August 2009 Archives

The Google headquarters at Belgrave House, Buckingham Palace Road, SW1, was ablaze this afternoon at 1.53pm as a fire broke out on the roof terrace, reported the Telegraph. The building is also home to American Express and Vitol.

Witnesses in neighboring blocks broke news of the fire on Twitter stating the following:

"There's a tree on fire on one of Google office roof terraces across the road" wrote one.

The flames reportedly died down within a few minutes but smoke continued to pour out into the sky as firefighters on a raised platform struggled to reach the source of the flames. The blaze was finally extinguished by around 2.30pm.

A spokesman for London Fire Brigade said that no one was thought to have been hurt in the incident.

"We were called at 1.53pm and currently have four fire engines dealing with a fire in an office building on Buckingham Palace Road," he said.

A Google spokeswoman, speaking on her mobile from outside the building, said that the cause of the fire was not yet known but that all Google staff were accounted for.

"All I know is that there was a barbecue on a roof terrace on one of the Google floors," she said.

"We have all been moved away from the building and we are waiting for the fire brigade to tell us when we can go back in."

The fire is the second to break out in two months with 76 Dean Street, W1, catching fire last month.

Worrying times, but maybe just as concerning is the speed of the helicopters movements in the video of the fire crews fightingthe blaze!!

Tension which had been mounting between two couples over building works at a flat in Mayfair hit a high last October it has been announced, with an antique samurai sword being used as the couples finally came to blows.

Millionaire property developer Simon Carson was at the centre of attention as the troubles boiled over grabbing the antique weapon - worth thousands of pounds - and headed upstairs to confront Simon Korn after the estate agent had complained to a porter about the noise coming from downstairs.

Mr Korn, fearing for his safety, grabbed the sword and received series lacerations to his hands. Carson's wife Freddie Booker-Carson - an award winning art curator then slapped Mr Korn's wife and was abusive to police.

The dispute only emerged yesterday after Booker-Carson admitted assault and was given an absolute discharge at Southwark Crown Court.

Booker-Carson had been accused of 'assisting an offender' after hiding the sword in another of their flats but this charge was dropped after she said she hid the sword to prevent her husband 'self-harming'.

Carson was given a suspended sentence for actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.

Simon Korn and his wife said that they were 'disgusted ' at the sentences, and that it appears to be one law for the rich and one for the poor.

Yesterday office workers in the City of London received a much more exciting lunch time than expected, when a four metre (15ft) windowpane plummeted 17 floors, scattering shards of glass across Threadneedle Street. Luckily no-one was hurt, apart from the office occupants who maybe felt a little chilly for an hour or two, in the newly refurbished 26-storey 125 Old Broad Street, EC2, from where the glass pane fell.

Let's hope that the real of Shard Of Glass, expected to be delivered in 2012, doesn't behave in the same way, as 71-storeys is a very long way to fall...

When you stumble across some godforsaken fast food outlet at some shabby motorway service station, where cardboard tasting cuisine seems to be a speciality, or as a last point of call for a much needed carb injection after a night out on the beers, the cost of a Big Mac burger doesn't seem all that important.

Likewise I am sure when you decide to get the latest, up-to-date, hip, must have gadget -like the iPod nano, you don't sit there pondering how many man hours it would take you to earn enough cash to pay for the headphones, battery, and garish accessories .

However a recent study by UBS digs a bit deeper into the affordability of such products and the variance across the globe.

With London slipping from the 2nd most expensive city to 22nd over the past 18 months and the precipitous slide in the pound from the heady heights of $2.11 in November 2007 to $1.41 in January 2009, the cost of living in London has fallen dramatically. Research by the investment bank now places Oslo as the most expensive city, followed by Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and New York. BUT if the pound strengthens slightly to $1.7, London would ascend quickly to 5th place.

The study determined that employees have to work a global average of 37 minutes to earn enough to pay for a Big Mac. In Tokyo workers have to spend just 12 minutes at their desks to earn enough to pay for the burger, while their counterparts in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, have to work for more than two and a half hours.

On average it takes 22 minutes to earn a kilo of rice and 25 minutes for a kilo of bread. And for the first time, a non-food product was used in the study to compare working hours.

The iPod nano with 8 GB of storage is an ideal example of a globally uniform product. An average wage-earner in Zurich and New York can buy a nano from an Apple store after nine hours of work. At the other end of the spectrum, workers in Mumbai, need to work 20 nine-hour days - roughly the equivalent of one month's salary - to purchase the same gadget

An interesting study, although whether a Big Mac can actually be classed as a food product must surely be open to debate.

It has been reported that Lehman Brothers is preparing to sell 650 of its prized modern/contempory art at an auction in the states this winter. The auction is the latest idea to raise cash for its creditors, and it is hoped that a target of $1 million will be reached. Not that this will impact its $250 billion of debt pile too much, but every penny counts.

