The Focus Blog

Sweet deal for Leeds? A detailed look at Montpellier Estates' City One.

2010-03-16T08:03:09Z

So Montpellier Estates leading lady Jan Fletcher has decided to put at least put part of the bad blood between her company and Leed City council behind her and move ahead with plans for its 9.4 acre City One site on Sweet Street.

A planning application has been submitted at the site that was overlooked by the city council for its Leeds Arena plans, a decision that ended up with Montpellier suing the council over its decision.

And my is that planning application grand . Around 2m sq ft of space is planned including 1m sq ft of offices (you can read it in full on the council website here or I've split the main components down in the continue reading link below).

The site is split into five sections including an offices boulevard to the east of the site and the potential for a new road to the west, Bowling Green Terrace Link Road, dependent on the capacity of the existing road network.

According to plans published by the council a few days ago Montpellier plans three buildings in the office boulevard of 9, 11 and 13 storeys. The largest building on the site will be to the north of the site bordering Sweet Street compromising 25 storeys which is labelled up on plans as hotel and leisure.
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The council are clearly pleased about this. Jean Dent, its director of development, speaking to Stacey Meadwell at Mipim today said it was a substantial mixed used scheme at an important gateway to the city. "It's very important we have sites ready to come out of the ground as we come out of recession and it is good to see Montpellier coming forward with this scheme."

A casino is included in the plans and dovetails nicely with the fact Leeds has an existing licence for a large casino. The council, says Dent is just about to launch a competition for this. Montpellier Estates is clearly positioning itself to be in the drivers seat.

But it might be harder to convince the market when it comes to towers. Leeds had plans for several skyscrapers which have never materialised (think Criterion Place's kissing towers and Lumiere) something that Dent is all to aware of. "[Any tower] will be based on commercial viability, ones that have had planning have not come off so it is more about the viability," she said.

CITY ONE AT A GLANCE

Retail : 27, 000 sq ft
Food and drink: 16,000 sq ft
Offices: 1m sq ft
Resi: 242, 000 sq ft
Leisure: 96, 000 sq ft - including a casino
Hotel: 230 bedrooms and serviced apartments
Car parking: 1,553 spaces

Picture by Marfis75 used under Creative Commons license from Flickr

Rightmove March index shows North West biggest house price winner, East of England biggest loser

2010-03-15T12:21:15Z

Rightmove's done a rather nice map of its house price index launched today.

The figures are for March, compared to February, and show the slowest March ever recorded. Yet it seems the only losers are the West Midlands, Greater London and the East of England which all saws drops around the 4-5%. Biggest winner was the North West which saw prices up 8.7%.

You can click here for a bigger version.

North East synopsis

2010-03-15T10:10:02Z

PUBLISHED 24 APRIL 2010

All features cover the North East including Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough

The Market: Statistical round up covering offices, retail and industrial.

Send up to date data to stacey.meadwell@estatesgazette.com or nadia.elghamry@estatesgazette.com

Retail: Analysis of project in the pipeline and current market performance

David Thame, freelance writer, 01544 262 896, dthame@clara.co.uk

Offices: Analysis of key issues and future trends

Daniel Cunningham, senior writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com

Leisure: Analysis of key issues and trends

David Quinn, freelance writer, 07841 115 601, david@wordsdept.co.uk

Regeneration: Paul Morrell has called for a cull of old 70s architecture in city centres with Newcastle highlighted as one of the worst. Which buildings do agents think should be pulled down and which will leave sites ripe for regeneration?

Daniel Cunningham, senior writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com

Please contact writers by 30th March 2010

ISIS launch Candle House at Granary Wharf, Leeds

2010-03-12T14:52:57Z

ISIS Waterside Regeneration launched Candle House at Granary Wharf, Leeds last night (a few pictures are above), hoping presumably to reel in a few buyers to what is the final part of the Granary Wharf jigsaw.

The twenty-one storey building was lit up like a birthday cake but is yet to sell any of its 160 apartments which (unsurprisingly) it is marketing at owner occupiers. For just shy of the £100, 000 mark you'd get a studio and access to one of Leeds highest rooftop gardens. For £135, 000 you'd bag a two bedder.

The developers have spent £90m on the Granary Wharf facelift and are aiming the retail at non-high street occupiers. Ossett Brewery announced it would open up at the development earlier this year but although there are a couple of potential lettings in the offing ISIS says nothing has been signed and sealed.

