Cranes are back over Harbourside, but this time they are not putting up offices. They are taking them apart. Three blocks on the eastern side of the docks, built during the regeneration boom and never more than half full in recent years, are being stripped back to their concrete frames and rebuilt as 600 flats.
The scheme was approved by the council's planning committee earlier this year after the owner showed that occupancy across the three buildings had fallen to 23 per cent. Many of the tenants were professional services firms that cut their floor space once staff began splitting the week between home and the office. Agents estimate that around a quarter of all office space in Harbourside is currently unlet.
Councillor Samuel Achterberg, the cabinet member for housing, said converting offices was quicker and less carbon-intensive than demolishing them. A quarter of the new flats will be let at below-market rents, and 90 will be set aside for key workers at Wrenhaven General Hospital and the city's schools.
A building nobody wants to work in can still be a building people want to live in.
Deep floors, few windows
Turning offices into homes is not straightforward. Open-plan floors designed for rows of desks are often too deep for natural light to reach a bedroom. The architects, led by Imogen Rourke, have solved this in the largest block by cutting a courtyard through the middle of the building, removing about 8 per cent of the floor area but bringing daylight to every flat.
600 flats across three converted blocks
150 at below-market rents, 90 for key workers
First residents expected to move in next autumn
The cost of the conversion has not been disclosed, but people familiar with the scheme put it at around €95 million. Builders expect to reuse about 80 per cent of the existing concrete frames, saving thousands of tonnes of new material. Ground floors facing the dock will keep commercial units, which the developer hopes to let to a grocer, a pharmacy and a nursery to serve residents.
Local businesses have mixed feelings. Lunchtime cafés that lost trade when offices emptied expect a lift from new residents in the evenings and at weekends. Others worry about the loss of commercial space should demand for offices return. Gareth Lyle, president of the Wrenhaven Chamber of Commerce, said the conversion was sensible but urged the council to protect a core of modern office stock near the tram line.