and specialised in office agency – both finding tenants for landlord clients and finding office space for tenant clients. I witnessed a major slowdown in the traditional leasehold office space market during the Great Recession of 2008 and saw that companies were increasingly opting for office space with flexibility built-in. Office space options on flexible and shorter terms, with all-inclusive pricing, elements of customisation and the ability to upscale and downscale their footprints with ease. In 2009, I set up The Office Providers to provide a free office space search and acquisitions service that gave our clients access to the whole market. It was also important to bring the values of the RICS to this marketplace so I ensured that The Office Providers company was regulated by the RICS and our company was the first flexible office space agency to be regulated by the body. In these podcast episodes, I will be talking about the office space market, any new developments in the market place, general news, providing hints, hacks and tips, talking about new properties, new developments, new locations, office tech, and everything else that comes under the banner of ‘offices’. From time to time, we will have guests on to talk about all of the above, too. We will also answer any questions asked of our listeners and record those so please send these through to contactus@theofficeproviders.com and mark the subject ‘Podcast’. We will answer these questions in future episodes. Any feedback will be gratefully received, too, so please send this through to the same email address. So, that’s our first introductory episode, so until next time, all the best and take care!

The Office Providers Talking Office Space and Flexible Workspace (Trailer)