New office space with contemporary extras including table tennis, a pool table and a retro arcade game is set to open at one of the North East’s biggest business parks.
Quorum Business Park is already home to national and international names including Convergys, Tesco Bank, Greggs and Insure the Box within 14 of its 16 main properties, stretching over 921,000sqft.
Now, however, the park’s managers are keen to tap into the growing SME sector in the North East, by offering smaller units within one of its remaining buildings, where £500,000 has been invested to create contemporary workspace with plenty of shared spaces to relax, have a free coffee or even take a break with a game of Space Invaders.
Q10 has been renamed Neon – after the 10th element in the periodic table – to reflect a new direction for the asset managers Broadoak, which enlisted Killingworth architects FaulknerBrowns to create meeting areas, break out spaces and a quirky kitchen alongside 19 units of varying sizes, between which firms can move as they grow.
The three-storey Neon building will be officially launched to the market next week, with Knight Frank and Cushman & Wakefield acting as agents. Wandisco, a Californian big data specialist has already signed up for a unit and will move in next month, while several other firms are also eyeing up space.
It has taken 12 months to create Neon, starting with visits to several modern workspaces in London to seek inspiration ahead of working with designers, then handing over to the fit out team which has spent six months on the project.
The ground floor will have 15 units, the next floor three units and the top floor has room for several hundred people.
The flexible space means firms could follow in the footsteps of Insure the Box, the car insurance company which started out with a handful of people and now has more than 300 people in Q11.
Directors Laura Sykes and Fergus Trim said designing the office space marked a departure from the more corporate, large floor plate offices they have created for many of the park’s tenants in the past.
Mr Trim said: “The plan is to turn Neon into 19 units of varying sizes, from 681sqft which is room for six or seven people, to the top floor which has 35,000sqft.
“And the idea is that firms can start out small and grow, and start with us and move into differing size units going up.
“Up until three years ago the smallest of our units would have been 10,000sqft and up, but that has changed in that there has been real growth in the SME market in the North East, especially within technology businesses which are a real success story, so it’s important for us to broaden our offer at Quorum and to tap into that market.
“It’s very different to anything we have done before and we have invested a lot into creating shared facilities, breakout space and meeting rooms. The reception team will also act as concierge, doing everything from preparing teas and coffees and taking in dry cleaning to ordering taxis.
“It’s so much less corporate than the break out areas we developed in our last project, where the seats were all black leather and chrome.”
Mrs Sykes said: “We wanted to create areas that were more collaborative, with more space and social areas so people can feel they are part of something bigger rather than just going into their own little box. It’s funky, quirky – and no one else out of town has done it.
“It’s also about attracting talent. Now through technology like Instagram people can post photos of where they work, and that might attract others to the same business.”
The opening of Neon follows seven lettings at the park so far this year, including the arrival of software specialist TSG which moved it headquarters to Quorum from Gosforth.
