FHP have confirmed that they acted on behalf of Regional REIT concluding the letting of Buildings One and Two Newstead Court at Sherwood Park, Annesley, North Nottingham in what is believed to be the largest single office letting in the post Covid era since the Inland Revenue took occupation of their Nottingham HQ in 2021.
The two buildings totalling approximately 146,000ft² have previously been occupied by Eon and have been let to a specialist electronics manufacturer.
It is understood that the manufacturer has committed to a 20 year lease and that they will be subject to a multi-million pound refurbishment project leading them to be occupied later in the year.
Some 300 jobs will initially be created on site and ultimately it is anticipated that more than 600 people will work within the buildings which will be used both as a headquarters office administrative facility and for highly specialised and skilled assembly of specialist electronic components.
John Proctor at FHP handled the transaction – John commented:
“This is a significant deal which is interesting in many ways – not only does it bring back to life and secure the future of two of the largest good quality office buildings available within this region but it shows how employers are seeking to provide their staff with high quality working environments.
We are seeing increased demand for offices on a year-on-year basis, with take up in 2025 being at approximately 85% of the average take up prior to the onset of Covid. There is a chronic shortage of high quality office space in certain sectors of the office market with Sherwood Park being a great example of the turnaround within the market dynamics as the location has traditionally suffered from a potential oversupply of space, whereas now demand has increased with the likes of Air IT and other companies recently being attracted to the park by virtue of the availability of the high quality office space at a cost effective price.
It is also very interesting to see how changes in technology are influencing the use of buildings – traditionally one would have expected an electronic components company to be seeking an industrial facility but as technology has scaled down the size of individual components many production methods are now very much a desk bound job where the quality of the environment, standard of lighting, temperature and air control are required to complement very skilled individual operations. I am sure that we will increasingly see traditional offices used for a variety of uses with the delineation between the traditional white collar and blue collar workers now in many areas being an outdated mentality.
It has been a pleasure working with John Gouldthorp whose diligence and creative thinking helped us to be able to structure a deal which attracted this new investment to the park”.
John Gouldthorp, Asset Manager at ESR, who advised Regional REIT confirmed:
“We are seeing increased demand for office space across the regions where new supply is extremely limited but we recognised that we need to listen to the requirements of potential occupiers and be alive to the trends within the market. The days of simply offering average office space in the market and expecting tenants to commit to standard lease terms are long gone. By listening to the requirements of our new tenants, whose details will be confirmed in due course, we have given new life to two high quality buildings which otherwise could have stayed vacant for some while strengthening the company’s income stream and value of our property portfolio whilst reducing the group’s operational costs.
We have other substantial ownerships within the region and we are, in conjunction with FHP, focusing our efforts on targeting other key companies who are seeking high quality space on our other buildings within Nottingham and Derby – the closest assets to these buildings.”
Posted on 04 August 2026