The works being sold at the Freeman's auction house in Philadelphia later in the year include a 1982 print of the Statue of Liberty by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, expected to fetch as much as $30,000.

Over here in the UK, by comparison, the art collection housed in Lehman's former Canary Wharf HQ at 25 Bank Street is apparently more establishment with 17th and 18th century landscapes and sculptures dominating the office walls. These have also been catalogued for sale although no firm auction date has yet been set.

But according to City A.M. the art-loving ex-Lehmanites still in the building haven't missed the collections too much. Apparently, they're too busy admiring the works put up by new employer Nomura. Among the gems in the 31st-floor boardroom and client centre is a triptych (a work consisting of three painted or carved panels that are hinged together) by modern Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (who holds the $5.1m record for the most expensive work ever sold by a living female artist) and an orange butterfly painting by Damien Hirst.

The weekend's national newspapers have focused heavily on the takeover talk surrounding real estate investor British Land.

The Daily Telegraph said British Land is expected to announce tomorrow that it has entered talks to sell a 50% stake in its £2.3bn Broadgate office estate.

But, hosing down rumours of a takeover of the company, the Mail on Sunday reported that sources close to Credit Suisse dismissed the bid talks as "rubbish".

Credit Suisse is said to be considering funding the rumoured £10bn bid for British Land by a consortium led by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and the Abu Dhabi ruling family.

The British Land share price jumped following this news rising 3.93% - to 512½p on the disclosure that some of the world's richest families had approached bankers at Credit Suisse about preparing a possible offer for the group.

A successful bid would be another in a string of British investments by Abu Dhabi.

Since the downturn hit the commercial property market in July 2007, British Land - along with other property companies - has been trying to offload assets in order to pay down debt. It sold a 50% stake in the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield for £588m and raised £740m in a rights issue in May.

A sale of a 50% stake in Broadgate would remove £1bn of debt from the company's balance sheet and give British Land a joint-venture partner to co-invest in the redevelopment of parts of the estate that are more than 20 years old.

The recent news and rise in share price has placed pressure on the investor to reveal the nature of any bid made.

A spokeswoman for British Land said: "All assets are for sale at the right price and Broadgate is no exception."

"We have received a number of approaches and as and when there is anything to disclose then of course we would."

One of Kuala Lumpur's famous landmarks is set to be transformed into a world class, mixed-use complex which will include a brand spanking new 39 storey environmentally huggable office tower.

The project, which is located 500 metres from the world famous Petronas Twin Towers, will be known as The Intermark.

The complex will be the most significant commercial mixed use development on the up and coming commercial spine Jalan Tun Razak, which has a large number of newly completed grade A office buildings, five star hotels and six star condominiums.

MGPA Asia Fund II who acquired the existing assets consisting of the Empire Tower, City Square, the Crown Princess Hotel and Plaza Ampang in 2007 will be investing RM2billion towards the redevelopment of these existing properties and the new office tower.

The project will be carried out in two phases the first of which will involve the complete refurbishment of the retail podium and Vista Tower which is one of the tallest buildings in Malaysia, these were formerly known as City Square and Empire Tower respectively and the introduction of the first Doubletree by Hilton hotel which will replace the Crown Princess hotel.

Phase 2 includes the construction of the new Integra Tower, which will be built on the adjacent site where Plaza Ampang once stood.

Integra Tower at The Intermark will have double glazed glass façade, while Vista Tower at The Intermark has large glass windows and aluminum spandrel. The tower will be constructed to the highest certified specifications and offer column-free spaces along with large floor plates in excess of 20,000 sq ft.

Rectangular in shape the tower goes for the classic box look but the slightly angled sides make it huggable in design as well as credentials.

The project is expected to be completed in 2012.

Work is almost complete on a new tower for Kuwait City, Kuwait. The long awaited Kuwait Trade Centre, which was due to be completed back in 2007, has finally topped out several years late and is now near complete.

The tower, which is the work of architectural firm Norr Limited, now stands at 218 metres tall. It cost an estimated $62 million to build, showing just how cheaply you can build a skyscraper in the Middle East compared to western Europe.

The original design consists of a cylindrical shaped, concrete central core around which the steel floor plates are arranged and orientated to create a twisting shape to the tower on three of its facades whilst the fourth façade shows the core shape.

Work on the tower was expected to be finished by April 2009 but construction has been rather slow, pushing the end completion date back to September 2009.

A French court will decide the future of Europe's largest ever property deal after creditors failed to agree on restructuring proposals. Last Week, bondholders met to discuss proposals to restructure the €1.6 bn (£1.4bn) of debt secured against the 1.9 million sq ft Coeur Defense office building in Paris, which was bought by a joint venture between Lehman Brothers and French property company Atemi for €2.1bn in July 2007. At a meeting last Monday, separate proposals were brought forward by the Lehman joint venture - advised by PricewaterhouseCoopers - and bondholders to try to agree on the best way to proceed with the deal. The stumbling block is thought to be a disagreement between different trenches with bondholders over the structure of payments.