Prospects for Edinburgh's property market 2010

2010-03-10T16:39:00Z

While our Edinburgh reception was in full swing I managed to coax some of the city's agents and developers to a quiet(ish) corner to ask them about the market's prospects this year and whether the Scottish capital would be leading the way out of recession.

A full set of photo's from the reception can be found by clicking clicking here and our Edinburgh Focus is published in this weeks magazine.

Edinburgh property market predictions from Stacey Meadwell on Vimeo.

Phew for Wales' regeneration fund but does it really want more grants?

2010-03-10T09:02:23Z

Phew for RIFW. That's the Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales, known as RIFW by the Welsh Assembly Government and Jessica to anyone in the EU - are you all still following? It just might get a few regeneration projects off the ground.

As the rest of Europe ponders what to do with with Jessica (or the Joint European Support for the Sustainable Investment in City Areas), Wales have decided to lead the way, giving her a name change, a fresh coat of lipstick and launching RIFW. It will be jangling its wares at Mipim next week and WAG will appoint fund and investment managers to the initative this summer.

The business community seem to have welcomed it and King Sturge's South Wales property report, released today (and covered in full in the continue reading link), makes a point of highlighting it and the refreshed political scene in Wales.

But wasn't Wales trying to move away from that grant culture? In fact King Sturge's report makes a point of saying how the business community has welcomed in the selection of Carwyn Jones as first minister, applauded for his "business friendly focus"and "pragmatic approach to supporting big business and the gradual transition away from a grants culture".

That will be even more important after what King Sturge calls a "tough but interesting year ahead with a price to be paid for the years of excess".]]> the cancelling of the £1bn M4 newport relief road promised back in 2004. This may force future enquiries to reconsider it says, although everyone is hoping the relocation of Tesco's chilled foods division to Avonmouth is a one off.

Phase 1 of RIFW is the establishment of a fund consisting of £25m European Structural Funds and £30m of Assembly property assets and funds. Phase 2 will be to raise private sector investment of a similar amount.

Yes the money's going to be really welcome and really important at the moment but do they really want even more reliance on the public purse?

For the year end 2009 King Sturge says:

- Investment: first two quarters of the 2009 represented the bottom of the investement market's current cycle. Industrial showed the greatest outward movement in yields

- Industrial: was its quietest for 15 years, with availability up 10.7% (at 16m sq ft) with large units over 100, 000 sq ft representing 42% of that. Occupiers have focused on the M4 corridor between Newport and Bridgend. Spec development is still out for the foreseeable future. Property companies are very quiet - a sector that was heavily relied up to acquire, relet, sublet, or redevelop.

- Retail:The number of units trading at St David's 2 opening was disappointing - but those that were open were high quality. the schemes is starting to fill out and by the end of the year it should look busier. Swansea's £1bn regeneration has seen little progress after Urban Splash pulled out as partner with Hammerson, and the retail is likely to contain 20% less than the 600, 000 sq ft initially promised.In Newport there remain extensive vacancies at the Kingsway Shopping centre. However this is the only one, of three promised retail led redevelopments that has got off the ground in Newport.

- Offices: Incentives have doubled in South Wales which has heavily impacted net effective rents.
In Cardiff, availability increased significantly peaking at 1.4m sq ft but managed to fall back to 1.25m sq ft in q4 or 10% of total stock. Grade A availaiblity remains liited at 6 months supply. Take up for the first six months was down 50%; but recovered in the latter part of the year so it was down 25% on the long term average.

Newport saw take up drop 40% and availability go up 30% - the city has been hit heavily by the Godfrey road station development and City spires being put on hold.

Picture by Alex Castella, used courtesy of Flickr's creative commons

Retail sector not quite out of the woods yet

2010-03-09T17:27:49Z

Administrations have ripped giant holes through the UK's high streets. Cushman and Wakefield's recent report A Survey of Prime Retail Locations reveals just how big those holes are.

It says the East of England appears to be the most resilient region to departing retailers (see graph below). The region has the lowest level of availability with 6.5% of units vacant. Outer London meanwhile appears blighted by them and has the highest vacancy rate with 17.4% of units availabile.

