Recently in North East Category

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.

View Experian business failures by region Jan 2010 in a larger map

Business insolvencies across the UK are falling, in fact they are at the lowest rate since June 2007. That's the good news from Experian today.

Unfortunately for Yorkshire, it is top of the list of failures with nearly double the amount of businesses going under last month compared to virtually every other part of the country. It's closely followed by the North East.


LOSERS
Yorkshire had the highest rate of failures in January
Scotland was the only region to see a year on year increase in insolvency

WINNERS
Wales had the lowest rate of business failures in January
The South West was the most robust, with the best financial strength score in January
The North East lost the ignoble top spot as the region with the highest insolvency rate decreasing 30%

Greater London saw the highest year-on-year improvement in financial health yet had the lowest overall financial strength score of any region.

EGTV's intrepid reported Helen Roxburgh was at the opening of CSC's £170m Eldon Square revamp and extension. Shoppers were queuing from 7am to see the centre. For pictures click here to go to our launch day post.
 

Apple seems to have created the sort of new store excitement most retailers dream of. The iPod to iPhone maker attracted crowds when it opened in St David's 2 shopping centre in Cardiff last year and now the Apple-effect has hit Newcastle.

Ahead of today's opening of the £170m redevelopment and extension of Capital Shopping Centre's Eldon Square, in which Apple has taken a store, lanes were erected in anticipation of queues of shoppers. But even that was not enough with reports of queues forming just to join the queue.

December retail sales almost gave retailers a reason to hope that an end to the recession was in sight but when we looked at the British Retail Consortium research last week it showed the worst Janauary performance for 15 years, there were mutterings of a double dip.

Research into high street footfalls released today by the Association of Town Centre Managers add little evidence to contradict this theory - its figures show that the UK as a whole, experienced a decline in footfall of 7.5% in January compared to 8% decline in the same period last year.

However, when the figures are broken down per region it shows that the recession may not be the primary cause of fewer shoppers after all. It could be the snow.

Another day, and there's another end of year ranking. This times it's Experian's Insolvency Index. And the North East wins the ignoble top spot registering the highest level of insolvencies last year.

It's bad news for Newcastle landlords who've already had to entice occupiers in with ultra competitive deals, including whispers of a rent free of eight years for Tescos at Grantside's Quorum (EGi subscribers can read the full story here).

Nip across the border and Scotland saw the lowest level of insolvencies this year, although that figure seemed to accelerate in December.

Generally, Experian says the average finanical strengh for business in Great Britain improved steadily this year, after insolvencies peaked in the first half of 2009. Mid-sized businesses bore the brunt of the pain with the very large, and the very small avoid calamity more easily.

In London businesses struggled most financially  but, throughout the year the Greater London region showed the biggest improvement.

An easing of conditions for occupiers has fed through to the property industry. There were 144 property insolvencies in December 2009, down 18.6% on December 2008, but, unlike the all industry average the financial strength of the property sector actually dropped (albeit a fairly small amount) - from 84.79 to 83.63. The all industry strength was 81.37.

Click through on the continue reading link below to see the figures for financial strength by industry and insolvency figures by sector.

Click on View image to see larger maps.

So Britain's biggest retailer Tesco, announced its strongest sales for three years today. For it, the big freeze and ensuing panic buying to stock up on storecupboard items can't have hurt. Nor can reports on the BBC's Today programme  that because of the freezing conditions we can't get to the high street sales and, faced with being forced to stay indoors, we're splurging on contraception instead.

But for the rest of the high street it's been less cheery (think of Debenhams warning today and Marks and Spencer's performance last week).

Synovate's retail traffic weathermap (see above) shows there's been lower footfall than forecast for December as wintry weather made shopping trips more difficult meaning there were fewer early bargain hunters.

There's a definite north/south divide with footfall dropping 3% in the midlands and northern england (which covers, the north east, north west Yorkshire and the Humber). In contrast  it rose in London and the south east (4%) and Wales and the south west(nearly 3%).

Tesco Bank has signed for a whopping 103,000 sq ft at Quorum Business Park near Newcastle, but in our North East Focus I ask what rent and incentives are landlords agreeing to in order to get deals like this done?

The North East's office market is in danger of turning into a bargain basement for occupiers, and ask what all this means for developers with prime stock on their hands in core Newcastle city centre locations.

Liz Morrell looks at the North East's retail market, and specifically Capital Shopping Centres' extension to its Eldon Square in Newcastle. CSC is on target to open the 410,000 sq ft extension fully let next February, but what is the cost to the rest of the city's retail scene.