Posted on January 27, 2012 by Rob Powell
SERVICED office provider i2 Office has announce yet another new business centre – this time in Watford.
The Milton-Keynes based company is showing no signs of slowing down as it announces the deal just weeks after new business centres were announced in the City of London and Manchester, and the Greenwich centre has just opened for business.
The Watford business centre will be based at Meridien House adjacent to Watford Junction station and fitting out is already under way.
Philip Grace, CEO of i2 Office, said: “Watford is an important business centre for the North of London and our new business centre will be perfectly located for rail and road access.”
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Posted on January 24, 2012 by Rob Powell
DAVID CAMERON has announced a new campaign to inspire entrepreneurs including an initiative to make available spare government office space.
The Prime Minister launched the ‘Business in You’ campaign yesterday in Yorkshire, and told invited business people that he wanted to offer unused government office space to start up businesses.
“It’s a very simple, very practical idea. It’s about using the spare space that we have in the public sector to help businesses to grow in the private sector.”
The ‘Business in You’ scheme is a partnership between the government and organisations such as Startup Britain, the CBI and the Federation of Small Businesses. A new website provides startup success stories and aims to put entrepreneurs in touch with business mentors.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that the government owns hundreds of offices around the country that are not being used.
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Posted on January 16, 2012 by Rob Powell
AN ALLEGED burglar dropped his iPod after breaking into an office – giving police a vital clue.
Local police found the iPod Touch after the intruder was disturbed by security guards at the office in the City of London, early in September 2011.
He fled the scene but police found a photo of a man (pictured below) on the device and believe identifying him may help solve the crime.
DC Siân Astley, of the City of London Police, said: “Initial enquiries have failed to lead us to the person responsible for this break-in.
“I believe discovering the identity of the man in this photograph may prove vital to solving this crime.”
Anyone with information should call DC Siân Astley on 020 7601 2690
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Posted on January 13, 2012 by Rob Powell
SERVICED office provider i2 Office has announced its third business centre in the City of London.
The new offices will be on the ground and first floors of 40 Gracechurch Street, right in the heart of the financial district.
Philip Grace, CEO of i2 Office, commented: “Gracechurch Street will be a welcome addition to our nationwide network and further strengthens our London City offer. We have seen high demand for our other centres in London, most recently with Aldersgate, filling up rapidly; we anticipate strong interest in Gracechurch Street.”
i2 Office’s existing serviced offices in the City of London are in Aldersgate and Lloyds Avenue.
The fast-growing company has just opened a business centre in Greenwich, south-east London, and announced a new one in Manchester city centre.
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Posted on January 13, 2012 by Rob Powell
HUNDREDS of offices owned by the government around the UK are lying empty, new data has revealed.
The Cabinet Office has published for the first time a comprehensive list of the government’s property assets, with over six hundred properties currently vacant.
A “computer control” room in Crewe has lain empty since the last century – having become vacant in 1999. Almost 800 square metres of office space with an acre of land in Buckinghamshire has gone unused for a decade.
Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said:
“We are getting a grip on the Government estate – introducing greater transparency has not only shown the true scale of what we own or lease, it has enabled us to see the scope for savings and to push ahead with making them. In our determination to find savings for taxpayers, we have introduced tight controls and saved over £100 million in the first nine months of this financial year.”
“We expect even greater savings by the end of this Parliament, as we make better use of space and put an end to the days where the government estate was bigger, inefficient and went without scrutiny. Governments will always need property, but it can only be right that the public can see what property is held and how efficiently it is being used.”
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Posted on January 9, 2012 by Rob Powell
PROTESTERS from the Occupy movement have taken over an office building in Liverpool city centre.
Around 20 demonstrators who had been camped on St George’s Plateau took over the Tinlings building and aim to stay there “as long as possible”, according to the BBC.
The Liverpool Echo reported that the police had become involved in a stand-off with the anti-capitalism protestors in the former council offices.
The occupation mimics action taken by other Occupy protestors. Late last year, protestors took over a former UBS building near the City of London and turned it into the Bank of Ideas.
