Gaming firm Crytek to be first tenant at Nottingham's Southreef

SOUTHREEF. the mixed commercial and residential development on Canal Street in Nottingham, has made its first office letting.

German-owned Crytek, one of the world's leading developers of interactive computer games, is to take 17,500 sq ft for its UK headquarters.

It is moving from its current base at Interchange 25 near Sandiacre.

Crytek, which employs 70 staff, expects to move into the multi-million pound scheme next March.

Director of business administration Karl Hilton said: "We wanted to be in the middle of town, there's a lot of buzz.

"We are a social company so Southreef is a great location.

"We expect to grow over the next few months.

"The UK is the biggest for video games and it has some of the best designers. We talk to Nottingham Trent University about potential recruits."

Cryek was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1999 and is privately owned.

This is the first commercial letting at Southreef, a scheme led by businessmen Charles Fish, Anthony Price and Andy Grogan who is an architect. The £50m completed value mixed scheme comprises 250,000 sq ft.

About 54,000 sq ft are offices and the remainder is 237 flats.

Crytek are thought to be paying nearly £19 a square foot, a figure comparable with accommodation at the NG2 Business Park.

The Crytek let is one of the biggest in the current Nottingham market.

Chris Sinclair, of joint agents Innes England, said: "There is an area of demand which is not being serviced and Southreef has got on with the development and space is being taken.

"Nothing new is being built although others are looking.

"E.on is still in the market place."

Joint agents were John Proctor of Fisher Hargreaves Proctor and Jonathan Bishop, of Heb, acted for Crytek.

Crytek has opened offices in Kiev, Ukraine; Budapest, Hungary; Sofia, Bulgaria and Seoul, South Korea.

It creates high quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their three-dimensional game technology.

Multi-award winning PC titles include Far Cry and Crysis.