Recently in Newport Category

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".

So some cities have woken up to positive news this morning thanks to research by Centre for Cities but then some haven't.

Brighton, Milton Keynes, Reading, Cambridge and Edinburgh - are ranked as the top five centres "to watch" as the economy recovers because they have strong private sectors, high levels of entrepreneurship, highly educated workforces, and a large share of knowledge-intensive jobs to succeed after the recession.

But languishing at the bottom of the table and described as having "a tough outlook" are: Stoke, Burnley, Barnsley, Newport and Doncaster. Weaker business bases, loss of private sector jobs prior to the recession, and low business start ups are among the reasons given.

Not a great start to the week particularly for Yorkshire which has two towns in the bottom five: Barnsley and Doncaster. Neighbouring Humber city Hull also features heavily having had a large number of job losses.

Two days and Newport has scored two of the largest deals in the Welsh city this year. The agents are trumping these as huge votes of confidence and undoubtedly they are.
 
Her Majesty's Court Service has taken 20,000 sq ft of space at the refurbished Clarence House - a deal that will boost this year's total take up so far of 50,000 sq ft by almost a whopping 50% again.

But it was for refurbished space in the very central core of the centre rather than the shinier space on the boundaries that developers had hoped to build in the run up to Newport hosting the Ryder Cup next year.

The other, an investment deal, saw Collingbourne Properties buy Inductotherm Group's 90, 000 sq ft industrial unit on Church Street. It is being hailed as the first glimmer of confidence in the city's development market.

In the short term it plans to divide the area into smaller units but in the longer term it has grander plans. The site falls within the Newport Unlimited's 2020 masterplan and the developer hinted that the site bordered on a number of regeneration schemes that Collingbourne is keen to point out have been embarked on in the past few years.

These may have started but some are far from finished. The site is next to Redrow's £50m residential development which has stalled awaiting an improvement in the housing market. Also nearby is the government-supported Orb building which is only partially occupied by housing association Newport City Homes.

There are signs the Cardiff investment market is frothing a bit, something that I've explored in this week's EG (there's more info on this below). But is it really a recovery, the cream of the crop as those with cash burning a hole in their pockets decide the market hit its lowest ebb or is that froth masking something more deathly sinister.

Peter Graham, director at Cardiff-based Stephenson Alexander, has been into the Cardiff investment vault and delved around in the figures to see if history can teach us anything, and he's spotted some interesting facts.

You can read the full analysis behind the bullet points below by clicking through on the "continue reading" link below but here are the highlights.  A quick health warning with these numbers. Graham stresses that the figures were put together before the recent, rapid yield compression seen in Cardiff offices market in just the last few weeks.

• Yields and the fall in value are higher today than in 1991, as valuations overheated in 2005-2007

• Property returns were higher in 1991

• Although the base rate was higher in 1991 there was more lending and people took this because proeprty returns were higher.

• Today there's more yield volatily and returns are unlikely to improve

• Invester may have got "scared" by the rapid fall away in the market but they have "short memory" syndrome

• Food store investment still offers a good return for little risk but it can't carry on forever
• Property yields will fall but investors have a resistance to yields and Graham predicts yields going to 5% in the near future. 

In this week's EG we've also looked at Cardiff's new headline offices rent 5 Callaghan Square - Stacey Meadwell asks what it really means for the market.
 
In Swansea, regen chiefs are dipping into the public purse in a hope of kicking off a revival but in Newport Melanie Smith finds there little evidence - bar a couple of car parks, and a refurbished shopping centre - of the city's renaissance launched 6 years ago.

Another grand scheme, St Athans is also hitting the buffers. David Thame analyses the reasons that the areospace park has failed to fly.

It's also Mipim Asia next week so Focus has cast its eye to the Far East. David Thame looks at what delegates can expect from the event as China's economic growth rate heads for double figures and big name Western investors look closely at its property investment market.
 
Picture from Flickr courtesy of Plindberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/plindberg/ / CC BY 2.0

ESTATES GAZETTE SOUTH WALES FOCUS
 NOVEMBER 14, 2009 ISSUE

Cardiff
A look at the local office and retail market.
Stacey Meadwell, Focus editor, stacey.meadwell@rbi.co.uk, 020 7911 1819

Sentiment Survey - Q3 update
An update on the Sentiment Survey carried out in March this year tracking sentiment about the property market and wider economy. To take part in the survey click here or paste www.surveymonkey.com/EGWalesQ4 into your web browser.