Source: Cushman & Wakefield LLP

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The report also shows that the Midlands saw the largest increase in available units while the North saw the largest fall in availability between November last year and February this year (although drilling down to the details or more importanly the incentives given to drive those deals and keep retailers trading in a destination may paint a slightly different picture). Nonetheless, available units in the Midlands increased by 1.7% while in the North, availability decreased by 2.5% (see graph below).

% change in available units

On the plus though, the number of units becoming available nationally as a result of administration alone has been on a downward trend and declined by 0.3% between November and February.

But the pluses stop there for now. As Cushman highlights in its report, there remains uncertainty about how the imminent general election will impact on consumer confidence and spending habits. Possible cuts in public spending, increases in direct and indirect taxation, including VAT and household debt levels, which remain high, are all a cause for concern.

Another cold snap hits the shops....again!

2010-03-05T11:45:53Z

Well it wasn't as bad as Synovate forecast it might be back in January but the bad weather's been blamed yet again for a bad February in the shops.

Synovate released it's February figures today - you can click on the map to see a larger version - and while it had been predicting a 6% drop back in January, the actual figures show that the UK as a whole is down 1.3% on this time last year and 3% on January.

Wales and the South west were the only region to show growth, although compared to January this was pretty marginal.

Year-on-year the biggest losers were Scotland and Northern Ireland, but despite a disastrous month for the two, where figures fell 6% on last year and 4% on January, Synovate is forecasting a very good March

Synovate now reckon it's unlikely that the Easter vacation will have enough of an impact to salvage what it calls "another month of shopper fatigue". As someone very wisely commented on this blog recently, shouldn't all that cold weather make everyone rush out and by big woolly coats and thick jumpers?

David Abrahams: Not your average property developer

2010-03-04T14:29:14Z

Imagine my surprise yesterday when North East-based property tycoon David Abrahams (pictured) told me that Durham Green, the business park scheme in County Durham which he is currently selling, could eventually contain a whopping 75m sq ft of commercial space.

Abrahams, who achieved a degree of fame as the man who sparked the government's 2007 'donorgate' scandal, is in the process of selling the 540-acre site in County Durham to First Industrial Developments, the company formed by a group of ex-Prologis directors last year. (EGi subscribers can read the full story here).

First Industrial say the first 75-acre phase of the project is likely to comprise a somewhat more conservative 1.3m sq ft of industrial and office space, rather than the 8m sq ft-plus suggested by Abrahams. The entire project, believe First Industrial would only just get above that at a more realistic 10m sq ft.

By contrast phase two of Prologis' DIRFT development will be 2m sq ft.

]]> Abrahams is clearly very keen to see £1bn project, which he told The Jewish Chronicle is his "gift to the North East", come to fruition. Something of a self-styled philanthropist, as can be seen from his website, Abrahams' dream is to create 5,000 new jobs for his home region. He had also voiced his intention of giving the profits to charity.

So, why is he off-loading the scheme? The reason, he says, is that he fears his colourful recent career will put off would-be inward investors. A spot of research reveals why.

Abrahams has a keen interest in all things political - as can be seen on his blog. He is a long-time supporter of the Labour Party, and in 2007 gave it £670,000, but through a number of associates rather than directly. He explains that this was a bid to avoid publicity. It backfired.

Abrahams was cleared of wrongdoing, but the scandal caused shockwaves through Westminster and, reports the Telegraph, led Gordon Brown to allegedly persuade a major occupier to not take space at Durham Green.

To see his dream of a £1bn business park for County Durham realised, says Abrahams, it is necessary that he steps away and sells on to another developer.

David Martin Abrahams, as is the title he sometimes goes by, will soon no longer be linked to Durham Green, but it is unlikely to be the last the world hears of this colourful character.

Image used courtesy of www.davidmartinabrahams.co.uk/

Lancashire and Cumbria Focus synopsis

2010-03-04T14:24:39Z

PUBLISHED 17 APRIL 2010

Overview
Analysis of local market, covering Carlisle, Preston, Blackburn, Burnley, Lancaster and Blackpool
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant - 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@estatesgazette.com

Blackpool
A look at key projects
Daniel Cunningham, senior writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com

Lancaster
What's in store for the city's development?
David Thame, freelance writer, 01544 262 896, dthame@clara.co.uk

Public sector
Analysis of the sector and its effect on the local market
Karen Day, freelance writer, 07971 671 369, karen.day@dsl.pipex.com

Please contact writers with editorial information by Tuesday 23rd March 2010

East of England agents give their view on the market

2010-03-03T12:54:29Z

Our Mipim issue is just going to bed cue:a huge sigh of relief in the office.

