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Admiral confirms record prelet for Newport

By Nadia Elghamry on January 28, 2013 12:09 PM | No TrackBacks


Admiral Group's decision to take a record amount of space in Newport today (£) is a huge boost for the city centre. 

The insurer's deal would have doubled Newport's take-up if it had been added into 2012's figures. Drill down to Grade A space taken and Admiral's deal dwarfs any other deal that anyone can remember. Ever. 

The building looks like it could hold its own in any major city centre - as the lovely CGI's they've given us above show - and will move the image of Newport's office market up a notch (or three).

Although Admiral announced its intentions to settle in Newport a year ago it's been a long hard slog to do the deal and settle on the exact sq ft - which varied between 50,000 sq ft and 80,000 sq ft. Behind the scenes there were apparently plenty of wobbles not helped by the Eurozone crisis and fiscal cliffs from across the Atlantic. "Even though this was a blue chip investment opportunity there were difficulties," said one close to the deal. 

With the Newport requirement now settled, and the insurer's Cardiff HQ under construction it just leaves its Swansea requirement hanging. The rumour is that decision won't be far behind. That said it took a year to sign up in Newport, and its lease at its existing building in Swansea does not expire until 2016, so nothing these days is ever speedy when it comes to putting down money for new space.

Doctor Who experience opens in Cardiff

By Nadia Elghamry on July 20, 2012 11:33 AM | No TrackBacks
7402413418_f648ec40a2_b.jpgWhat's the best thing to happen to Wales? Now this might cause a few complaints but I'll just put it out there: Doctor Who. 

OK, so we might be a teensy bit bias at EG in that it's probably one of the better things in recent times to happen to the commercial property market. The decision to film Doctor Who and Merlin (not mention Torchwood, Being Human and Casualty) at locations in Wales has spurned a whole industry and given the city a sheen of cool,not to mention the BBC's much hailed move to the Roath Basin which came complete with a 215,000 sq ft production facility. 

Well today we get to see how it is all put together, complete with Daleks, cybermen and the Silence . This morning the doors swung open at the Doctor Who experience at igloo regeneration's 38-acre Porth Teigr development in Cardiff Bay. There are some great pictures of what to expect here.

Forecasts say it will attract 250, 000 people a year which will undoubtedly have local businesses and hotels rubbing their hands together. And igloo say they've already seen more enquiries from creative businesses who want to be close to the Beeb.

A new series of Doctor Who is currently being filmed in the city. So, who knows, if you wander down there you might even catch a glimpse of the doctor himself. 

Picture by Pellaeon on Flickr
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Mott MacDonald checks into CB1, Cambridge

By Nadia Elghamry on July 16, 2012 2:10 PM | No TrackBacks
ARU_Tree_Ceremony_27.06.12_081_(2).jpgSven Topel must be a happy man - although the Brookgate chief exec is not one given to over exuberance - just look how smiley he in this pic. 

CB1, the £800m Cambridge development Sven's company is behind, seems to be having quite a good run. The first phase of the student accomodation was opened last month (Sven's on the right of this picture with the head of property at Anglia Ruskin University at the opening) , with all the students moved in that weekend, and, as revealed in EG this week, developer Brookgate is in advanced negotiations for a prelet to Mott MacDonald (£).

The deal to the engineering and development consultants is a deal only Brookgate could have done. 

Mott MacDonald is already a tenant on the CB1 site occupying a total of 40, 000 sq ft in various bits and bobs of buildings as well as its main office at Dementer House. Nobody else could have managed their property portfolio, housed them temporarily while a new office was developed and then put them neatly back into a new improved and expanded Dementer House - which will be rebranded as 22 Station Road. 

Rents and lease lengths are being kept under wraps but it's likely Mott MacDonald will be signing up for something similar to KPMG at Botanic House, on its sub lease from Mills and Reeve. There's no official word on the rents but it's believed that deal was inked at around £32 per sq ft.

And it seems that's how deals are getting done in Cambridge at the moment. Last year's big deal to Mills and Reeve at Botanic House was pretty much the same. Jamie Wheatley partner  at the law firm is pretty blatant that one of the main reasons they went with Pace Investment's development was because they were exisiting tenants on the site and Pace could manage it's lease commitments. 

The deal is also interesting as it will allow Brookgate to crack on with more space than Mott MacDonald actually need. It will inject some Grade A space into a much starved market and provide the first true test for just how much latent demand is out there. 

In a city where prelets are very thin on the ground and stock is even thinner is this the Cambridge of the future?

