The Site
Spectrum office building was built in 1984. It faces onto Bond Street, very close to the Bear Pit (St James Barton Roundabout) and opposite Cabot Circus.
To the west is a four storey Brunswick Square office building, with residential and further commercial properties along Gloucester Street, Pembroke Street and Pritchard Street.
The building is five storeys high, steel-framed, with blue-toned mirrored glass. It has an underground car park accessed off Pritchard Street and Gloucester Road. To the front is a landscaped area sat behind a row of trees which obscure the building from Bond Street. There are further landscaped areas around the building.
Spectrum is situated within the Portland and Brunswick Square Conservation Area. It is designated as an Unlisted Building of Merit which means the demolition of the building would normally be resisted.
Close to facilities and green spaces
As well as being very close to Bristol Bus and Coach Station, the site is a few minutes’ walk to shops and services in Broadmead and Stokes Croft. There are a number of public green spaces within close proximity to the site, including Brunswick Square, Portland Square, St Paul’s Park and Castle Park within a 10 minute walk of the site.
Changing demand for office space
Despite substantial injections of capital by a succession of landlords looking to modernise the building, the demand for office use in Spectrum has plummeted. We have been unable to find enough tenants and – with major occupiers leaving the building – almost half of the office space is already vacant. There are a number of factors to this change in demand for office space in Spectrum. It became clear that a building in this location cannot compete with newly built offices in more commercially attractive parts of Bristol, like Finzels Reach or Temple Quay.
There are also new requirements – referred to as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) – which will effectively render obsolete any office that fails to meet new standards by 2030. Spectrum building needs substantial investment to reach these standards, but the evidence is that the building’s physical constraints mean the demand for this location would still not be there.
At the same time the cost of refurbishing – not least replacing the façade with high performing glass – would simply render the project totally unviable. Instead of leaving the building as a vacant office building we are now pursuing the only realistic alternative.
Student accommodation
Given its location close to Bristol Bus and Coach Station, metro bus stop immediately outside the site and good connections to University of Bristol and University of West of England campuses, the site it well positioned for purpose built student accommodation. There is significant unmet demand for student accommodation, with 55 per cent of students (more than 33,000 students) relying on the private rented sector for term-time housing, creating competition between students and residents for homes. Bespoke student accommodation helps to alleviate pressure on other types of housing across the city, releasing much needed accommodation for all sectors of Bristol’s local community. Students also support the local economy through spending in local shops, cafes and bars. Increasing purpose-built student accommodation stock means lower demand for HMOs which could house families in Bristol.