And in honour of the Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk features in it we've asked the agents from the East of England what they think about their markets at the moment.

Locals from Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich talk about:

- Ashwell becoming Brookgate and the future of CB1
- the general election
- a potential prelet at Targetfollow's Duke's Wharf in Norwich
- rental growth in Ipswich

Watch the short video above to hear what they say.

All these topics will be discussed in much more detail in this Saturday's EG, and you can now see all the pictures from the Cambridge reception by clicking here.

Manchester office agents forum fanfare fails to sound

2010-03-02T12:35:02Z

Considering how difficult it was to get take up stats from Manchester's office agents at the end of last year, I thought its all new singing and dancing office agents forum would release them to a fanfare.

The idea, floated this time last year, was Manchester would follow in the footsteps of their regional cousins and present a collective view of office take up from this January onwards.

But three months into the year and the fanfare has yet to sound as agents couldn't agree on a date in Q4 last year to gather and agree on the figures.

Needless to say, in that time, agents released their own figures, and CB Richard Ellis grabbed the headlines in February, reporting that take up in the city centre reached 830,000 sq ft. (EGi subscribers can read the story here). Other agents also released reports, all telling a different story.

]]> I was given a sneak peak of the Forum's data and it reports that take up in the city centre reached 809,999 sq ft. The discrepancies aren't huge, but they do scupper the Forum's dreams of uniformity and consistency - in its first year at least.

Other Forums around the country have had fewer problems. Martin Guest of CB Richard Ellis and outgoing chief executive of the Birmingham Office Market Forum, says theirs works because agents meet regularly, work together, trust each other and follow the ground rules. "And the proof is in the pudding" he says.

No doubt the the MOAF will be hoping its pudding bakes better later this year.

Picture of Spinningfields by And-Raw89 http://www.flickr.com/photos/and-rew/ / CC BY 2.0

EGi deals league table: Results are served

2010-03-01T14:59:34Z

Lambert Smith Hampton has topped the EGi Deals Database league table for 2009. The table is the culmination of a years work from EGi researchers tracking completed deals across the UK. It shows that LSH not only topped the national table but also saw off competition from other national rivals to top the Office and Industrial sectors league tables for the number of deals done.

CB Richard Ellis were crowned winners in the Retail & Leisure category.

The top five National winners were:

1. Lambert Smith Hampton
2. CB Richard Ellis
3. DTZ
4 Savills
5. King Sturge

Full results for 2009 can be found by clicking here. Regional EGi deals database winners are announced at our Focus receptions. For Bristol, Swindon & Bath's competition results which were announced last Friday click here.

Bristol Focus reception

2010-03-01T09:37:33Z

Development was the hot topic among Bristol, Swindon and Bath's property fraternity at our annual reception in Bristol on Friday. Developers were out in force among the 60 or so guests and keen to talk about starting on projects in the area.

HDG Mansur's Chris Read was as bullish as ever about its Finzels Reach scheme in Bristol and has promised a site tour so I can see the work that is going on (keep an eye on this blog for a full report). And Muse was equally bullish about its Union Square project in Swindon although wouldn't be tied down on an actual start date.

EG's editor Damian Wild announced the winners of the EGi Deal's Database competition: Alder King and King Sturge and after all that excitement is was time for a bite to eat and a catch up on the rest of the market gossip.

A selection of pictures from the event are below, more will be added as they become available and the synopsis for the Bristol, Swindon and Bath Focus is available here

Bristol, Bath & Swindon synopsis

2010-02-26T16:09:52Z

Bristol offices
Analysis of market strength and prospects for 2010
Stacey Meadwell, Focus editor - 020 7911 1819, stacey.meadwell@estatesgazette.com

Industrial
Analysis of market strength for 2010
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant - 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@estatesgazette.com

The market (includes Swindon & Bath)
Analysis of the market strength in the office and retail sectors
Elaine Cavanagh, freelance writer - 01225 444 875, elaine@jackcav.freeserve.co.uk

People & Companies
A look at the agency landscape and developer strategies as the economy starts pulling out of recession
Daniel Cunningham, senior writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com

Deadline for receipt of editorial information is Monday 15 March 2010