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Listen: Could the global pharma industry crisis hit Cambridge's science parks

By Nadia Elghamry on February 17, 2012 12:00 AM | No TrackBacks
drug money.jpg
Is time running out for the global pharmaceutical industry? 

Patents for some of the biggest drugs in the world are about to expire. The revenues generated by these products are in the billions and these income streams are about to collapse. A string of bad results from those companies has not helped matters.

Cambridge with its heavy reliance on the R&D sector could be in the firing line. Will Mooney at Carter Jonas spoke to EG at our annual Cambridge reception last month and explained that without these some of the world's biggest drug companies can't afford to fund the next round of research. We're talking big names here: GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Novartis and Pfizer all of whom are practically pharmaceutical industry royalty.

They'll be getting down to a lean, mean size but could this be a good thing for Cambridge?

Will Siliconfen be hit as firms make redundancies, or could an necessity to foster associations with smaller firms and academic centres boost Cambridge? Pfizer's own crisis certainly helped the market. The pharma giant might have shut down its Sandwich, Kent facility but promptly went and set up in Cambridge. 

Listen to Will Mooney by clicking below to hear what he thinks the outlook for Cambridge's property market is.

You can read an in-depth analysis looking at the outlook for Cambridge's science parks in this Saturday's EG magazine.



Drug money by images of money on Flickr. 

Listen: Mills and Reeve talk signing one of Cambridge's largest prelets

By Nadia Elghamry on February 2, 2012 9:32 AM | No TrackBacks

Earlier this week we got the first glimpse inside Botanic House, Cambridge's tallest building. 

Mills and Reeve signed one of the largest prelets in Cambridge last year when it took all 52,000 sq ft of Pace Investments development, the first phase on the Hills Road site.

Here Mills and Reeve partner Jamie Wheatley, talks about why they chose the building, what it's like negotiating a deal in Cambridge at the moment and why they didn't go to Brookgate's CB1.

Below you can listen to Bidwell's head of business space Dick Wise, who acted for Pace on the deal. He'll be talking about negotiations from his side of the table and what occupiers with lease events should now do faced with Cambridge's dwindling stock. 

Just yesterday Bidwells announced unprecedented figures for the city's office market, here Dick looks ahead to the end of this year and explains how the competition for space might  end up being bad for take-up figures in 2012. 

First glimpse inside Botanic House, Cambridge

By Nadia Elghamry on January 31, 2012 5:09 PM | No TrackBacks

There were big sighs of relief last year when law firm Mills and Reeve finally announced it was relocating to Botanic House in Cambridge. 

Since then most agents have been quietly chuffed that a building as big and as nice as Botanic House was going up on the Cambridge skyline and that phase one on the landmark site was underway. 

But, until now, nobody has set foot inside it. Today EG got the first glimpse of what Mills and Reeve's new home will look like when it moves in late this year. Sadly there will be no roof terrace -shame as the view from the top , over the colleges tops, even on a misty day like today were spectacular. Cambridge, being Cambridge, means that Botanic House is the tallest building around.  

The fourth floor - with its treetop view out over the botanic gardens - will probably go to KPMG (that's widely talked about in the market but everyone today was still being very careful about confirming this) and half of the ground floor will be sublet - with heavy hints that an estate agent may be interested. 

Pace investments are probably sighing the biggest sigh of relief. It's seen off competition from CB1 and took a considerable risk. Pace is also owners of Mills and Reeve's existing building which is virtually next door. It took a punt and started speculatively building Botanic House in the hope that the law firm would move. 

What Pace's chief exec Johnny Vincent now does with the rest of the site is anyone's guess.

Continue reading First glimpse inside Botanic House, Cambridge.


Croydon's conundrum after Nestle takes a break

By Nadia Elghamry on January 5, 2012 1:22 PM | No TrackBacks

Thumbnail image for kit kat.jpgSo it's official. Nestle will leave Croydon. The town's biggest and highest profile employer is heading to Crawley. 

The Kit Kat manufacturer leaves in its wake 120,000 sq ft of secondary office space and a massive dent in the Surrey town's confidence. 

Croydon council knew that the town's office stock was ageing and old and offered few options for the conglomerate.  In fact the council says around a third of the town's stock needs razing. It has been keen to get this outdated stock back into its own hands. Nestle leaving probably wasn't quite what it had in mind. 

It has long since feared Nestle would up sticks and go and it's something we have written about extensively in the past. Jon Rouse, the incredibly well respected chief executive at Croydon council, was measured when asked about Nestle's possible departure back in September last year. He said: "Nestlé is important for the borough and we want them to stay. But all global businesses are footloose and you cannot tie your economic policy to one company."

