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The best and the worst of the regional office markets in Q1

By Stacey Meadwell on May 16, 2012 3:12 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Knight Frank released its amusingly named ROMP report yesterday (that's Regional Office Market Presentation - just don't google ROMP on its own on your office computer - well maybe a colleagues) in which it compares and contrasts the market performance in 11 regional cities around the UK. 

One of the most interesting graphs within the report shows Q1 2012 take up vs the average quarterly take up for 2011 ie how well has each city done this year so far? Now you have to look at the figures in context but before we do that here is how the 11 cities rank in terms of take up in Q1 2012 vs its 2011 quarterly average:

  1. Leeds +50%
  2. Glasgow +32%
  3. Edinburgh +23%
  4. Manchester -5%
  5. Liverpool -11%
  6. Bristol -16%
  7. Sheffield -29%
  8. Cardiff -40%
  9. Aberdeen -165%
  10. Birmingham -209%
  11. Newcastle -376%
Now the context bit, Leeds had a good 2011 but it was its first year of increased take up since 2007 and the Q1 figure includes one particularly large deal of over 60,000 sq ft (Medical Protection Society's purchase of 2 & 3 Victoria Place). 

Glasgow and Edinburgh on the other hand, while having had storming starts to Q1 compared to everywhere else, actually didn't have great 2011 for office take up so they are coming from a lower base.

The flip side of that is Aberdeen which looks like it has had a terrible start to the year when in fact it had a phenomenal 2011 recording the highest average quarterly take up of all 11 cities and it still ranks the fifth highest take up for Q1 2012.

And then there is Newcastle, while there was a brief filip last year, office take up in the city actually peaked in 2004. Ouch.

Shard echoes classic design

By Nadia Elghamry on May 15, 2012 4:18 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Lovely design echoes picture here of the Shard from @adders on Twitter.

Makes you realise just how well Sellar Group's building sits within the London skyline.

shard.JPG
Picture courtesy of Adam Tinworth. www.onemanandhisblog.com

New skyscraper for London as steels go in at the Walkie Talkie

By Nadia Elghamry on April 30, 2012 1:17 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Thumbnail image for Installation of resize first steel column at 20 Fenchurch Street 3 (23 04 12).jpg
Another skyscraper is going up in London. Six months after saying they'd commit to the Walkie Talkie the first steels are actually going in at 20 Fenchurch Street (to give it it's grown up name). Another 4,499 steels will follow.

At the start of the month developers Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group said they were close to signing up the first tenant (£) in the 675,000 sq ft tower with insurer Markel thought to be close to taking 80,000 sq ft. There's been no official confirmation, now that would be something to celebrate.

Exclusive images of Bristol Glassfields

By Nadia Elghamry on April 27, 2012 8:00 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
smallGlassfields, Avon - Exterior E 300dpi.jpgThe race for occupiers is definitely hotting up in Bristol. In this week's mag we report on how HDG Mansur's Bridgewater House and UK and European Investment's Templeback are going head to head in the fight for occupiers. Both say they are optimistic about the market going forward. Both say they are unwilling to compromise with a soft deal. And, while the latest numbers for Q1 can't quite back that optimism up there are several occupiers floating around the market. 

So too for Royal London Asset Management that has just released new images of its Glassfields  scheme as part of the relauch of the 350,000 sq ft Temple Way development. They've given us the first look at those images and you can see one of them here. In part the relaunch has been buoyed by the £5m cash injection into the Enterprise Zone - which the scheme is part of. But with a planning permission dating back to 2007 many agents would like them to get on and build. 

And how will Bridgewater House and Templeback fare? would they build given their time again? All the answers are in tomorrow's magazine.

Bristol office agents predict the year ahead

By Nadia Elghamry on April 27, 2012 12:00 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
This week we publish our Bristol, Bath and Swindon Focus in the magazine. But if you can't wait until tomorrow then there's a sneak peek at how the Bristol office agents think the market will pan out this year. Just click below to listen.


Bridgewater House Bristol close to signing tenant

By Nadia Elghamry on March 29, 2012 11:35 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
BWH .jpgBridgewater House was a huge gamble. Developers HDG Mansur took the decision to spec build the 110,000 sq ft office building to shell and core back in March 2010 - a decision it had prevaricated about for quite a while. 

Now, with the chips down everyone is keenly watching the building to see if that gamble will pay off. 

