The council is offering 22,121 sq ft at Phoenix House and Lyndean House to creative firms. Bidders name their own rent, and bids close at noon on 2 October.

Brighton & Hove City Council is offering 22,121 square feet of empty office space in two of its own city centre buildings to creative businesses, and it is not naming a rent. Bidders are being asked to say what they would pay. Expressions of interest close at 12 noon on Friday 2 October.

The two buildings are Lyndean House at 43-36 Queens Road, just south of Brighton Station, and Phoenix House at 32 West Street. Both are in the council’s commercial property portfolio, and in both the basement and ground floor are already let. Everything above is empty.

The council announced the scheme on 26 August. The detail sits in the marketing particulars issued through agents SHW and on the council-backed Culture in Our City opportunities page.

Bar chart of vacant floor areas in square feet at Lyndean House and Phoenix House, Brighton, totalling 22,121 sq ft

What is actually available

Lyndean House, Queens Road. Four floors of open plan office space, 11,116 sq ft in total, three of them linked by an internal staircase. It is Cat A space with air conditioning, eight car parking spaces and Class E planning use. The service charge is running at £16.25 per square foot and the EPC rating is C.

  • 1st floor, 2,850 sq ft, available from the end of December 2026
  • 2nd floor, 2,855 sq ft, available from the end of December 2026
  • 3rd floor, 2,857 sq ft, available from the end of December 2026
  • 4th floor, 2,554 sq ft

Phoenix House, West Street. A period building with office space over four floors, split into a variety of suites, 11,005 sq ft in total. Some suites have air conditioning, raised access flooring and kitchenettes, and there is a lift. The service charge is running at £8.96 per square foot and the EPC rating is D.

  • 1st floor, 3,230 sq ft
  • 2nd floor, 3,090 sq ft
  • 3rd floor, 3,963 sq ft
  • 4th floor, 722 sq ft

Floor areas are measured on the IPMS 3 standard. Business rates are payable on top of rent and service charge.

The unusual part: you set the rent

The listing quotes no rent. It says “on application”, and the bid documents make clear why. Half the score is financial, and applicants are asked to state the space they want, the lease term they propose, any break clause, the repairing obligations they will take on and, explicitly, “Rent (rate per sq foot)”.

The council is buying something other than the highest rent, though. The scoring runs:

  • Financial, 50%. Space required, lease terms, proposed rent per square foot, ability to take on full repairing and insuring liabilities, evidence of existing and future funding, and whether the bidder would act as anchor tenant or take the whole or majority of the space.
  • Growth and collaboration, 20%. What would happen in the space, how many jobs it would support, and how the tenant would work with the wider creative sector.
  • Support for other small businesses, 15%. How the tenant would help other local SMEs and creative enterprises.
  • Health and wellbeing, 7.5%. How the tenant would support the physical and mental health of its own people and the local community.
  • Training and fair work, 7.5%. Skills pathways, eliminating any gender pay gap, and support for disabled staff.

Bids are marked from 5 (Excellent) down. The particulars add a warning in plain terms: the council “is not bound to offer an organisation any available space based on the submission of an EOI Response”.

Who it is aimed at

This first round is for established businesses and organisations, not individual artists. The stated logic is that an anchor organisation then opens the door to freelancers and artists through its own network.

Councillor David McGregor, cabinet member for economy, culture, heritage and tourism, said artists, makers, designers, small manufacturers and growing creative businesses “are facing real pressure when it comes to finding suitable workspace”, and that the council is “now directly intervening”.

That pressure is documented in the council’s own planning work. A report going to the Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 8 September records demand from creative industries for artists’ studios, “messy and maker space” and rehearsal space, with a preference for shorter leases and lower rents, at a time when the city has no vacant general industrial space at all. We covered that report in Brighton City Plan: land found for 30% of homes needed.

What it means for you

If you run a creative, cultural or digital business in the city and you have been priced out of central Brighton, this is a rare chance to name your own number on a council building five minutes from the station.

What you have to do:

  • Read the particulars, including floorplans and the service charge and rates position, via the SHW listing.
  • Arrange a viewing with Lewis Austin at SHW on 07918 790978 or laustin@shw.co.uk.
  • Submit your expression of interest as a PDF of no more than five pages, excluding appendices, answering each of the four quality questions and the financial section.
  • Label anything commercially sensitive.
  • Send it to laustin@shw.co.uk to arrive no later than 12 noon on Friday 2 October.

Note the timing on Lyndean House. Three of its four floors do not come free until the end of December 2026, so a bid there is a bid for space next year rather than next month. Phoenix House is the one available sooner.

This is described as a first tranche. If it works, more of the council’s empty commercial stock is likely to follow, so a strong bid that misses out here is not wasted work.

Sources