Recently in Cambridge Category

This week EG's East of England Focus lifts the lid on the £1bn North West Cambridge development, writes Mark Simmons.

While some local agents are already aware that the proposed 400,000 sq ft of commercial space will not be available for commercial users, as occupation will be limited to university partners only, they are hoping that there will be opportunities for third parties to manage the planned key worker (1,500 homes) and student (2,000 units) accommodation. Sorry folks - landowner Cambridge university is keeping a firm grip on its properties and expects to manage them itself.

However, there is one thing that the 800-year old institution is letting go of - the 4% of the site that is earmarked for revenue-generating private housing. Even here though, the university isn't handing over more than it has to. Only house plots and primary road links will be released, with the university retaining ultimate ownership of other roads, open spaces and communal areas.

This is sensible as it allows the university to maintain the environment to its desired standard. But it also means residents will face an additional service charge to cover the costs. In the current housing-starved Cambridge area that's unlikely to be an issue. More of a concern though, say local commercial agents, is the additional traffic that the North West development will generate. City councilors raised the issue when the outline planning application was discussed and ultimately approved last summer, and were reassured by planners that increased traffic volumes could be managed. We'll find out whether they were right soon enough: residents should move in from autumn 2015.

Read about plans for North West Cambridge in this Saturday's magazine, on the enhanced iPad edition or tomorrow in our digital edition.

The development was still very much a building site yesterday but we had a glimpse inside the penthouse (sold to a Cambridge man despite rumours that the whole thing had been sold in Hong Kong before a brick was laid) and more importantly what sort of view £1.2m buys you. It's nice.

Couldn't help noticing this on my last trip to Cambridge. It's at Brookgate's CB1 scheme by the train station. The developer has named the road it built to run down to the new bus stops, erm, Brookgate. Well you would, wouldn't you?

Great view of the Hill Residential development site. It's taken from the top of the student accommodation on Brookgate's CB1 site in Cambridge, and looks like its going up at the rate of knots.

The Bidwells' lot have been getting creative again for Movember.

Check out senior partner Patrick McMahon with his magnificent Magnum moustache. Here he is as his alter-ego and 80s TV icon Tom Selleck or, Tom Sellit as they're calling him. We can barely tell the difference.


Related posts:
Bidwell's Patrick McMahon as you've never seen him before

1st of November, means 1st of Movember. And while other agents up and down the country are rallying the troops to get hairy, it seems someone is already sporting a rather fine handlebar moustache.

Yes, that's Bidwell's senior partner Patrick McMahon* looking like a natural World War I poster boy. And, wow, Lord Kitchener had nothing on this. It's all part of the Cambridge-based firm's bid to get their troops involved in Movember.

So, Patrick, no wussing out now. We expect a picture to land in our inbox come the 31st, with a real waxed-tip Mo. We believe the one above is known in the trade as a Mr Oxford .

It is for charity.

*no gerbils or other small, furry innocent animals were harmed in the making of this poster.

Mills and Reeve's Cambridge HQ at the end of Station Road is the closest to completion but Microsoft's office just a hop, skip and a jump towards the station on Brookgate's CB1 site isn't far behind. We hear the IT giant will be handed its keys just days before Christmas, although that deadline will probably slip into the New Year. You can see the boxes through the window in the picture so work onthe fit-out is definitely cracking on.

At Mills and Reeve it is now official that a floor has been sublet to KPMG, a deal we've been tipping since the start of the year. What happens to the accountants existing headquarters on Hills Road, is less clear but it's rumoured that the building is under offer. A likely contender is Pace Investment's Johnny Vincent, owner of the site the new Mills and Reeve office sits on.

We haven't backed that up at present but it's not a huge leap of imagination and it would mirror the deal that Johnny did with Mills and Reeve to secure it's requirement.

Both buildings were prelets although there is probably going to be some speculative development very soon when Brookgate cracks on with the Mott MacDonald prelet it secured back in July at CB1. If they do, then they'll probably do well. The lure of having Microsoft on your doorstep, in a city centre location, next to the station, in a new Grade A office, in Cambridge will be too big an opportunity to miss out on for many smaller occupiers in the market.