An environmental consultancy has moved it's 20 staff into Newport city centre by becoming the first tenant of the newly-refurbished former King's Hotel.

JBA Consulting previously had it's Newport base at Langstone Business Park, which is moved to about six years ago, but has moved into the former ballroom at the former hotel, which is now known as King's Court.

Over the years the ballroom has seen many iconic events, including a haka performed by the New Zealand rugby team in the 1980s and concerts by top performers including Van Morrison and Oasis. In fact, one of the offices at JBA's new base has been called the Oasis Room in commemoration of the band's performance.

George Baker, technical director and office manager for JBA in Newport, said: "We are thrilled with how fantastic the office space is. And we are delighted to be moving into the heart of Newport from our previous base at Langstone.

"We would not have considered moving a few years ago but we are encouraged with the way the city has been developing in recent years.

"This is a fantastic building and has a uniqueness to it. Our head offices are in a statley home in Yorkshire and this has that sort of feel to it," he said.

JBA is an engineering and environmental consultancy which is based near Skipton in Yorkshire and which employs about 300 people across the country.

Locally it is involved in schemes including flood risk management and the Crindau flood alleviation scheme.

Jahan Abedi, who's company Imperial Services has carried out the refurbishment work on King's Court, welcomed JBA to their new offices, which he said had been renovated to the highest quality in the city.

He said the former hotel had been converted into residential, commercial and retail units, with JBA being the first business to move in.

The firm has taken the largest office space, but there were still offices starting in size from about 1,500 sq ft available in the 150-year-old building, which also has 35 residential units - 60 per cent of which have already been sold off plan.

Haydn Thomas, of Hutchings and Thomas Chartered Surveyors, said: “The office space created at King’s Court, in the former King’s Hotel, is of extremely high specification and is of great appeal to the discerning occupier.

“Headline rent for the commercial space at King’s Court is £13 per square foot.”

Mr Thomas said JBA had previously been based on the outskirts of Newport at Langstone and were looking for amore central location with good communications links.

“JBA are occupying some 3,500 sq ft in what was the former ballroom in the hotel. There is a total of about 14,000 sq ft still available as office which we are marketing as well as retail space on the ground floor which has attracted strong interest from a national restaurant and take away chain.”