October 2009 Archives

Lord Chancellor Jack Straw certainly made an impression on a visit to the West Mids yesterday, but I'm not sure he made many friends.

Property bods at the Financing Recovery conference at Aston University were hoping that the former Home Secretary might tip them the wink on whether the planned exodus of the Ministry of Justice from London might eventually lead to Birmingham. They were disappointed. Not only did Mr Straw not give anything away on the potential relocation of up to 6,000 jobs, he went on to berate the region's "relatively weak" skill levels, commenting: "It is telling that during this recession people with no qualifications have seen a 5.8 percentage point rise in their unemployment rate, compared to 2.9 per cent for those with any level of qualification." 

Hungry shoppers at Westfield's Merry Hill shopping centre in Dudley, West Midlands need starve no more, as the Australian retail giant has just opened its £24m Eat Central foodcourt within the centre - just in time for the Christmas rush... (fingers crossed).

Yes, fast food heavyweights and restaurants including: KFC, Burger King, Nandos, and Subway have opened outlets to feed the masses.

And who better to open the new foodcourt than celebrity chef James Martin?

Cynics out there may say that it is a tad ironic that the star of BBC1's Saturday Kitchen - who regularly urges viewers to shun unhealthy takeaways, to cook their own healthy meals at home instead - was the star attraction at the opening of the new foodcourt which will house 16 eateries... hmmn...

Norseman Investment's managing director Duncan Ashby has voiced his "disappointment" over plans for the mammoth One Derby development being put on hold.

Derby's largest ever city centre development has been mothballed due to a dispute over a section 106 payment. I spoke to Duncan following the news breaking on Monday and he said: "It was disappointing, especially as we had an independent assessment carried out which backed up our proposals."

The disagreement centres around the local council demanding that developer Norseman pays a £900,000 contribution towards infrastructure, however Norseman is offering just £300,000, which the authority claims is far too low.

This week we're looking at all things West Mids in Focus. How exciting!

Sentiment Survey: Hoorah! Birmingham agents are starting to feel a tad more positive than they did back in January of this year. While the market is still undoubtedly subdued, things are actually happening at last. Last week's announcement from Cushman & Wakefield that Birmingham has officially reclaimed its title of England's second city from Manchester in C&W's European Cities Monitor was a much needed and welcome boost to the city. This news followed on from the Office of Legal's Complaint's confirmation (within a week of my exclusive news story) that it is to relocate its headquarter's to Birmingham (possibly at Targetfollow's Baskerville House). Happy days...well almost. Read Stacey Meadwell's article tomorrow for more...

Profile - Coventry Council leader Ken Taylor:  I took myself off to Coventry recently to catch up with Coventry Council's grand fromage and a switched on chap he is too. Taylor comes from a private sector background and definitely has an open door policy when it comes to developers wants and needs.

What they did next..? Unfortunately we probably all know at least one person who has been a casualty of this recession, Nadia Elghamry catches up with four survivors to see how their lives have changed since being made redundant.

Olympic Legacy: How is the region gearing up to make the most of the 2012 Olympic Games legacy? Not terribly well, when it comes to hard physical regeneration, is the disappointing answer to that question. Oh dear.

Market Overview: Daniel Cunningham takes a look at office rents and incentives in Birmingham,as well as the region's shed sector which apparently is down, but not out.. Meanwhile, a strategic rethink is taking place in Coventry regarding its £1bn retail-led city centre revamp and Multi Development UK is still looking for funding for its £300m Summer Row retail scheme in Wolverhampton. Fingers crossed chaps.

Public sector funding cuts: David Thame talks to regeneration professionals who seem surprisingly relaxed about public sector spending cuts across the West Midlands. Hmmn...

Birmingham reception: Brum property folk were out in force last month to join the EG team for a well earned drink and swap some serious market intelligence at the city's favourite agent haunt Metro Bar & Grill.

And if that's not enough for you this week's Focus also takes a look at the M25 North.