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Posted on January 6, 2012 by Rob Powell
Milton Keynes-based serviced office provider i2 Office is just about to open its brand new business centre in Greenwich, south-east London. Offices.org.uk went to visit the new offices and spoke to i2 Office’s Chief Executive, Philip Grace.
“It’s like a breath of fresh air,” he says as he shows off the newly fitted out 8th floor offices that are just a stone’s throw from The O2, formerly known as the Millennium Dome. “The sky seems higher in Greenwich, because you have got so much space,” he adds.
It’s a big year for Greenwich, with royal status being bestowed on it by the Queen, the reopening of the Cutty Sark and the Olympics coming to town in the summer, but what is it that sold SE10 to i2 Office?
“I think the opportunity to trail-blaze and have a serviced office in this location appealed because there are a number of serviced offices in Canary Wharf but by coming here, we are not competing head to head with Canada Tower and we’re able to deliver in an environment which is slightly different.
“It feels energising because you’ve got the O2 arena and you’ve got the things that are happening here like the Emirates Airline [cable car across the Thames] and you’ve got people going to be walking over the O2 [a new visitor attraction being built this year].
“You can’t get that anywhere else in London. And yet, you’re 7-8 minutes from the centre of the City.”
The new offices are in Quintain-owned 6 Mitre Passage on Greenwich Peninsula – a building that was completed several years ago. What’s made now the right time for a business centre to be established there?
“Until now the owners of this building had been trying to rent it on a floor by floor basis. What we know from our background and what we’ve done for so long is that people don’t want to take 10,000 sq ft on traditional rental terms. What people want is a smaller amount of space, maybe a two or three person space or it could be twenty people, but what they want is flexibility.
“Would we have done this back in 2009? Probably not. What’s happened here is that the area has started to mature. We believe we have come in here just at the right time. Early enough to capture some Olympic activity and the buzz surrounding that but at a point when the local area is maturing as well.
Financial experts are predicting a gloomy year ahead for the economy. Does he think there will be enough interest in somewhere like Greenwich for a business centre?
“In times of economic disarray – we’ve been in a recession for sometime despite what people say – new companies will form. People who had worked in the public sector will take their packages and start their own businesses. People in the private sector might be forced to change job and decide to create their own business.
“One of the things we are well placed to do is provide a home for those businesses. We intend to work closely with Greenwich Council to encourage not just existing mature businesses but start-ups as well. We’d like to have a mixture of clients: new start ups, established businesses, SMEs and blue chips.
“You have lots of residential developments taking place so lots of people are going to live very close by and we feel that by having a business centre here we’re going to attract people from there, but also we feel that we can attract people coming the other way because of the price.
“There’s a price associated with being across the river in Canary Wharf and there’s an even greater cost associated with being right in the City. This is affordable but you’re not out on a limb.”
Just as the final fit-out is being completed at Greenwich, a new business centre from i2 Office is announced in Manchester city centre. Grace explains their plans for continued growth over the next year.
“Our strategy is to have a business centre in each of the major citities throughout the UK. We firmly believe that the world does not stop at Watford. We firmly believe that there is life in provincial cities. Many of my competitors are centric toward London so they will be able to deliver serviced offices in London but then struggle to be able to do that outside of London. We’re trying to join the UK up in terms of providing services in Glasgow, in Manchester, Leeds and London, Watford and Milton Keynes.
“We would like very quickly to have Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham which are three significant cities in the UK in which we’re not currently represented but would like to be.”
As i2 Office speedily develops its presence across the UK, so its “i2 Access” solution is able to offer more value. The new subscription service allows members to turn up at any the company’s centre’s and use the facilities for a set number of days per month.
Grace believes demand for this kind of “workhub” solution is set to grow.
“The way that people now work is that they are very transient. People are no longer tied to a desk and particular location.
“It’s great to think you can come into town and work from one of the coffee chains but its noisy, they play the music too loud and they turf you out if you don’t buy enough coffee. Here, you’re able to work in a professional business environment, meet people such as suppliers or clients, book a meeting room or meet informally in one of our cafes, get a cup of coffee and do it properly rather than trying to do it round the table in a coffee shop.
