Portland Dodds Brown has brought the refurbished Westminster House on Teesdale Business Park in Stockton to market, offering just over 14,300 square feet of Grade A office space. The building adds to a thin supply of premium space in the Tees Valley, where owners are upgrading existing stock because new commercial construction has stalled.

The offer includes the entire 8,150 square foot first floor and 6,153 square feet across most of the ground floor. Upgrades include an A-rated Energy Performance Certificate, a new HVAC system, ceilings and lighting, renovated communal areas including the lobby, toilets and showers, ample parking and six electric vehicle charging points. An international company expressed interest in half of the ground floor before marketing began.

Teesdale Business Park has around 5,000 workers, with occupiers including Visualsoft, Johnson Matthey, Ward Hadaway and px. More than 230,000 square feet has been leased across the park in the past four years, and footbridges link it with Stockton town centre and Northshore, while Thornaby station, the A66 and the A19 are nearby.

Supply remains tight. Even after Westminster House was completed, only 25,000 square feet of refurbished Grade A space remained available, and last year the owner of nearby Boaz House spent £3.5 million transforming the former Barclaycard offices.

Portland Dodds Brown was formed when Stockton-based Portland Estates Management acquired Dodds Brown, a commercial property business that had operated for more than 130 years, creating a combined team of 14. Robertson Simpson Ltd provided building surveying and project management on the refurbishment, and Portland Estates Management was originally part of that firm before becoming independent in 2020.

Richard Wilson, a partner at Portland Dodds Brown, said Teesdale was "undoubtedly the premier business park in the whole of the Tees Valley", adding: "But the availability of Grade A offices is extremely limited because new developments are simply not happening. The response of our clients is to invest."

He said employers value that "a high-quality working environment not only encourages staff to work from the office, it also helps retain them and that really boosts productivity", and that Grade A space helps companies meet ESG targets.

For the sector, Westminster House shows refurbishment filling the gap left by stalled office development in regional business parks.

Source: Yahoo News / Wikipedia / Portland Dodds Brown / Portland Estates Management