Recently in Occupiers Category

A little while ago someone told me that the Kings Cross Central partnership was offering a private and secret tunnel linking one of the new offices with the tube at St Pancras to avoid you having to mix with the great unwashed.

Ever since I've been itching to see if its true.

Earlier this week I got my chance and was offered a tour around the frankly ginormous £2bn regeneration scheme. Accompanied by Stacey Meadwell and her video camera, above is what we found out.

Sadly, tales of a secret Mr Benn style tunnel are untrue although one of the buildings will have its own public tube entrance with a tunnel - however, for a price, director Robert Evans mysteriously hinted anything is possible.

In the video Evans admits the prelet to Sainsbury's has been "dragging on a bit' and he hints there might be another occupier in the wings that could be suitable for building and could draw a line under the Sainsbury's deal for them.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two images show the vision and the reality of the 16.5-acre tract of land in Taunton, Somerset, known as Firepool.

The first image is St Modwen's idea of how the £270m scheme, which includes 500,000 sq ft of offices and 400 homes, will look. The second is how the site looked yesterday when I visited with St Modwen's regional director, Rupert Joseland.

The site straddles the River Tone and backs onto Somerset County Cricket Club. One side of the river is a large surface car park, with a canoe club's hut the only building on it. The other side of the river, which you can see in the picture, is the shell of Taunton's former livestock market.

Overview: Life after Watermark has proved to be a sharp and stark reminder of the idiosyncrasies of the property market. The UK is still in recession and landlords are still suffering and yet, occupiers are fighting each other for prime Grade A space. In the mag this week I take a look at what's left on offer and what might happen to rents and incentives. There's also a look at the market through the eyes of an investor.

Sentiment: The gloom continues to brighten, and Stacey Meadwell finds that over a third think the capital is heading for a substantial improvement in the next six months.

Planning: Mayor Boris has been overturning some large planning decisions in the capital after promising to leave local authorities to it. At the heart of the matter seems to be contributions to Crossrail.  Melanie Smith looks at the what it means for developers

Docklands: Songbird's secured its future and lives to sing another day. Daniel Cunningham looks at how that will affect Canary Wharf Group and what the future holds for the estate.

Despite Aviva Investors' rigorous marketing of the "green" credentials of its 3 Assembly Square office building in Cardiff, its BREEAM Excellent rating still wasn't enough in today's market to clinch its first tenant.

Last week, Aviva let 8,000 sq ft at its 66,000 sq ft Cardiff Waterside development to specialist solicitors M&A, but when it said it wanted a green building it meant literally that.

As part of its incentive package, the client demanded a "green roof," possibly with an eye on the green roofs of Shanghai (pictured) so it could look out of its windows at plains of green grass and vegetation, rather than slabs of grey concrete that usually adorn roof terraces.

Aviva has agreed to meet its tenant's demands, even though the building's "green" credentials didn't require it. And yet the cost to install it, according to its agents, will simply go through the roof.

Ivanhoe Cambridge was the envy of many a shopping centre developer in May when it landed Hamleys for a 30,000 sq ft unit in the extension to its St Enoch shopping centre in Glasgow.

While in the city for our annual Glasgow Focus reception I met up with Ivanhoe's Richard Kingston who took me on a grand tour of the centre to see how work is progressing.

Many of the existing retailers have stayed open during the works but of the new space, it was only Hamley's that looked like it was well on the road to finishing its fit out.

Opening of the 250,000 sq ft of new space will be phased with the first tranche of retailers launching next month in time for the lucrative Christmas trading period. For more info see our Glasgow Focus published on November 22.

Click on continue reading to see the pictures I took. Hamleys' unit is easily spotted by it's red colour-scheme. Looks like there still a lot of work to be done elsewhere though.

It is easy to get wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of the property industry without thinking too much about the occupiers themselves.

The West End rates time bomb, for example, is ticking and could see businesses facing sharp increases which potentially price them out of core West End. Dan talks to occupiers and advisors in tomorrow's West End Focus to find out if it is giving some firms itchy feet.

Nadia talks to Rio Tinto which undertook a large prelet at the top of the market. Find out if it would repeat that search today and what it and other occupiers think about "bagging a bargain" in the current market. It might not be quite as good a news for take up figures as agents think.

Meanwhile Melanie discovers a time bomb of a different sort. She learnt of a developer who wanted more power for its West End building but was told only a new sub station could supply it. At £5m a piece the large costs of building one would fall to already cash-strapped landlords raising the question of whether green buildings are the answer?

Just a few of the topics up for discussion together with the latest market analysis, for more see tomorrows mag.

Photo by 96dpi from Flickr used under the Creative Commons license

This week in the magazine we turn to the East of England and find there are some beacons of light appearing.

One of those is sentiment which seems to be improving, or at least not getting any worse. Stacey analyses the results of EG's latest sentiment survey and finds out just what the local property industry thinks is in store for the immediate future. She's also talked to the ERBI to find out how local technology firms are actually faring.

Drilling down to the individual cities; Cambridge's guided bus is (finally) about to become a reality. Some office park developers think it will boost their rents but they are largely the minority. Will it do any good in the current market?
In the city centre there's been no development for 15years. With the UK market in turmoil is that likely to change and what effect is that having on returns?

Norwich is still waiting for two large schemes by locally-based developer Targetfollow. I've quizzed them about their intentions and ask how much longer will Norwich have to wait? In retail, Chapelfield shopping centre seems to be bedding down with a letting to Apple (oops sorry I'm not meant to mention that) but what deals are landlords in other parts of the city doing?

And in Suffolk secondary office rents are actually rising  but it's at the expense of prime office space, while industrial is suffering heavily after international trade takes a tumble at the port of Felixstowe.

Now here's a story that's completely bananas. Apparently a certain US technology firm, which sounds like something you'd find in a fruit bowl, is fitting out in Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich.

It's great news for the four-year-old centre which has taken some time to bed down in the city, and it should be the Apple of their eye. But talk to owners CSC and they flatly deny all knowledge of the juicy letting. What makes this story completely bonkers is if you were to take a walk along the upper mall of the centre you'd see the fruity retailer's signs proudly proclaiming their debut in the city.

Do a job search on the occupier's website and look what pops up on the right hand side under "new stores, new opportunities". This sign announcing the project is fairly conclusive too.

CSC say client confidentiality forbids them from saying anything. In fact, they can't even talk about the opening date for "security reasons".

In fairness to them they clearly find the whole thing slightly ridiculous, but isn't this just red tape gone mad?

It's a shame they can't shout it from the rooftops because according to City AM a certain US technology firm on Regent Street in London is taking a big bite out of the retail market.

Photo from Flickr by 1Happysnapper( is catching up slowly) used the Creative Commons license

I've been doing the rounds in the West End this week for a London occupier feature I'm writing. One thing that's coming across quite strongly from the agents is, with money being short and all, how much harder occupiers are working their buildings. That's polite talk for cramming the worker bees into smaller and smaller spaces.

One agent, a well known face on the West End office scene, questioned what this did to the green agenda. With extra bodies crammed into smaller spaces all those clever devices developers are keenly stuffing into their buildings to keep the working masses comfortably cool can't cope.

Forget ventilation displacement which only works with a low density of desks. Chilled beams - as anyone at EG towers will know - are only truly efficient if the space accomodates a fairly specific number of people. So is the green agenda going out the window?

Most of the propety industry have been at pains to tell us that the green agenda hasn't slipped despite the recession and occupiers still demand all the latest gadget and will pay for them. But would they pay for them if it meant having to loosen up their densities and take on extra sq ft, especially if that space costs them north of £90 a sq ft?