The premium serviced office provider has secured follow-on debt funding from Frontier Development Capital as it opens its fifth site and targets 12 by 2030
A Leeds-founded serviced office business is pressing ahead with a national expansion. Gilbanks, the premium flexible workspace provider that opened its first site in Leeds in 2018, has secured follow-on debt funding from Frontier Development Capital to support its move into Bristol. The six-figure package follows a seven-figure investment from the same backer in 2024, and comes as the company prepares to open a fifth site in the South West. It is a confident bet on premium, service-led office space at a time when the wider market is split between the best buildings and the rest.
Why This Matters For Leeds
Gilbanks is a Leeds business exporting a Leeds-built model. Rather than being acquired or moving its base, a company founded in the city is scaling across the UK from its Leeds headquarters, keeping ownership and senior roles here. Its growth also reflects a real shift; demand is concentrating in high-quality, flexible, service-led space, which is good news for prime city-centre buildings and the landlords who own them.
Inside the Gilbanks Expansion
The Bristol site is the company’s fifth, following Leeds, two locations in Manchester and one in Birmingham. It has taken 23,500 sq ft over three floors on a 15-year lease at Assembly Building C, part of a major BNP Paribas-managed development, with space for up to 25 occupiers and around 400 customers. The founder, commercial property surveyor Alex Duckett, opened the first workspace at One Park Row in Leeds in 2018, then expanded to York Street in Manchester. The earlier FDC investment funded a second Manchester site, 34,000 sq ft at the Gary Neville-backed No.1 St Michael’s scheme, and a Birmingham base at Five St Philips. The company now works with institutional landlords including Aviva, KKR and Royal London, and is targeting up to 12 UK sites by 2030.
“The office landscape has shifted towards a more service-led, experience-driven model. We take only best-in-class buildings in ultra-prime locations and offer a five-star service.”
— Alex Duckett, Managing Director, Gilbanks
A Bet on Premium, Service-Led Offices
The funding is a read on where the flexible workspace market is heading. As hybrid working has settled in, demand has polarised: occupiers increasingly want either cheap and functional space or genuinely premium, fully serviced environments, with less appetite for the middle. Gilbanks has built its niche firmly at the top end, targeting professional services firms that want a five-star setting without the commitment of a conventional lease. Frontier Development Capital, which provides long-term debt for growth, said flexible workspace was a market it knew well and praised the management team. For Leeds, the story fits a wider pattern of confidence in quality city-centre offices, echoing recent investment decisions across the local market, and this time the operator driving it started here.
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- Learn more about Gilbanks: https://gilbanks.com