The building completed to shell and core in May last year and BDO took space in the building at the end of 2011 but, at just shy of 9,000 sq ft, it was hardly the vote of confidence the market needed to justify the grand gesture HDG made. Now, Michael Baker, senior managing director and head of development in UK and Europe, says another deal is in the offing, and it is in discussions for a much larger signing of between 30-35,000 sq ft. In the current market that would be a Big Deal.

So who might it be? Local agents seem to know little about this deal. Many think it might dovetail nicely with a 30,000 sq ft requirement Cushman & Wakefield is handling. The London-based agent has kept the name behind that requirement very close to it's chest but it is hardly imminent said one Bristol agent as it has only just asked for proposals.

Others circling the market are Canada Life looking for up to 40,0000 sq ft to exploit a lease expiry and BPP with a 40,000 sq ft requirement which most agents think would sit nicely at Bridgewater House. Babcock and Brown had been looking for 20,000 sq ft but is now thought to be under offer at Aztec West out of town. Balfour Beatty is the only other name on agents lips but the 20,000 sq ft requirement is said to be under review. 

A signing at Bridgewater House would be much more than just a boost for the take up numbers. Many Bristol agents think that with enquiries improving, getting a chunk of this building away will make other developers think very seriously about delivering stock into the starving Grade A market. Getting funding however, is quite another issue.

We'll be analysing this as well as the wider Bristol, Bath and Swindon market in detail in magazine on 28th April.

Related stories:

Pics: London Shard workers defy vertigo

By Nadia Elghamry on March 23, 2012 7:11 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Wowsers! These guys have nerves of steel. I'm hoping the press tour doesn't take in this view. 

Full story is on the Evening Standard today. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/london/shard-workers-defy-vertigo-to-bolt-together-spire-at-985-feet-7583316.html

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Pictures: Edinburgh city council's spec office development Atria

By Stacey Meadwell on March 15, 2012 5:09 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Office building site tours are like hen's teeth at this point in the economic cycle, owing almost entirely to the lack of development. So when the opportunity arose to have a look around Edinburgh city council's bold 200,000 sq ft speculative office development called Atria for myself it was hard to resist.

Wellies, high-viz and hard hat all on, the schemes agents Hugh Rutherford of Montagu Evans and Ben Reed of Jones Lang LaSalle took me and EG's online editor Nathan Cross up to the top floor where the concrete floor has just started being poured. Even against the overcast sky, the panoramic views of the city and its famous castle were breathtaking. 

We couldn't resist using the castle as a back drop to talk to Hugh about the rationale behind the council's decision to speculatively build and how letting the space is going ahead of it's Q1 2013 completion.

You can watch the interview next week on EGi but in the meantime here are some pictures I snapped.



Watch: Take a look at Manchester's Noma Hanover building

By Nadia Elghamry on March 15, 2012 8:57 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
A fly through video of the Co-operative Group's Noma development in Manchester has come through this morning.  So if you fancy a nosy at how their refurbishment of the 105, 000 sq ft Hanover building might look, it's all below. The Co-op are yet to find a development partner (£) to help with the £800m scheme but is currently working up plans for the Hanover building. 

Three guesses which retailer they might like on the bottom floor (clue: the fly through shows an "@ store dot com" store in residence)


Mipim: Croydon a new office hot spot. Pipe dream or possibility?

By Nadia Elghamry on March 6, 2012 11:52 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
hot spot.jpg
Croydon will become the new office hot-spot (£).  OK, so Croydon's own marketing department did dream up that headline and Develop Croydon is down at Mipim today banging their offices drum. 

It reckons that rents of £22 per sq ft will be enough of a lure to send occupiers from the West End flocking to the south London borough.

There's little reason why Croydon couldn't become an office overflow hot spot - except that if it really was that easy to entice occupiers with a few pounds and pence shaved off the rents, wouldn't they have already gone there by now? Yes, Grade A stock has been thin on the ground but there were plenty of opportunities for occupiers to get involved and no end of shiny schemes being mooted. 

Agents constantly say that occupiers don't care - to a point - what the price of property is, it's not their biggest cost, people are. The biggest problems occupiers talk about now is getting talent in through their doors, and keeping it and having a central London address is one of the best ways to do that. Don't believe me, well just look at Nokia and O2 Telefonica who moved back from the M4 corridor into central London.


Continue reading Mipim: Croydon a new office hot spot. Pipe dream or possibility? .


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