A developer has acquired a landmark office building in Cardiff city centre and plans for significant refurbishment.
Create Real Estate has taken on Marchmount House and Dumfries House, on Dumfries Place, which has a total of more than 43,000 sq ft of lettable space across the two adjoining buildings.
The freehold was purchased for an undisclosed sum from Sydney & London Properties Ltd.
The buildings, which are now largely vacant, were home to Geldards LLP since their construction until the law firm's recent relocation.
The buildings and location continue to prove popular with professional services firms, receiving strong interest from a number of parties to lease floors. AXA Insurance and DTZ (Cushman & Wakefield) are existing tenants.
Earlier this month Cushman & Wakefield announced it was closing its Cardiff office. The property advisory firm said it is creating a new hub at its Bristol office, where it will look to service the South Wales commercial property marketplace.
Ricky Humphreys, director at Create Real Estate said: "These prominent office buildings are in an excellent location with huge potential to modernise them.
"Our approach will provide much-needed, high quality workspace in a sustainable way by retaining and refurbishing the buildings that may otherwise be demolished.
"Despite current challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cardiff has an exciting story to tell with plenty going for it. Amazing quality of life, increasing levels of inward investment, massive infrastructure investment planned and incredibly high population growth projections, against a backdrop of a deepening under supply of quality city centre office space.
"Our plans for Marchmount & Dumfries House will help to meet this increasing demand."
Create Real Estate is focused on identifying opportunities in regional UK cities where the fundamentals of a property are very strong, but significant investment is required to unlock its full potential.
Fortwell Capital, principal lender to developers and investors in the UK real estate sector, provided a new £5.4m loan facility to Create Real Estate to help fund the acquisition and speculative refurbishment.
Nikos Yerolemou, associate director at Fortwell Capital, said: "We believe in the long-term resilience of the office building sector - especially with Cardiff's fundamentals - and are delighted to support Create with the acquisition of Dumfries and Marchmount House."
There is currently space available in Marchmount House of between 2,709 sq ft and 3,280 sq ft and Dumfries House will offer from 3,500 sq ft up to 30,000 sq ft of newly refurbished office space.
Once the refurbishment is complete, Dumfries House will provide a business with the opportunity to take the whole 30,000 sq ft, have its own front door, secure cycle and car parking and exclusive control of a prominent building in a prime and highly accessible part of Cardiff city centre.
