A major property deal has been secured in Birmingham which will see an entire floor of retail space at the Mailbox turned into offices.
Flexible and co-working office provider Spaces has agreed a new management contract for the whole of the ground floor of the boutique city centre shopping mall to create 50,000 sq ft of workspace.
As a result of the new ten-year deal, kitchen retailers Kitchen Gallery and Harvey Jones will be relocating to vacant units on the middle floor.
Other retailers on level one have either closed or are set to move elsewhere in the Mailbox, with further deals due to be announced in the coming weeks.
Planning permission was granted in May for the conversion of this retail space into offices, with work on Spaces set to start before the end of this year and be completed by next autumn.
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It will become the third Spaces hub in Birmingham, joining sites in Great Charles Street Queensway and Bull Street.
Mark Dixon, chief executive of IWG which owns the Spaces brand, said: "The Mailbox is one of the premier office sites in Birmingham and a great location for our next Spaces location in the city.
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"As a low-rise building which offers a wider rage of retail and food and beverage amenities in a superb canalside location, we believe it will be enormously appealing to potential customers, especially given the lack of office supply in the city."
This major deal will be seen as a boon for the Mailbox as it prepares to become the first asset to list on the new International Property Securities Exchange.
It was announced in October that Mailbox REIT had been created to float on the new exchange which is dedicated to the initial public offerings (IPOs) and market trading of companies owning single, institutional-grade real estate assets.
The deadline to take part in the Mailbox IPO has been extended to December 8 with trading due to commence on December 14.
Separately, three other lettings have also been secured at the Mailbox in recent weeks.
Italian restaurant and bar Lucarelli's is taking the canalside unit previously occupied by Red Pepper on a 15-year lease where it will have space for 150 guests and a glazed terrace.
Another Italian venue Zizzi has extended the lease on its canalside site by another ten years.
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Independent café, bakery and art gallery Medicine in New Street is opening a second venue in the unit previously occupied by Tom's Kitchen next to Harvey Nichols which will also have its own in-house bakery.
Richard Croft, executive chairman of M7 Real Estate which owns the Mailbox, said: "This collection of lettings reflects the ongoing momentum behind the implementation of our asset management strategy for the Mailbox, despite the challenging backdrop.
"Once the market normalises following the pandemic, they will provide amenities for our office tenants and, having secured the important agreement with Spaces, we are well on our way to realising the full potential of the Mailbox as a pre-eminent ‘live work play' destination building in Birmingham with a complementary, ancillary retail and leisure offering.
"Our rental collection figures have remained robust throughout the pandemic and our repositioning of the property will ensure that it will be very well placed to further benefit from the expected recovery."