Ground-breaking event was held to ‘put the first spade in the ground’ in terms of the start of the construction.

GMI Construction, has today confirmed on behalf of its customer Scarborough Group International (SGI) that works have officially started on site to deliver a new 62,862 sq ft state-of-the-art office building in Sheffield city centre. Currently the biggest speculative office development underway in the city centre, ‘Endeavour’ forms the fourth and final phase at the acclaimed Sheffield Digital Campus (Sheffield DC).

Representatives from the project team, alongside Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council, Kate Josephs and Councillor, Paul Turpin, met on site to mark the official ground-breaking on Friday 11 June 2021.

GMI is contracted to deliver the impressive eight-storey Grade A office building, which offers highly-efficient floorplates of up to 10,323 sq ft. A private 3,584 sq ft roof terrace on the sixth floor overlooking the city’s transport interchange, the iconic Park Hill Flats and panorama beyond is also included.

Scheduled to be completed by the end of summer 2022, the fully funded development is the final of four visually impressive buildings on the Sheffield DC site, which have all been delivered by GMI.  Electric Works, Ventana House and Acero have all been successfully let and subsequently sold to investors with high profile occupiers including Sky, Kennedy’s, Michael Page, Atkins and the flex-office workspace provider Spaces.

The design of Endeavour has been modified to respond to trends in respect of the future use of workspaces, accelerated by thee pandemic making the office environment a safer place to work including reduced touch points, but also appreciating the increasing prevalence of agile-hybrid working styles many businesses are adopting.

The development, which has a GDV of £27m, will create up to 140 construction jobs and, once complete, will accommodate up to 800 office workers.  It is a major vote of confidence in Sheffield city centre, where the supply of existing and pipeline office space has diminished, leaving a major shortage of space to cater to existing and future demand. 

Adam Varley, Head of Commercial at SGI, said: “We are pleased to announce the start of speculative construction on site to deliver the final phase at Sheffield DC which brings nearly a quarter of million sq ft of prime business space to the city centre.  GMI Construction is a trusted long-term partner on the project and, together with our design consultants CJCT Architects, they have helped us to evolve the building in line with the future of workspaces. 

“We are delighted to report that there is already strong interest from potential occupiers looking for a well-located, premium workspace with flexible, open plan floor plates in the city centre.  The building’s impressive design really creates a sense of arrival, with a double height entrance reception and new social space allowing visitors and colleagues to interact.”

Kate Josephs, Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council, said: “Easily accessible, high quality office space is absolutely central to attracting investment into our region and Endeavour offers great potential for co-working in the heart of Sheffield. As a council we are committed to delivering infrastructure, space and buildings that reaffirm our position as England’s fourth largest city and create an environment where we can thrive for years to come, and I believe that Endeavour will be a great asset to our city and complement the transformation of the city centre that is currently taking place.”

Councillor Paul Turpin, Executive Member for Inclusive Economy, Jobs and Skills at Sheffield City Council, said: “The next couple of years will be a vital time for new developments and regeneration as we begin our Covid-19 recovery and start to look towards the future of our city. I am pleased Endeavour will have an “excellent” BREEAM rating and is taking wellbeing into account using the WELL building standard. Wellbeing and sustainability must be the focus of new developments in Sheffield.

“Sheffield Digital Campus will play an important role in boosting the local economy and offering an attractive setting for colleagues to come together; whether you’re working in the office multiple days a week or just visiting for an important meeting. It’s essential that we have a variety of flexible spaces on offer in the city centre that best meet the needs of those using them – for some people that will be open plan hospitality venues such as Kommune, Cutlery Works, or a coffee at Marmadukes, and for others it will be purpose-built, dedicated office space such as Endeavour.”

Lee Powell, Divisional Managing Director of GMI Construction Group, said: “It is fantastic to continue our work at Sheffield DC and start on site with Endeavour, the final phase of this impressive project.  It is the last parcel of land on this prime site and so there are tight constraints on space for construction but our experience in delivering the other buildings on site allows us to apply value engineering to complete within the 71 weeks schedule.”

Sheffield DC is part of a new office quarter in a super-prime location next to the city’s major transport hubs and in the centre of the development framework for new HS2 Midlands Station.

SGI is one of the most active developers across the Northern Powerhouse, with over 3.2m sq ft of commercial/mixed-use space under development over 524 acres of land.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the Group has maintained its ‘Keep Building’ ethos, continuing to deliver transformational schemes that breathe life back into the North’s former industrial heartlands to support the Government’s ‘Levelling-up’ agenda.

Most recently, the Group secured funding from Oak North Bank for a new 133,118 sq ft HQ office building at Thorpe Park Leeds as part of the next phase of development to deliver an additional 1.3 million sq ft of mixed-use accommodation including 300 new homes and a 113-acre public park. 

For more information, please visit www.digitalcampussheffield.co.uk.