Recently in Bradford Category

Everyone is still MIPIM mad (check out the latest at our dedicated blog) so to bring you all back down to earth here's a nice shed story.

CBRE released its Yorkshire logistics market report today. The headline says the market is showing signs of improvement with strong enquiry levels in the first two months of this year.

A couple of lines down that's soured slightly by the news that its all down to landlords offering "greater flexibility" as CBRE calls it or, in other words, bending over backwards on rent, lease lengths and incentives. Incentives are as high as 2.5years on a 10 year lease and 3.5 years on a 15 year lease.

Further on still and there's the news that a major characteristic of the marketplace is the presence of lots of 400, 000 sq ft buildings in Yorkshire. Put together these total nearly 4.2m sq ft. To put that in perspective take-up of modern, new-build 100, 000 sq ft plus space in Yorkshire and the North East was 1.7m sq ft last year, so they're sure going to need some giant occupiers for those sheds. A further 1.3m sq ft sits in the wings.

Thankfully, the only industrial space under construction in the region is Marks & Spencer's 4m sq ft beast at Prologis Park in Bradford. With retail still in the doldrums it might be some time before another one of these comes along.

Picture of giant gnome courtesy of Jennzebel from Flick. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennzebel/ / CC BY 2.0

ESTATES GAZETTE YORKSHIRE FOCUS

 FEBRUARY 27, 2010 ISSUE

Retail

A look at the regions key schemes and projects

Liz Morrell, freelance writer, 01454 415 509, lizmorrell@drdatamail.co.uk

 

Offices

Analysis of the current market conditions

James Graham, freelance writer, 0161 9218177, jamesgraham909@hotmail.com

 

Occupiers

A guide to occupiers and what they want

James Graham, freelance writer, 0161 9218177, jamesgraham909@hotmail.com

 

Deadline for receipt of editorial information is 1st February

I've never been to a Smith instute seminar before, so I wasn't quite expecting the frank and even slightly angry responses today from the audience at the House of Commons.

Gordon Brown's think tank held an event at what was otherwise an eerily subdued Parliament today to mark the publication of its the future of Yorkshire and Humber report.   

While the mainstay of media and politicians stayed away from Parliament ahead of state opening and the Queens speech tomorrow, committee room 15 was packed out with heads of local government and high ranking Yorkshire business men.

The audience listened politely while the speakers gave their opening speeches. The chair then threw the discussion out to the floor reminding everyone that it was Chatham House rules and all should feel able to talk freely.

He needn't have bothered. A barrage of criticism followed over local government's failure to secure the high speed rail link, which will now bypass Yorkshire completely on its route between London and Scotland. This quickly spilled over into Yorkshire's inability to put it's case forward to central government and its willingness to just accept defeat.

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It's as if Christmas has come early for developer McAleer & Rushe.

Bradford city council has agreed to provide £6m to bridge the funding gap at the developer's £45m mixed-use Southgate scheme in the city centre.

As reported in EG last month, the developer went cap in hand to the council for extra cash after its funders, Bank of Scotland in Ireland, said it would only provide 75% of development costs on condition that the developer secures and spends the remaining 25% of costs first. And this was despite the developer securing a pre-let for the entire 117,000 sq ft office element and Jury's Inn as the hotel operator.

But the clinking of champagne glasses may not last long, as a gift this is not. The developer will need to have paid back the £6m, with interest, by the time the project is completed in October next year, which is when Provident Financial, wants to move into its new offices.

And with the council already spending £10m on Bradford's City Park and mirror pool water feature at a time when local authority finances are already under pressure, the council will no doubt be feeling that this repayment date can't come soon enough.

 

It's another double Focus in this week's mag with Yorkshire and our continued trip around the M25.

Bradford: While in the city interviewing for this week's Bradford feature, I picked up that BBC Inside Out had been out and about filming for a documentary about the city's regeneration. Not to be outdone I've put together my own short film which walks around some of the major regeneration sites. The city still has many hurdles to clamber over. McAleer and Rushe's has yet to secure financing for its 100% prelet Southgate scheme, but plans for the council's City Park seem ready to progress. You can read an indepth analysis in my feature this week.

