Royal Bank of Scotland has scrapped its massive regional expansion plans.
The bank has shelved plans to lease 300,000 sq ft of office space in Leeds, and is also thought to have put on hold an expansion into two 150,000 sq ft-plus regional headquarters in Bristol and Scotland.
RBS had been close to taking a prelet at Town Centre Securities Whitehall Riverside scheme to fulfil most of its requirement in Leeds, with the remainder, for its front office, going to AWGs City Square House.
But sources said both deals had been put on hold “indefinitely”. Agents fear the requirement for the city may collapse completely.
The removal of the RBS requirement would be a major blow to the Leeds office market, which has been at a virtual standstill for months while the city waited for the bank to decide where it was going.
“We know that its on ice and it may not go ahead at all. Why else put the brakes on when RBS had got so far down the line?” said one.
A year ago, RBS began a drive to consolidate numerous small regional offices into large head offices in Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Birmingham as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In November 2001, it took a 500,000 sq ft (46,500 sq m) prelet of two buildings at Allied Londons Spinningfields scheme in Manchester and in January it signed up for 250,000 sq ft (23,250 sq m) at Argents Brindleyplace in Birmingham.
Industry sources speculated that RBS was not keen to expose itself to any more large leases while the downturn in the economy continued.
RBS launched its search for around 190,000 sq ft in Leeds in February, but that is also feared to have been shelved.
Three properties were thought to have been on RBSs shortlist for Bristol – Temple Quay North, Harbourside and St Mary le Port.
EGi News 14/10/02
