Liverpool Echo slashes office space by 80% 

The local newspaper has already vacated 20,000 sq ft on the third floor of No.5 St Paul’s Square having activated a break clause. 

Reach plc, the owner of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, will retain 5,000 sq ft on the first floor of the building, for which it signed a 10-year lease in 2017 having relocated from Old Hall Street.  

The newspaper has incurred penalties of £168,000 for activating its lease break on the third-floor space. The lease, which saw the company pay £337,000 a year, will officially end in December of this year.

Reach announced last year it was to shut all but 15 of its offices across the country, while also informing staff that most of them would work permanently from home in the future. 

The Echo’s decision to vacate the third floor follows a similar call made by RBS, which moved out of 8,000 sq ft on the first floor of No.5 St Paul’s last year. 

The building’s owner Abrdn has appointed CBRE to sell the 136,000 sq ft Liverpool office. The building has a guide price of £35m with more than 100,000 sq ft of space let. 

Other occupiers include DWF, which occupies 42,000 sq ft across three floors, and Denholm Logistics Group.