Last year was a busy one for Causeway Asset Management and as it closed out 2017 the company celebrated not only launching Belfast’s first WiredScore Certified Office Development at Chichester House, but also the city’s second at Nine Lanyon Place. Damian Mitchell, property director, talks about the importance of digital connectivity and Causeway’s innovative Future-Fit Space concept.
Totalling in excess of 200,000 sq ft and both due for completion in early 2019 Chichester House and Nine Lanyon Place, office developments sit a few streets apart in Belfast’s central business district, are following the lead, set by the US, Canada, Dublin and mainland UK, of rating buildings with a WiredScore; an innovative, internationally recognised commercial real estate rating system for digital connectivity.
WiredScore Certification enables agents and tenants to find accurate and detailed information about a building’s digital infrastructure and gives landlords an independent means of improving and promoting their buildings’ capabilities in a transparent way.
Internet speed and reliability is one of the three most important factors for tenants searching for office space, along with cost and location. In fact, for many businesses, digital connectivity is as important as mains electricity and running water. But up to now there has been very little information available to tenants in Northern Ireland about the quality of internet connectivity in office spaces.
These two projects pave the way for the roll out of Causeway Asset Management’s innovative ‘Future-Fit Space’ concept, which puts connectivity and technological building advancements at the forefront of building design… and this concept is already proving attractive to a number of our potential tenants.
The Future-Fit Space concept shows our strong commitment to enhance connectivity and key to this is future-proofing the digital infrastructure of our buildings to meeting our tenants’ evolving digital needs. Both Chichester House and Nine Lanyon Place will provide office space fit for the future, with guaranteed connectivity.
It’s been an exciting, demanding and extremely informative process delivering the first buildings in Belfast that provide this assurance to potential tenants and it’s our belief that rating buildings using this transparent system will set a new standard in Grade A offices in the city.
WiredScore started in New York and major US cities and has since become a benchmark in Europe after being taken up by investors, landlords and tenant companies in Paris, London, Manchester, Dublin and most recently Berlin and Toronto.
It is not easy for letting agents and tenants to find accurate and detailed information about a building’s digital infrastructure with our Future-Fit office developments they will soon be able to download a connectivity fact sheet and compare it to all other Wired Certified buildings in the world.
This type of information is exactly what foreign direct investors are looking for when considering whether to Invest in Belfast as opposed other worldwide competing cities and we’re sure that being first to adopt Wired Certification in Northern Ireland as we roll out our Future-Fit Spaces concept will provide added attraction for global companies considering investment in Belfast.