August 2010 Archives

With an increasing amount of stalled schemes due to the recession and vacant plots of land lying empty developers have come up with ingeneous plans to generate income from them whilst pushing back development. Land Securities 'Park House' dinosour exhibition comes to mind as does Hammerson's 'Bishops Place' golf driving range to the north of Liverpool Street, both previously blogged here and here.

Well here's another, not quite on the scale on the previous two but just as imaginative. It's for the uses of a petrol station forecourt as a cinema. The site has remained in the same state as below since it gained consent back in 2008 for 8 private residential units, 4,000sqm of B1 office space and 900sqm of A1 retail space. Here's their website.

And here's what the cinema will look like...

It looks as though all they're going to do is wrap some curtain round the forecourt, give it a lick of paint and find a projector from somewhere. Very Shoreditch. It won't last long though, the planning application states it will be showing Thursday to Sunday for just 24 days.

If you want to see what a house worth over £70,000,000 looks like, take a look at this link from Rightmove. It's in Windlesham, Surrey and comes with 24 bedrooms, 11 acres, 5 (yes five) swimming pools, 2 outside, 2 inside and 1 on the roof. It also has tennis courts, an indoor squash court, a two-lane bowling alley, a cinema and stabling for 5 horses, plus of course it's own helipad. I could go on and on; the brochure is here.

On the opposite end of the spectrum I passed this site yesterday on my site visits, possibly the smallest house I have ever seen. The one on the end was up for sale through Village Estates Online whoever they are. Unfortunately, their website has ceased to exist and I would imagine so too has the company, although Companies House doesn't suggest so. From the state of the site it looks like it has been in this state for quite a while and I can't see too many investors jumping at the chance to snap this property up. Your options are hugely limited as to what you could do, what with the size and width more than anything of the property. As well as that it's in Homerton, great...

Here's a quick round up of my recent site visits to Hackney with some promising signs and quite a few construction starts. I'll start off with the biggest; that being the Lesney toy factory (Matchmakers Wharf) site on Homerton Road. This one only gained planning consent last year with demolition works recently completing. The developers Telford Homes have pressed ahead, with the final scheme offering 138 private and 120 social units. 

Another notable change was that the current homes on the Haggerston West and Kingsland Estate are undergoing the final elements of demolition. The site is currently a hive of activity and should soon be fully cleared and vacant for construction to start soon. Piles were also being dug. When completed this scheme will provide 343 private units and 418 social units for joint developers L&Q, Taylor Wimpey and John Laing. 

Back to starts, this one below is on Kenworthy Road, providing 59 private and 62 social units on a site formerly occupied by a building purely for medical staff at the nearby Homerton University hospital.

The site next door incidentally currently looks like this. Very recently getting underway by developers Ashley House, it will house 18 private and 19 social units.

Phase 2 of Queensbridge Quarter in Dalston is also now underway, having been quite long coming, after the first phase completed back in 2008. This will house 56 private and 22 social resi units. The first phase incidentally was shortlisted for a number of awards and from a personal level it's not hard to see why. Designed by Levitt Bernstein, the developer is United House.

Phase 2

Phase 1

A couple of purely social starts now to finish with come from Hackney Council themselves, who are developing two site across the road from each other. Both are now under construction, the one shown below more advanced than the other. This scheme (Former Rendleshem House) will provide 43 social homes, the other (Former Ottaway House) 30 units.

What this means is that 2010 looks set to be a much better year than the last for construction starts. Going back to our 'Red Book' the figure for Hackney starts in 2009 was a grand total of 151 units (73% down on the previous year). The figure for the above sites (purely private) units that is equates to 271, not counting the major works at the Haggerston West and Kingsland estate. If this scheme was to start the figure would be 614 private starts, although this might be asking a bit much. I will of course be visiting again in december to see if it does or not.  

The GLA have recently published (as of last month) Supplementary Planning Guidance on the 'use of planning obligations in the funding of Crossrail'. In it, it details the final draft and the consultation it has been through in the past 2 years. The most note worthy items in the 40 page document was that the Vauxhall/Nine Elms/Battersea Opportunity Area as well as both the Elephant & Castle and Waterloo Opportunity Areas were left out and are exempt from the levy. This will leave only London Bridge and Bankside south of the Thames having to pay in full to the charges.

