Here’s a story we worked on for a while, a company making a big move and converting a church into office space.
An iconic vacant church building in Oswestry is in the process of becoming the headquarters of a thriving IT software and consulting company – which could soon be expanding.
The building in Market Gate has been run as a gym previously and is now being refurbished as the headquarters of Bluestonex.
The company, which helps to create innovative software for large firms, has already moved into its new premises from its previous base at Park Hall.
Dan Barton from Bluestonex said: “We are in now, phase one of the operation has been completed and we are moving on to phase two. The ground floor offices are leased as opposed to hot desks but the meeting rooms are available to hire on an hourly basis.
“We still have three offices to lease out, these are made up of one five-person office, a two to three-person office and a one to two person office. They are available for viewing on the ground floor.
“The phase two First Floor will be open for hot desks and meeting rooms by next summer and we plan to start renovation in March. This could be delayed, however, if we decide to put roof windows in as this would need to go through planning.
“We are a design and innovation company and this is a great old building with plenty of open space.
“It is the perfect cultural site for what we do – space, light and a mixture of old and new aesthetics.
“It is a great location too, Oswestry is a good place and we want to bring people into the town and employ local people here.
“We hope it will be a busy, thriving building with lots going on.”
The firm, which creates and designs interfaces for SAP enterprise software for companies such as Arla foods and Princes foods, is five years old and has around 25 employees both in Shropshire and at their office in India.
“We are trying to break new boundaries in the software industry,” Dan added.
“The objective was to have a large design office, for us and for our customers to visit – and that is just what we have.”
The building was let by Halls Commercial and bosses said they were pleased it ticked a number of boxes for the directors of Bluestonex.
Rebecca Welch, from Halls, said: “This is a very prominent building on the way in to Oswestry. It provides much-needed office space for the town – something which is limited and in great demand. This could turn out to be the business hub of Oswestry.
“As a converted church it is a remarkable premises to run a business from and everyone in the town knew it as a Bodytech Health and Fitness Club.
“We are pleased they were attracted to the building’s size, layout and architectural features.
“We are impressed with the designs that Bluestonex have for the building and pleased they could see the potential.
“It is not often a building like this comes on the market, especially in such a central location.
“We feel matching this forward thinking firm to this unique property has been a huge success and hope they have many years building their company here.”
For more information about commercial properties available contact Rebecca Welch at Halls on rebeccaw@hallsgb.com or 01743 450715.