Software giant Sage has put its headquarters in Newcastle up for sale ahead of its move across the city to a new home.
The 212,865 sq ft office building, called North Park, has been placed on the market with Cushman & Wakefield acting as agents.
Based six miles from Newcastle city centre in Great Park, the huge building is available on a leasehold or freehold basis - and the property agents hint that the site could be turned into housing.
The office has been home to the software company since 2004. Sage, which was founded in Newcastle, has maintained its “spiritual home” and headquarters at Great Park, ever since, providing a base for more than 1,500 staff.
Originally designed by Newcastle’s ID Partnership in a £55m project, Sage’s decision to set up at Great Park was deemed key to creating the beating heart of the commercial, housing and parkland development.
The tech giant will move to two buildings at Cobalt Business Park this year, taking up more than 200,000 sq ft of space across two neighbouring buildings which have had investment of £40m to create a new world-class technology hub.
Sage – which owns the land and building – revealed in July 2019 that its move to Cobalt would result in huge extra costs to the business, including a one-off charge of around £60m related to the accelerated depreciation of the building.
North Park sits within 11.7 hectares (28.9 acre) of land. As well as the main office building, the site includes several car parks and vacant land to the north of the site.
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The office building is split into six distinct blocks adjoined by internal full height atriums and includes a café, restaurant with seating area, gym and leisure facilities.
Whether new owners will use Sage's former offices in Gosforth as property as office space or demolish it to make way for a new development is yet to be seen, but Greg Davison, partner in Cushman & Wakefield’s National Offices team, hinted it could now provide housing.
Mr Davison said: “The Sage building occupies a significant site on the outskirts of Newcastle and offers an unrivalled opportunity within the region with a wide range of possible uses beyond its existing office use, including residential, assisted living or mixed-use development, subject to planning.”
Sage's new landlord is LCN Euro Property Holdings, a New York based private equity firm, which bought the Cobalt 23 building in a £26.2m deal and Cobalt 22 in an £18.3m deal.
North Park goes on the market on the day that former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Charlie Bean said home working is here to stay and the end of the five-day-a-week office commute will change the shape of cities dramatically.
Sir Charlie - now a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and professor at the London School of Economics - predicted firms will adopt a permanent flexible model after the pandemic, saying few firms will stay with a completely remote working model and that most will take a hybrid approach combining home and office.
Many businesses have said they plan to allow hybrid working, with Nationwide Building Society last week announcing it will give its 13,000 office employees control to decide where they work.