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It was back in 2008 that family-run property development firm JR Smart acquired what was an unassuming industrial site at Tyndall Street close to the centre of Cardiff.

The timing might not have been seen as the most opportune to be even contemplating the thought of speculative office development activity; it was after all the height of the global financial crisis with many lenders solely focused on desperately trying to repair their battered balance sheets, with little appetite for new lending.

However, JR Smart and its late insightful chairman John Smart MBE, have always paid scant regard to any prevailing perceived economic wisdoms cautioning against investing at the lowest ebb of the commercial property market, which is granted a cyclical beast.

Well-capitalised, and always with the focus on the long-term, it is one of only a select few number of developers in Wales, with fellow Cardiff-based family-run Rightacres being another, that have continued to build speculatively whatever the economic climate.

And this has crucially provided a continuous flow of much needed grade A office space in the Cardiff marketplace and over the last decade has helped to transform the capital's skyline.

 

Since acquiring the seven acre brownfield site, JR Smart's Capital Quarter scheme is now home to some of the Cardiff Capital Region's leading companies and organisations - with all of its office schemes now fully let.

And over the last decade Capital Quarter, which began with its relatively modest Driscoll Buildings scheme, has provided more than 370,000 sq ft of new office space and which by year end will accommodate more than 3,000 staff.

The wider Capital Quarter scheme is well on track to delivering over one million sq ft of development, including offices, residential, café and student accommodation  - taking JR Smart's  activity to more than three million sq ft since its establishment in 1973.