Key Points
- The Strategic Premises Fund of Cardiff Capital Region gave JR Smart £15 million repayable loan for the construction of a new office block at John Street, Callaghan Square.
- The 10 storey office of Lloyds Banking Group was opened on 28 September 2026. The company claims that the office will house more than 2,500 employees.
- The Grade A 114,000 sq ft office merges the workforce of Lloyds, which were earlier working in the two cities of Cardiff and Newport, on a 10-year lease agreement.
- The all-electric office building is equipped with air source heat pumps and solar panels and according to Lloyds Banking Group, this is designed to save about 422 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
- The office includes accessible facilities, flexible workspace, meeting zones, café, events zone and roof terrace.
- According to Wates Smartspace, the company completed the office interior design in 27 weeks in September 2026.
- According to Cardiff Capital Region, the Strategic Premises Fund was created to facilitate employment space and regeneration in South East Wales.
Cardiff (Wales Times) October 09, 2026 — A £15 million loan from uk/local/cardiff/">Cardiff Capital Region helped developer JR Smart deliver a new, 10-storey office hub at John Street in central Cardiff, now opened by Lloyds Banking Group as a workplace for more than 2,500 colleagues.
The 114,000 sq ft Grade A building at Callaghan Square is part of Lloyds’ effort to consolidate staff into fewer, better-equipped UK offices. The bank said the new Cardiff site brings together colleagues previously working at its former Newport office and at St William House in Cardiff. Lloyds has taken the entire building on a 10-year lease.
The financing came through Cardiff Capital Region’s Strategic Premises Fund, which provided JR Smart with a repayable loan to support the scheme. CCR said when announcing the loan in 2025 that the office was expected to accommodate 3,000 Lloyds employees; at the opening, Lloyds and subsequent reporting described a workplace for more than 2,500 colleagues. The available information does not explain the difference between those figures.
What does the new Cardiff office provide?
Lloyds opened the John Street office on 28 September 2026. According to the bank, the building is all-electric and uses air-source heat pumps instead of traditional heating methods. Lloyds estimates that the design will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 422 tonnes annually, a saving it compares with the growth of 7,000 seedlings over 10 years.
The bank says the office has achieved a BREEAM “Excellent” rating. Its environmental features include rooftop solar panels, demand-controlled ventilation, and planted and living walls. The annual emissions saving is the bank’s estimate, rather than a reported measurement of operating performance since opening.
The workplace combines flexible working areas with meeting and collaboration spaces. Lloyds also lists a work café, an events space and a roof terrace overlooking Cardiff city centre. The bank says the arrangement is intended to give staff options for individual work, meetings and collaboration.
Accessibility and employee facilities form another part of the fit-out. Lloyds says a Changing Places toilet, which can also be used by members of the public, is near the main entrance. Kitchens in office areas have been adapted for wheelchair access, and the building includes a dedicated room for returning parents, contemplation spaces and Wudu facilities.
In a statement published by Lloyds Banking Group, Chief People and Places Officer Sharon Doherty said the office should give staff a modern workplace designed to reduce environmental impact. She said it would bring more than 2,500 colleagues together in South Wales and highlighted the building’s heating, solar panels and spaces designed around different employee needs.
Lloyds presents the Cardiff opening as part of a broader programme to reshape its UK property estate, with fewer offices in selected locations. The bank said that programme has also included new or refurbished workplaces in Leeds, London and Halifax.
How was the fit-out delivered?
Wates Smartspace said it completed the fit-out in September after a 27-week programme. The contractor described the project as a transformation of about 110,000 sq ft of building space into a regional hub. Its reported area differs from the 114,000 sq ft figure used by CCR and Lloyds, and the available information does not explain whether this reflects a different measurement or the area included in the fit-out.
Wates said work began in March 2026 and was handed over on time and on budget. Its account of the fit-out lists a technology bar, broadcast studio, customer suites, fitness and wellbeing facilities, collaboration hubs and flexible meeting spaces.
