ABCN Member Orega Expands with New Colmore Plaza Location

Orega was selected to operate the business center on behalf of The Carlyle Group, the owner of Colmore Plaza, and provides space and office services for over 250 workstations.

ALLIANCE Business Centers NETWORK Member Orega launched their newest executive suites location last week. The new offices are located within the Colmore Plaza in central Birmingham. 

To celebrate the opening, Orega hosted a launch event featuring HSBC Bank's Chief Economist Dennis Turner as the keynote speaker. Turner gave his prediction for a slow thaw in the recession and urged a return to industrial investment and exports. Turner addressed the question "The UK recession: how long, how deep?"

In his address to the approximately 60 attendees, Turner asserted that, until the recession bit last year, British businesses had "had it so good for so long" with sustained low inflation and GDP, low interest rates and a strong and stable sterling. He went on to say that this was not the right kind of growth, as the consumer boom driving it was underpinned by very high levels of borrowing, which could not be sustained. £1.5 trillion was borrowed last year which Dennis says equates to each person in the UK owing an average of 19 months' salary. At the same time, public sector spending made a comeback but corresponded with weakening government finances, investment and net trade, leading to a very unbalanced economy.

With consumers under pressure and the investment outlook slow, growth has been weakening but Turner pointed out that there is now room for optimism. Turner expects that the recession will be deep but short, with growth set to return in 2010 at relatively low figures. A press release for the event stated that although net government debt is set to soar to record post-1945 levels next year, at £175bn, interest rates have fallen to historic lows and the debt is affordable.

Turner pointed out that quality serviced office providers like Orega had brought high levels of flexibility in turbulent markets, and provide an increasingly popular form of outsourcing.

The new 20,000 square foot Orega business center is located on the mezzanine level and on part of the ground floor of the landmark Colmore Plaza. Orega was selected to operate the business center on behalf of The Carlyle Group, the owner of Colmore Plaza, and provides space and office services for over 250 workstations. Colmore Plaza is situated within Birmingham’s Colmore Business District and close to Birmingham’s New Street and Snow Hill railway stations, as well as the Aston Expressway, providing easy access to the M6, M5 and M42. The building also features 115 parking spaces.

The center is already home to a number of clients, including MA Energy, a new utility company which has doubled its number of workstations since August; global recruitment consultancies AndersElite and R3 Consulting; Cardiff-based Gambit Corporate Finance, which has opened a new Birmingham office; and Truro-based training company Lime.

Orega also operates business centers in Chertsey, Staines, Slough, Wandsworth (south London), Gatwick Airport, Birmingham and Manchester, and plans to double in size within the next 12 months in carefully selected United Kingdom locations.