The survey is anonymous and takes about 5 minutes. If you wish to send an attributable quote on issues raised in the survey for possible inclusion please contact:
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant, 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk

Swansea
Investigation of the office, retail and industrial markets across the Swansea, and what can local property people expect looking to the future?
Claire Robson, freelancer 07896 267707 robson.claire@hotmail.co.uk

Newport
An in-depth look at the city's future development prospects
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk, 020 7911 1916

Investment
Analysis of the South Wales market and predicitions for its future growth
Nadia Elghamry, deputy Focus editor, nadia.elghamry@rbi.co.uk , 020 7911 1849

Deadline for receipt of editorial information is 20th October

 

Newport has a new landmark. At the cost of £17.5m the "iconic statement built in concrete and stainless steel" as the press release calls it, raised some excitment when it landed in Focus' email today.

After the widely publisced failure of its Friars Walk scheme the city needs a boost, not to mention a bit of good luck, so what could it be?

It's hard to say this without sounding sarcastic, but, the new addition turns out to be a car park for UBS's Kingsway Centre. And, as car parks go, it's quite nice, but it's still a car park.

Or is it. John Burrows, chief executive of Newport Unlimited, also has high hopes for this car park. Back in June, he said it would provide a better first impression of the city when potential inward investors arrived as well as boosting lettings in the refurbished Kingsway Centre, by driving footfall through the scheme. It needs it. When I visited in early summer the freshly spruced up centre boasted rows of empty shops.

 

Click on the "continue reading" link below to see another picture of the car park.

Picture courtesy of Colman Architects.

 

 

Retail projects in South Wales are not having the easiest of times. First there is Newport which has virtually been slapped in the face by the recession with its desperately needed retail redevelopment, Friars Walk, thrown into disarray by the demise of Modus. David Quinn looks at what the council is going to do next.
 
And then there is Cardiff where CSC/LandSec has 36% of its 970,000 sq ft St David's 2 left to let with the opening less than three months away. Nadia Elghamry takes a look at the long awaited scheme and the current retail climate in a piece for the Analysis section of the mag. And, if you want to find out a bit more about why St David's 2 developers chucked burgers at the scheme's walls then click here.

Office developer face similar tough market conditions with supply on the increase and demand weak. Melanie Smith examines the stats for offices and industrial while Daniel Cunningham puts the recession to one side to examine the Welsh Assembly Government's planning system overhaul.

See this weeks EG to read more.

Picture taken by Nadia for EGFocus on Flickr and used under creative commons

Newport's Friars Walk is back in the limelight. And by limelight, I mean that it, and its promoters, are probably feeling a bit sick.

Most likely amongst them is John Burrows, chief executive of Newport Unlimited, and tirelessly enthusiastic promoter of the city.

When I spoke to Burrows, the council's shock decision to turn down a last ditch attempt by Ciref (Modus' partner on the development) to save the scheme wasn't known, not in public anyway. Nevertheless, he gives a frank account below of living through the virtual collapse of the scheme (I wrote a bit about that here), what he thinks will happen and how the city will prepare for the Ryder Cup 2010 when the world's cameras descend on the city. Click through to the EG Podcast to hear what he has to say in full about

• Coping with Friars Walk and its future
• Delivering the city's makeover ahead of the Ryder cup 2010
• Lettings at Kingsway shopping centre

 

To subscribe to the EG Podcasts click here or through iTunes

View more Newport pictures on the Focus Flickr page

 

Would you want to walk through this arch? It's the main entrance to the bus station in Newport, South Wales, from what should have been Modus' Friars Walk shopping centre. After navigating two flights of dingy concrete stairs (hardly shopping trolley and pushchair friendly) you emerge into an albeit down at heel but bustling, busy, bus station.

 

As you can see, the purple rinse brigade seem happy to drag their bags through it in daylight. But what about when dusk falls? Or on a winter's night when it is bathed in flickering neon?

What's it really like to move a large organisation out of London and to the regions? Most in the property industry are well versed in the business case, but once the deal's been reported and the boxes unpacked you rarely hear what it's like day to day for those on the ground?

So it was an interesting lunch at the Celtic Manor in Newport, South Wales yesterday, sat next to a senior figure at the Office of National Statistics which moved from Westminster to Newport early last year. As we gazed out at what will be the plush 2010 Ryder cup golf course he told me how the organisation couldn't be happier with their HQ move to Newport

As the leek and haddock tart arrived he admitted that video and audio conferencing were now a huge part of his working life and the days of rushing into a meeting with a last minute batch of figures were gone as every topic for discussion had to be planned and emailed in advance.

In the end, just 15% of staff made the short journey across the Severn. He couched it in very PR friendly phrases emphasising that this was exactly what had been expected and the organisation saw it as an opportunity to bring in fresh minds and with it ideas. In his words the ONS "shed experience and baggage down the length of the M4".