There was much fanfare in 2018 when plans to transform the former Royal Mail sorting office in Newport into a state-of-the-art office space. The tired-looking, dated office block in Mill Street was once one of the city's most recognisable buildings – clearly visible as you pass on the train and part of the fabric for decades before it was sold to IAC Ltd in 2001.

The site had been the home of Newport's Royal Mail sorting office prior to that and in 2010 IAC relocated most of its operations. Ever since then the building has been unoccupied with plans to transform it into a hotel and office space in 2018 backed by a £12m council loan later collapsing after the chain involved pulled out.

In August that same year developers Garrison Barclay Estates (GBE) had plans to transform the building into 50,000 sq ft of office space unanimously approved by the council which hailed it as vital to "address the need for higher-grade office accommodation" in Newport. You can see pictures from when WalesOnline went inside the building just before construction started here.

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Since then work has been ongoing on the site with completion initially targeted for 2020 but the project has faced a number of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. In that year GBE confirmed businesses including global data company W2, software firm OLM, and co-working space Work and Meet were all set to take up space at the development and that it would be completed in 2022.

However today, five years on from the announcement of the site's transformation, the building remains empty despite being almost entirely finished. The exterior now has gleaming new black frontage and an eye-catching modern layout which includes orange shipping containers but the site is fenced off by metal gates and there appears to be little activity inside.

Walking past there are overgrown weeds in some areas around the building and signs in the windows of the building advertising 'new grade A' office space to let. Despite the high hopes for the building Andrew McCarthy, director at GBE, told WalesOnline this week the developer was still searching for a large anchor tenant to underpin the project.

Mr McCarthy said the building had a "number of smaller pre-lets" but was operating in "extremely challenging market conditions" and that office demand had changed since the pandemic. There are a number of significant empty office buildings in Newport including Admiral House which has been vacant since the insurance firm announced it would depart the city in late 2021.

Mr McCarthy said home working and a reduced demand for office space "continues to have a real impact on the office market" with companies in Wales demanding more flexible terms which he said were causing difficulties in finding an anchor tenant. But he said there had been some interest in recent months and that they "continue to work hard to bring this scheme forward".

"The build internally is completed to shell and we are now working to identify new occupiers who will always require a tailored fit-out for the specific needs of their own business," he said. "Despite the extremely challenging market conditions we have a number of smaller pre-lets but we still require one larger anchor tenant who will enter into a typical FRI lease and underpin the entire scheme.

"Office demand has reduced considerably post-Covid and working from home continues to have a real impact on the office market nationally. Indeed as a result of the work from home situation the vast majority of occupiers in the market that we get to meet in Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport demand much more flexible lease terms and this is unlikely to change in the near future.

"The new pedestrian bridge over the rail network is a big improvement and positive for us and we remain hopeful to secure a new larger occupier. In the last few months we have seen two occupiers that have shortlisted this site and we continue to work hard to bring this scheme forward."