The contractor also reported that the project achieved an average Considerate Constructors Scheme score of 97%. It said 191 tonnes of waste were removed from the site and fully recycled, and that carpet and furniture were reused from elsewhere in Lloyds’ estate. Wates further reported investing 1,004 hours in community support, including donations and work with schools, charities and youth organisations in Cardiff. These figures were provided by the contractor.
Why did CCR provide the £15m loan?
CCR announced the loan in April 2025, describing the development as a new office scheme in Callaghan Square and naming JR Smart as the developer. At the time, the region said Lloyds was due to take a 10-year lease and that the building was designed to target a BREEAM “Excellent” rating, an EPC A rating and WELL Silver accreditation.
CCR’s Strategic Premises Fund is a £50 million fund intended to help deliver new sites and modern employment space across the region. CCR says its aims include supporting business growth, attracting private-sector investment, creating or safeguarding jobs, and encouraging regeneration, including the development of brownfield sites. Its stated anticipated outputs over 10 years include 120,000 sq m of new or refurbished employment space, 4,400 jobs created or safeguarded, and £85 million in leverage. Those are fund-wide targets, not outcomes attributed solely to the John Street project.
CCR said the loan would be repaid and reinvested in the region. In its original announcement, the organisation also described the fund’s approach as involving a two-stage approval process and said the scheme’s funding was intended to help deliver employment space and support regional economic objectives.
What does the office mean for Cardiff’s market?
The development adds a large, newly completed Grade A office to central Cardiff, while market research points to limited availability of top-quality space. JLL’s Q2 2026 Cardiff office analysis reported a 2.2% vacancy rate for Grade A offices and prime rents of £32 per sq ft. It also recorded 200,679 sq ft of office take-up in the quarter, although a major owner-occupation purchase of St William House accounted for 145,000 sq ft of that total.
Those figures provide market context but do not establish that the John Street project will, by itself, change vacancy or rental levels. The office is fully occupied by Lloyds under its lease, according to reporting on the opening, while the larger question of future supply depends on other development decisions and demand from businesses. Business Live reported that new construction faces pressure from interest rates and building costs, and noted a lack of a pipeline of new Grade A schemes at the time of its report.
The office also consolidates Lloyds staff from more than one existing location. Business Live reported that employees assigned to the new Cardiff site are expected to spend around 40% of their working time in the building, reflecting the bank’s hybrid-working arrangement. The report said staff include people in consumer lending, customer service, insurance and pensions roles.
Background: How did the project develop?
The Strategic Premises Fund loan supported the construction of the John Street scheme by JR Smart. CCR’s April 2025 announcement described it as a 114,000 sq ft, 10-storey project in Callaghan Square, with Lloyds as the intended tenant on a 10-year lease. That announcement said Lloyds was expected to move in from summer 2026.
The building’s completion and opening followed in 2026. Lloyds announced the opening on 28 September, while Wates Smartspace said its fit-out programme ended in September. The completed office brings together teams from Cardiff and Newport in a single workplace and forms part of Lloyds’ wider UK estate strategy.
CCR says its fund supports commercial and regeneration schemes through development finance, with the intention of bringing in private-sector capital and delivering employment space. The loan is repayable, rather than a grant, and CCR says repayments can be recycled into further regional investment.
Prediction: How could the development affect workers and businesses?
For Lloyds employees, the immediate change is access to a shared central Cardiff workplace with flexible desks, collaboration areas and facilities designed for a range of access and wellbeing needs. The bank expects staff to use the office as part of a hybrid model, so the new building does not necessarily mean colleagues will be present every working day.
For Cardiff, the project provides a sizeable, occupied Grade A office and signals continued investment by a major employer in the city centre. Whether that leads to additional jobs, further business investment or more office construction will depend on future employer demand, transport improvements, development costs and the delivery of other projects; those outcomes are not certain.
For the wider region, repayment of the CCR loan could allow the fund to reinvest the money in other qualifying schemes, subject to repayment and future investment decisions. The office’s contribution to CCR’s broader employment and regeneration targets will need to be assessed alongside other fund-supported projects, rather than inferred from this development alone.
