Lloyds Banking Group has opened its new office in the centre of Cardiff for 2,500 staff. The bank has taken the entirety of a 10-storey office building on John Street, which was speculatively built by property development firm JR Smart.
Hybrid working and staff relocation
The new hybrid working operation brings together Lloyds staff from its former Newport office and Lloyds staff who were located just yards from the 114,000 sq ft grade A John Street building, at the 144,000 sq ft St William House. That building was earlier this year acquired from its owner, Schroders, by Cardiff and Vale College.
Lloyds said staff assigned to its new Cardiff office will be expected to spend around 40% of their working time in the building. Staff range from those in consumer lending and customer service roles to employees in the bank’s insurance and pensions teams.
Lease and investment
Lloyds has entered into a 10-year lease. Property advisory firm Knight Frank has been appointed by JR Smart to sell its investment in the building, with an asking price of £38.4m.
The new Cardiff office forms part of Lloyds’ wider investment in its UK property estate, creating fewer, better-equipped offices in key locations. The programme has already included new or refurbished workplaces in locations including Leeds, London and Halifax.
Sustainability and facilities
Its Cardiff building uses all-electric air-source heat pumps, replacing traditional heating methods, and is designed to save around 422 tonnes of CO₂ annually. That is equivalent to growing 7,000 seedlings for 10 years.
The office includes flexible working areas, meeting and collaboration spaces, a work café, an events space and a roof terrace overlooking Cardiff city centre. The mix of spaces is intended to give colleagues more choice in where they focus, meet and work together.
All kitchens in office areas have been adapted to be wheelchair accessible. Returning parents will also find a dedicated room, as well as separate contemplation spaces and Wudu facilities.
Sharon Doherty, chief people and places officer at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “When colleagues say, ‘this is where I work’, I want them to say it with real pride. John Street gives our teams in south Wales a brilliant new home that is modern, inclusive and designed to reduce its environmental impact.
“From the all-electric heating and solar panels to spaces designed around different colleague needs, this is a workplace that has been thought through properly. It will bring more than 2,500 colleagues together in the heart of Cardiff, and I’m excited to see them make it their own.”
Market context
The scheme is the last speculative grade A office scheme to be built in Cardiff since completion of the office element of the interchange scheme at Capital Square, which now serves as the Welsh headquarters of financial services firm L&G.
The city currently doesn’t have a pipeline of new grade A office buildings required to attract new investment into the city, as well as providing space for indigenous firms to grow.
With high interest rates and construction costs, any new development would need to secure tenants willing to pay rents potentially well north of £40 per sq ft to make any new scheme commercially viable. The current headline rent for the city is £33.50 per sq ft.
To complete its office scheme, JR Smart secured a £15m repayable loan from the Cardiff Capital Region’s Strategic Premises Fund.