As for the charges; the document explains in detail that the planning obligations to be paid towards Crossrail are not a 'betterment tax' on expected profits but a calculation on the 'cost' of the development on transport networks. The resulting charges for different use types and locations from those calculations are as follows:

What all this means is that for example, the 'Foundry' hotel development in Hoxton (previous blog post) which received permission at the start of the year would have been expected to pay £1,780,008. Broken down it looks like this: 1,500sqm of office space x £137 = £205,000, 23,000sqm of hotel space x £60 = £1,380,000 and 2,216sqm of retail space x £88 = £195,008.

Residential developers will be relieved that they won't be expected to pay anything. This is because residential schemes are seen as not impacting adversley on transport networks, the people occupying them using public transport disparately throughout the day. This is unlike office developments where the bulk of impact will be between 7-9am and 5-7pm creating congestion and crowding. 

It will remain to be seen however how successful local authorities are in implementing these charges and whether their S106 officers have the skills to negotiate with developers to get as much out of them. This isn't law remember, it is purely guidance and developers will try and niggle out of charges with financial viability statements and spiel at how vital there developments are in rejuvenating particular areas. Local authorities need to be bold and stand up to them, which is of course easy in theory but hard in practice.

Incidentally here's a recent picture showing Canary Wharf Group's progress on their own station.

Here's one I didn't expect to start any time soon:

This is the last instalment in the St George Wharf development on Nine Elms. It's called No. 1 The Tower. It'll have 50 storeys providing 223 flats, all private and handy for the U.S Embassy when it comes. Oh, and it's started, just.

I saw this spaceman on a building in Wandsworth yesterday. It's an odd sight, worthy of a photograph...

...but then this morning, in Richmond ... another one...

...what exactly is going on?

Anyone who's been through or walked past Farringdon station recently will know that it's a great huge hole in the ground at the moment. The 12 or so storey 1960's office block 'Cardinal House' on the corner of Farringdon Road and Cowcross Street was dropped at the end of last year to make way for the new Thameslink station. The foundations for this are now currently going in and when Crossrail comes in 2017 (hopefully) Farringdon can realistically call it the logistical centre of London. Here are the facts:

                140 trains per hour will go through Farringdon.

                 Thameslink trains will run north/south.  

                 Crossrail trains will run east/west.

                 It will be the only station with an interchange between both cross-London routes.

                 It will provide direct links to Gatwick, Luton and Heathrow airports.

                 London City airport will be just one change away.

                 Will also provide direct links to St Pancras and Stratford International rail stations.

                 Tube lines served are: Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City, Circle.

All this means that when works complete Farringdon will surpass Clapham Junction as Britain's busiest train station and if it's a long term investment you're after, then you could do a lot worse than look towards Farringdon. This is shown by the recent good sales of apartments in Turnmill Street (shown below, to the left of the picture), a small 13-unit development nearing completion by developers Marldon. Here the apartments in the first phase have sold out with an average price per square foot of £866. Prices range from £765,000 to £430,000. Another fact for you from the developer's website is this; there are 1,739 pubs within three miles of Turnmill Street... bet you didn't know that!

Thought I was joking about The Heron Tower's fish tank being bigger than a microflat? Think again...

This converted cupboard (I'm not joking) totals 62 sq ft whilst the fish tank will be a palatial 240 sq ft, nearly four times the size.

What's 12 metres long, 4 metres high, has a width of 2 metres, weighs in at a colossal 70 tonnes and will hold 70,000 litres of water?

The fish tank behind the receptionist's desk at the Heron Tower, that's what.

Skyscrapernews has the full story..

I've already mentioned in the previous blog that Kathryn Findlay's The Hill proposal for the Potters Field site was one of my favourites. Granted it was a little (OK, very) whimsical and it'll never get built. But a variation on the same idea by MAD Architects just might:

In 2007 I wrote this about the Potters Field site:

Berkeley want to develop 350+ flats on the site. It's got the planning permission. It's got the architect (Ian Ritchie). It's even got the backing of the mayor. But it hasn't got the land, the majority of that is owned by the main objector to the development, the London Borough of Southwark. Now Southwark is refusing to sell the site because it wants, and I quote, an "iconic cultural venue and mixed-tenure housing" to be built there. Ken, meanwhile, used his time on stage at the Labour Party conference to tell Southwark to stop "faffing around", acused them of "blocking the development" and then threatened to slap a CPO on the land. Southwark then countered by entering into talks with the Design Museum (amongst others) to formulate alternative plans for the site. So why all the fuss, what's the big deal about this site in particular? Well as the old adage goes, it's all about location, location, location.

