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JLL to move to Great George Street offices
Work has started on a £6 million refurbishment of 31 Great George Street to ready the offices for property consultancy JLL’s move later this year.
The company, which has been in its existing Berkeley Square offices since 1992, has signed a deal to take two floors within the building which will be reconfigured for modern working practices. It has previously been occupied by professional services firm PWC who moved to 2 Glass Wharf in the Temple Enterprise zone after 25 years at Great George Street.
Head of JLL Bristol office Jeremy Richards said: “As a property company, we have advised numerous organisations on relocations and how to get the best out of their office space and this will be a real case of practising what we preach. It has been a fascinating exercise and we hope to provide a case study for clients to come and visit and understand what is possible in a modern working environment.
“Gone are the days that people are wedded to their desks. Time and again research shows that employees are happier and more productive at work if they have a dynamic and collaborative environment and we want our new offices to enable this style of working and provide a variety of locations in which employees can carry out their jobs.
“Desks in our existing offices are only being used about 60 per cent of the time so it makes complete sense to reduce traditional desk numbers and invest in other areas instead. This is not a case of taking less accommodation, but providing more interesting spaces to allow a more agile approach to the working day.”
The new offices will feature at least four working zones including traditional desk space, client meeting rooms, a large café area opening on to a balcony overlooking the city and quiet zone including meeting rooms and pods that can be booked as required.
The design of the offices will also feature exposed ceilings and services similar to tech style spaces. This provides both greater natural light and a more collaborative feel to the space. There will be increased cycle parking, male and female showers, lockers and drying rooms to cater for those who want to walk, run or cycle to work.
Landlord Hermes has refurbished the building with a range of energy efficient features including intelligent air conditioning which will allow fan coils to be switched off when windows are opened which could provide energy savings of up to 20 per cent.
The Bristol refurbishment is the latest in a number of JLL offices which have been upgraded across the UK including Nottingham, Exeter, Glasgow and Leeds which have undergone similar investment.