Retail: Retail regeneration is a dirty word in any county at the moment, but Yorkshire's  had more than its fair share of stalled projects. Nadia Elghamry looks at the latest from Trinity Walk in Wakefield and how Hammerson are turning to TIFs to try and get its Sevenstone scheme in Sheffield back on track.

Property investors in Bradford are being given the rare opportunity to make an investment on a dead-cert property.

The former mortuary in the Yorkshire city is being put up for auction next month with a guide price of £80, 000 to £100, 000. It's full listing is here.

According to The Telegraph and Argus auctioneers Pugh & Company believe it will become a nightclub or a bar - presumably for anyone in need of a stiff drink. We've heard that the pub business is dead but this may be taking this too far.

And it's not the only unusual property to pop up for sale this week. A former Prisoner of War camp in County Durham is being sold on eBay. The ancient monument was turned into a tourist attraction in 2004 but its owners can no longer afford to complete its restoration.

With a guide price of £900, 000 the one acre site has planning permission for 13 holiday homes and comes complete with an original theatre and huts featuring prisoners wall paintings. Lovely I'm sure if you are into that sort of thing.

Picture of toe tag by a.drian from Flickr used under a Creative Commons license

Next month, Bradford council will make a start on its ambitious Will Alsop inspired plans to rejuvenate the city centre by constructing a £22m City Park the size of three football pitches complete with a Mirror Pool water feature. The council hopes it will look something like this:

But let's hope that after spending all that tax-payers money the Mirror Pool doesn't become a watery rubbish bin and resting place for abandoned cones like Bradford city centre's existing water feature.

The UK's largest county grabs our attention this week, as the Focus team heads north. The Yorkshire Focus will be published on the 10th October but we are busy winkling out stories and arranging interviews now, so please get in touch with us.

We're also keen to see if that famous Yorkshire no-nonsense approach has filtered through to deals. Have the local property industry concocted the perfect recipe to make their market rise high above the competition, or is it still a pudding? Tell us what you think by filling in our survey at: www.surveymonkey.com/EGYorkshireQ32009 the results will be analsyed in October.

Market overview: Investigation of the office and industrial market across the county, and what can local property people expect looking to the future. Feature will include analysis of the sentiment survey.

Please fill in the survey at:www.surveymonkey.com/EGYorkshireQ32009
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant, 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk

Retail: An investigation of development activity across the county.
Nadia Elghamry, deputy Focus editor, 020 7911 1849, nadia.elghamry@rbi.co.uk

Sheffield: A look at the future of the local office and industrial market.
Daniel Cunningham, senior Focus writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@rbi.co.uk

Rotherham: Analysis of local market conditions and predictions.
Melanie Clarkson, freelance writer, 0161 657 8799, melclarkson@googlemail.com

Bradford:A look at the local property market and the city's development prospects.
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant, 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk

Picture from Flickr, by zoyachubby used under the Creative Commons license.

As Simon Cowell would say: "I don't mean to be rude, but..." Bradford has been named Britain's least desirable city.

It may have been the birth place of the Bronte sisters and Gareth Gates, but despite these lofty accolades, when You Gov launched the findings of its very own Pop Idol for places this week, it was rather rude about the Yorkshire city.

It asked its panel of 250 000 UK members what they thought of major cities around the country and Bradford came last for atmosphere, safety, investment, ease of getting around and (...draw breath...) likelihood to recommend to a friend.

It's highest score was for quality of restaurants were it came 47th in the country (ouch!).

Gareth Gates' stint on Pop Idol may have readied him for such harsh criticism but even if Simon Cowell, with his infamous razor sharp tongue and blunt insults, was to turn on Gates' home town of Bradford he would have been pushed to be any harsher.

Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool scored high on the variety of shops and quality of restaurants but low on safety.

Don't worry, the south came in for a bashing too, with the report labelling its cities unfriendly. London was named best city winning top scores for cultural experience, good cuisine and shopping.

You can read the press release here or if you want to devle through the full report then click below:
phar03-04_ch1.pdf

Photograph by Tristram Kenton © The Really Useful Group Ltd