Back in 2007 the site looked like this:

It looks exactly the same today. On the surface then, nothing much has changed, but you'd be wrong in thinking that no progress has been made.

In July of this year Berkeley and Southwark signed off a development agreement for the site. Both players forming the One Tower Bridge Partnership. So what's new? Well, gone is the Ian Ritchie "Dalek" proposal (below):

along with my personal favourite The Hill designed by Kathryn Findlay:

Now there's a new scheme on the drawing boad, the planning application for which has just been submitted. The design is by Squire & Partners, it'll look something like this:

 Here are the stats:

• 356 private residential units in total (mix: 122x1, 158x2, 74x3 and 2x4 bed flats).
• 6,554sqm of cultural floorspace (Class D1/D2 to accommodate concert hall or gallery or exhibition space or museum uses).
• 1,707sqm of commercial floorspace (to accommodate Class A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, D1, D2 and B1 uses, the latter not to exceed 500 sq metres).
• 8,007sqm of communal and private amenity space, including an extension to and improvement of Potters Fields Park.
• 142 car parking spaces.
• 436 residential cycle parking spaces.
• 104 visitor cycle parking spaces.

Crucially this proposal includes 6,554sqm of cultural floorspace, a feature missing from the Ritchie designed scheme.

And what of the affordable housing contribution? Well that'll be on a site just to the east, abutting Tower Bridge on a site currently owned by the City of London. Total contribution 46 units.

Well following on from my last blog about Croydon missing out on the next cycle, I may have to retract that statement as it now looks like Berkeley Homes are set to kick off their 45 storey, 755 residential unit scheme on Wellesley Road.

An announcement from the developer stated "Berkeley Homes is delighted to confirm its intention to commence works on its Saffron Square project in mid-August." This comes soon after they submitted a new application only last month in order to increase the residential offering and decrease the office space.

In 2007 the scheme was permitted for 667 private units and 72 social units. This revised application now seeks permission for 719 private units and 36 social units, which will all be shared ownership. Social units will be provided off-site.

Berkeley Homes in their revised planning statement state the usual spiel about needing this new tenure mix in order to progress construction and for the scheme to be financially viable in the current climate. The question is will Croydon Council accept this in order for a landmark, gateway scheme to progress or say no and leave the site vacant and derelict since it was demolished in 1993. 

This is how their planning statement read..."Due to the recent market conditions the scheme approved in July 2008 has been in abeyance for the past two years. During this time Berkeley Homes has been progressing the design development of the revised scheme as a priority project with the intention that construction, in accordance with the current planning permission, will commence in July 2010. However in order to underpin the economics of the scheme and reduce the risk of further deferment of the project, Berkeley Homes is proposing to make relatively modest changes to the approved scheme."

The cynic in me says probably yes, why? Well 12 directors from the Croydon Economic Development Company walked out yesterday citing "unprecedented financial constraints imposed from central government". Public Property UK have the full story.

The future of the regeneration body now looks uncertain after it was taken over by the council in November 2009 after running into financial problems. These look to have now worsened after the withdrawal of funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government's Local Enterprise Growth Initiative. Tony Kildare, the company's chief executive, is now the only remaining board member, as the regeneration body begins to wind down its operation.

We all know Croydon has missed the last couple of economic cycles; the town now needs to be in a position that when the next cycle comes albeit probably not for a while it can reap the benefits as the potential for Croydon is huge. Masterplans are currently being put together for both East and West Croydon by the council and these are expected to go before public consultation in September.

Lets hope the council can produce the right conditions for the private sector to thrive and regenerate the south London borough, because they won't be getting any help from third party regeneration bodies or quangos; public sector cuts mean they are falling by the wayside. 

Above is a model of what the Croydon proposals looked like back in 2008.

Formally known as Kew HQ (and the Scottish Widows site before that) this site to the north west of Kew Bridge has been the subject of numerous blogs, most of which charted the rise and eventual fall of the Eco-village which appeared on the site last year. However, last time I bloged about it site preparation was underway. I passed it yesterday and...

...the pile drivers are in, construction proper is underway. And when complete it's going to look something like this:

More details here.