A restructuring is necessary because a fall in the value of Paris office assets means that the building is close to breaching loan-to-covenants.

In addition, several tenants are set to vacate the building in the coming months, which will reduce the amount of income available to make interest payments.

It is understood that both the borrower and the bondholders have agreed not to force a sale of the asset or seek more equity from a third party investor.

It is also believed that proposals to relax loan-to-value and interest covenants have been agreed in principle.

One source close to the discussion said: "Most of the headline terms are agreed; the difference is in the details. It sometimes seems like an agreement is close but then it won't get there."

It is now likely that the French court, in the form of a panel of judges, will impose a solution on all parties, although it could still agree to give the parties more time. It is likely that the court will meet in early September to discuss this further.

"The ruling is expected to set a legal precedent," said Barclays Capital analyst Hans Vrensen.

Last friday a group from EGi research took an early start and headed to Liverpool Street station for 7am to spend the day collecting money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

Despite a rail strike taking place spirits remained high, and those which did pass through the station dug deep on pay day and helped us raise a commendable figure for this truly worthy cause.

£1892 and 13 pence was raised in total.

Kranhaus1 is a newly completed 15 floor office building overlooking the River Rhine in the German city of Cologne. Designed by BRT Bothe Richter Teherani it has almost 175,000 sq ft of high quality office space within, plus basement parking for 200 cars.

Measuring 70 metres long, 34 metres wide, and with a height of 60 metres it is effectively an up-turned right angle but with a central supporting column containing the service shafts for the upper floors numbering 10 to 14. This also connects the body of it to the ground without the entire structure being a cantilever.

The building is the first of a series to be build by Developer Partner AG along the Rhine, reinventing the familiar shape of the dock cranes of the past.

The economic slump has hit the capital hard and occupier demand has been shaken. No more so than in Docklands, where it seems you cannot even buy a large floor plate requirement.

Docklands suffers in Q1 2009: (Source: EGi London Offices Q1 2009 Market analysis report)

Mastercard however, could be the savour for Q3 as it has taken 3,630 sq m (39,100 sq ft) at 10 Upper Bank Street on part of the 19th and 20th floors. The company is set to vacate its offices at Mansion Court, 47-53 Cannon Street, EC4 for the Wharf, and will, i am sure, be warmly welcomed by Songbird Estates. Jones Lang LaSalle advised Mastercard; CB Richard Ellis and GVA Grimley were the letting agents.

Major transport projects including Crossrail and a possible new high speed rail line could be at risk due to nearly £30 billion of cuts to the Government's transport budget over the next ten years, according to press reports.

Crossrail is reported to be at risk of "massive cuts", transport minister Sadiq Khan has warned. "I Hope we've reached the tipping point where it can't be stopped", he told website The Wharf following speculation - denied by the Tories - that a Conservative government would scrap it.

But uncertainty is again starting to creep in and it is of no surprise that several are once again starting to predict that the project will be delayed further, scaled down or even scrapped completely. The mayor's controversial announcement of a 2% business rate levy is also likely to come under scrutiny with rates already set to increase in April.

Indeed Chris Blackhurst's article in the latest edition of EG titled "Crossrail could be crossed out", offers a good insight into how the wrong project, with the wrong backers at the wrong time could prove to be too much for a scheme which has been troubled for too many years.

But if the scheme is to be scrapped what will happen to those already affected by the Cross - London link? And what will be the implication to our economy as a whole?

For some ideas, including the loss of a potential 30,000 new jobs, Building has dug a bit deeper as to whether there is indeed light at the end of a long and troubled tunnel.

A new page in FA history opened today.

After nearly nine years, The Football Association has moved from 23-25 Soho Square, W1 (pictured below), to make Wembley Stadium its new headquarters.

Part of the organisation had already spent nine months at Wembley in the late '90s, following a fire at Lancaster Gate, the day after England's 1998 World Cup defeat to Argentina in St Etienne, although this wasn't in the stadium.

Now, though Wembley Stadium has become the new, long term home of The Football Association.

Former Homes of The FA (formed in 1863)

1881-1885 28 Paternoster Row, London, EC
1885-1892 51 Holborn Viaduct, London EC
1892-1902 61 Chancery Lane, London WC
1902-1910 104 High Holborn, London WC
1910-1929 42 Russell Square, London WC1
1929-1972 22 Lancaster Gate, London W2
1972-2000 16 Lancaster Gate, London W2
6 November 2000-31 July 2009 25 Soho Square, London W1
3 August 2009- Wembley Stadium, Middlesex HA9