28/03/2025
News
Work is underway to transform a former branch of HSBC bank in the Cambridgeshire market town of St Ives to become office premises for Cameron Bosque Brookes Architects (CBB Architects), following the successful off-market letting of the available building by our property agents.
Previously practising from disparate office locations in Cambridge, London and Stamford, CBB Architects’ new office at 17a Market Hill, St Ives will be the firm’s first headquarters on opening later this spring.
CBB Architects confirm that it selected St Ives as an ideal location in considering accessibility to and for its client base, as well as the home locations of its practising partners - currently at a headcount of five, but with immediate plans to add to its numbers now it will have its own, permanent office headquarters.
In seeking to have premises which reflected the business outlook and style of the practice, CBB Architects failed to pinpoint a suitable space in the available commercial properties in and around St Ives’ business park locations.
On CBB then approaching Eddisons with their property requirements, Matthew Hunt - one of our Huntingdon office agents - put forward the vacant former HSBC premises on St Ives’ Market Hill. As a new instruction for Eddisons, the property’s availability had yet to be launched to the open market, but Eddisons felt it met CBB Architects’ brief in being centrally located in the town and just the kind of distinctive property in which, following a fit out to their own design, they could command an HQ-level presence.
Lease negotiations commenced and the deal completed earlier this year.
Speaking about the new office, Oliver Brookes, Projects & Sustainability Director, CBB Architects, said, “While some potential tenants might have considered the property a bit unconventional as an office, it met our criteria for location and its quirkiness will give us the chance to showcase the practice.
“The fit out is not without its challenges. For instance, we’ve had to figure out a use for the bank’s old vault, which was retained in the property as a fixture. We are making a feature of it as a Virtual Reality room in which clients can physically experience our designs in an immersive environment.”
“After all, overcoming challenges is something architects are very good at doing.”
Commenting on the deal that sees CBB Architects with their new HQ premises, Matthew Hunt of Eddisons, added, “Off-market deals such as this can often achieve the best solution for all parties in the transaction.
“However, piecing these type of deals together does depend on deep local market knowledge of the agent and their ability to piece the deal together in a way that gives both landlord and tenant the confidence to commit to seeing the deal through to completion in a manner and timescale that suits all involved.”