The council can't be accused of thinking small. It even mulled a land acquisition fund in a slash and burn move to stimulate regeneration and rents by removing the drag of the outdated stock. That would be quite ballsy but may be exactly the sort of move the town now needs. 

Continue reading Croydon's conundrum after Nestle takes a break.


Guest post: cash boost for Scottish occupiers and landlords after Fife appeals committee overturn rates increases

By Nadia Elghamry on December 1, 2011 4:58 PM | No TrackBacks
Peter Muir.JPG
Peter Muir, is director and head of Scottish rating with property consultants at Colliers International.

The landmark decision announced yesterday by the Fife Valuation Appeal Committee on non-domestic rates in Scotland could provide a much-needed boost to the Scottish commercial property market and could help improve cash-flow for both occupiers and landlords. 

A consortium of rating advisers, which included Colliers International, GL Hearn and BNP Paribas, successfully led evidence before the Fife Valuation Appeal Committee, on behalf of a number of landlords and occupiers at The Mercat Shopping Centre, Kirkcaldy. 

This is a milestone, in a process that may see the Committee's decision appealed by the Fife Assessor to the Lands Valuation Appeal Court in Edinburgh. 

However, if accepted or confirmed by the Court, it would in effect mean a reduction of up to 50 per cent on the values set across Scotland in 2009/10 and introduced with effect from 1 April 2010.

The implications for landlords and tenants are significant, especially from a cash-flow perspective. Occupiers will benefit from a substantially reduced rates liability, which would clearly be welcomed. A reduced rateable value will also benefit landlords while marketing vacant units, with the lower value being attractive to any interested tenants.

In the medium term, this case could see a significant increase in appeals across Scotland. Assuming any appeal is dismissed or not lodged, the decision has opened the doors to reductions, where a drop in rental value can be shown to have occurred between the revaluation date and the statutory date of 1 April 2008. Most areas granted a reduction in 2009/10 have already been appealed by agents acting for interested parties but it is unlikely these will be resolved until after the conclusion of this particular case. 

BRC's Christmas shopping figures reveal a mixed picture for the UK's retail sector

By Daniel Cunningham on January 11, 2011 4:07 PM | No TrackBacks

snow shopping

The Christmas shopping sales figures released today by the British Retail Consortium pretty much confirm what most involved in the sector know already; low consumer confidence as a result of economic conditions, compounded by the chaos caused by the snow, has sorely tested the UK's shopping locations.

As reported on EGi this morning, the BRC's figures show that like-for-like sales dropped by 0.3% in December 2010, compared with December 2009, with large, non-food items being hit the hardest.

But despite the backdrop, a trawl of the web reveals that plenty of occupiers and landlords across the UK have managed to buck the trend. Here's a round-up:

  • Retail Week reports that Sainsbury's emerged from the festive period as the winner among the 'big four' grocers, with the grocery sector clocking in with growth of 5.1% in the six weeks to December 26.
  • The BBC, meanwhile, reports that high street favourite Marks & Spencer's Christmas sales were up 2.8% year-on-year in the last three months of 2010, showing that it is not all doom-and-gloom for the UK's major retail occupiers. That said, The Guardian reports that Debenham's lost £30m in sales as a result of the snow chaos. 

 

Continue reading BRC's Christmas shopping figures reveal a mixed picture for the UK's retail sector.


London, City & Docklands synopsis

By Stacey Meadwell on September 2, 2010 4:12 PM | No TrackBacks
Estates Gazette London, City & Docklands Focus synopsis
Published October 16, 2010

Retail
Analysis of market conditions and future trends
Contact: Liz Morrell, freelance writer, 01454 415 509, lizmorrell@drdatamail.co.uk

Occupiers
Analysis of occupier trends
Contact: David Thame, freelance writer, 01544 262 896, dthame@clara.co.uk

Development
Analysis of market conditions and future trends
Contact: James Buckley, senior reporter, 020 7911 1810, james.buckley@estatesgazette.com

Investment
Analysis of market conditions and future trends
Contact: David Thame, freelance writer, 01544 262 896, dthame@clara.co.uk

Market in numbers
Please contact regional editor stacey.meadwell@estatesgazette.com if you think you can supply up to date City and Docklands market stats and predictions.

 Please contact writers by Monday 20 September 2010

 EG's regional Focuses are now available in a digital version. To see the first edition, our Scotland Focus, please go to www.estatesgazette.com/focus

 

 
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