If you've been following the serial ducking and divings of former Channel 4 Secret Millionaire, East Midlands-based Chek Whyte, [see this blog passim], you'll know that the rags-to-riches property developer seems to have struck a deal to shake off his second bankruptcy in 10 years [Egi News 08/10/09].

Naturally I sympathise with his creditors, it is a difficult situation for anyone to be in and Whyte has left a trail of angry creditors behind him. 

He has however, also proved to be a canny operator over the years and is obviously incredibly resilient. One East Midlands market observer, who wished to remain nameless, said today: "We're not at all surprised to read the headlines."

If, with bankruptcy behind him, Whyte ends up bouncing back it should not really be a surprise. Although his promise to be on site next year with a major office redevelopment in Nottingham does seems slightly far fetched...

Last week the Estates Gazette team went north of the border when the EG roadshow rolled into Glasgow on Thursday night.

A host of key Scottish property players turned out for a most enjoyable evening at Private Members venue, the Supper Club at 29 Exchange Square, which saw the EG editorial team launch the Glasgow Focus synopsis ahead of the feature's publication on 28th November.

I was happy to talk all things offices to those that came along, and if you feel that you'd also like to take part in feature, please feel free to get in touch with myself or any of the other writers via email or phone and let us know your thoughts on the market.

I've added in the synopsis below for an 'at a glance' reference on who's writing what. Writer's deadline is 30th October.

For all the photos and a report from our Glasgow reception last week click here to go to the Focus blog

ESTATES GAZETTE GLASGOW FOCUS

PUBLISHED 28 NOVEMBER 2009

 Offices

Analysis of future trends and issues

Contact: Lisa Pilkington, Midlands editor, 07771 673 458, lisa.pilkington@rbi.co.uk

Public sector

A look the implications of spending cuts

Contact: Bridget O'Connell, deputy news editor, 020 7911 1755, bridget.oconnell@rbi.co.uk

Retail

Analysis for future trends and issues

Contact: Stacey Meadwell, Focus editor, 020 7911 1819, stacey.meadwell@rbi.co.uk

Industrial

Analysis of future trends and issues

Contact: Melanie Smith, Focus editorial assistant, 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk

Deadline for receipt of editorial information is Monday 26 October 2009

Finally! A research report tells us something that we in the West Midlands have known for a while now: Birmingham is second only to London. Hardly a month goes by without an official survey informing us that Manchester, Leeds or Accrington Stanley (probably) is better than Brum at rent review compliance, pogo-stick jumping or similar.

So it's heartening (though, let's face it, about time) to see the results of Cushman's latest European Cities Monitor published today which rates Birmingham as the best place to do business in the UK outside London.

And there's more: Birmingham is the best performing city in this year's survey (having risen further than any other European city) and is ranked by the 'European corporate community' as having the best value for money office space - though this is an accolade shared jointly with Leeds (you may choose to ignore that last bit!)

Well done Brum, you're back in your rightful place...

Focus heads to the region over the next few weeks and the feature will cover the key markets of Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln and Northampton. So if these are you areas of interest please feel free to get in touch with either myself or the writers, we'd love to hear from you.

Oh, and while we're talking about all things East Mids, please do take five minutes to fill in our sentiment survey, we want to see if people are feeling any more positive than when we last quizzed them in May..?

EAST MIDLANDS FOCUS
 PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 7, 2009

Sentiment Survey
An update on the Sentiment Survey carried out in May this year tracking sentiment about the property market and wider economy. To take part in the survey click here. The survey is anonymous and takes about 5 minutes. If you wish to send an attributable quote on issues raised in the survey for possible inclusion please contact:
Lisa Pilkington, Midlands editor, 07771 673 458, Lisa.pilkington@rbi.co.uk

Market round up
Investigation of the office, retail and industrial markets across the county, and what can local property people expect looking to the future?
Contact:  Elaine Cavanagh, freelancer 01225 444 875, Elaine@jackcav.freeserve.co.uk

 Deadline for receipt of editorial information is 12 October, 2009