Martin Jepson’s Ergo Real Estate is installing a state-of-the-art lighting and air purifying system as part of its £1.6m refurbishment of 148 and 154 Great Charles Street in Birmingham, as it looks to enhance the air quality and wellbeing aspects of its properties.

The system, known as Fuzone500, by Future Designs uses the natural properties of ozone (O3) to eliminate up to 99.99% of bacteria and airborne viruses without direct contact with the treated areas and unlike ultraviolet light it can be operated while the office space is fully occupied.

Ergo Real Estate acquired the two 10-storey office buildings, in joint venture with NFU Mutual, in December last year from Angelo Gordon and Dunedin Property for £12m.

The properties combined provide 67,082 sq ft of office space, and at the time of the purchase a third of this space was vacant.

CBRE and Colliers have been appointed to lease the refurbished office space, which provides office suites ranging in size from 777 sq ft to 3,725 sq ft.

The office buildings were part of a £100m acquisition of six assets across the UK, which also included Switch Island Retail Park in Aintree from Columbia Threadneedle and a B&Q store on the Nursling Industrial Estate in Southampton for a combined £40m.

The joint venture, Aver Property, at the time said it was looking to invest up to £300m in assets which had potential for income enhancement.

Published on EG.