“I’m a classic example where I dump myself in whichever one of our buildings I happen to be based and I log into our telephones, plug my laptop in and work. It doesn’t matter whether I’m in Glasgow , Milton Keynes or London because the telephony all works and that’s one of the key constituents of i2’s IT offer throughout the UK.”
Grace is proud of the IT offer that the company has, describing it as a “great USP” for the firm.
“One of the areas that my competitors fail in is IT. One of the luxuries that we have is that being a relatively new company, we’re putting IT in from scratch: brand new and state of the art.
“So we will to bring into each of our buildings 100 MB up leased line connectivity, 2mb of diverse routing so we can do things over the internet that many of my competitors can only dream about.
“An example of that might be if a company came to us and said we need 40 MB of leased line connectivity this afternoon, for the afternoon, for a particular project. We could do that. None of my competitors could.
Looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows and admiring the iconic views in every direction – Canary Wharf, the O2, the Olympic stadium, the Thames Barrier, the new cable car and of course, the river itself – it’s easy to see why Grace seems so enthused about the latest addition to the company’s portfolio. With almost 30% of the space let before it’s open, the move to Greenwich looks set to be a successful one, and 2012 looks set to be as busy and frenetic as 2011 was for i2 Office.
Check pricing and availability for office space at i2 Office Greenwich
Views of the O2 from i2 Office Greenwich
Exterior photo of 6 Mitre Passage
Posted in Misc |
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Posted on January 5, 2012 by Rob Powell
Nestlé UK is leaving its long term home in Croydon to set up a new head office in Gatwick.
The confectionery giant is making the 15-mile move after forty-years in Croydon. The company says it tried to redevelop its existing building and looked elsewhere in the town before eventually deciding to look outside of Croydon.
Paul Grimwood, Nestlé UK & Ireland Chairman & CEO said:
“This move represents an exciting new chapter for Nestlé in the UK. We are investing across the UK to establish our next generation of world class facilities. Our new Head Office will provide a modern, efficient and attractive workplace for our people, in an ideal location.”
The company’s relocation of its 840 employees at the head office to 1 City Place, Gatwick, is due to be completed by the end of 2012.
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Posted on December 21, 2011 by Rob Powell
NETWORK Rail has partnered up with a serviced office provider to establish office space at key railway stations.
The joint venture with The Office Group will initially see offices become available at five London train stations.
The first of the “rail hub offices” will be at Paddington where office space for 250 will be available. Network Rail, the owner and operator of the country’s rail infratstructure, will reinvest any profits back into the railway network.
David Biggs, Network Rail’s director of property, said: “We are constantly looking for ways to improve our stations and unlock the potential for commercial revenue that they hold. The network of drop-in office space created through this innovative joint venture will provide a new and convenient service at stations. Passengers are already able to eat, drink and shop at our stations, so it was only logical that we offered them the opportunity to work here too.”
Charlie Green, Co CEO of The Office Group, said: “Opening in mid-2012, this deal has been made with one eye on the busier public transport networks we may see during next year’s 2012 Games. This rail hub office will give employers in Games travel hotspots a place to base their employees during busy periods next summer.”
Since it was formed in 2003, The Office Group has developed a portfolio of 11 businesses centres in London and Bristol.
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Posted on December 6, 2011 by Rob Powell
FAST-GROWING serviced office provider i2 Office has announced a new business centre in central Manchester.
The new offices, the company’s first in the North West, will be set across two floors in the recently completed Chancery Place building.
Philip Grace, CEO of i2 Office, commented: “i2 Office has already expanded its network North and South, from Glasgow to Greenwich, and we are delighted to be adding Manchester to our growing number of centres.
“Manchester is a major business hub for the North of England and our new centre will be perfectly located in the heart of the city’s business centre. We look forward to welcoming our first clients in 2012.”
The BREEAM “Very Good” 14-storey building is in Booth Street, ten minutes’ walk from Manchester Piccadilly railway station. The new business centre is due to open early in 2012.
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