Posted on May 26, 2011 by John Cronin
Bradford City Football Club has purchased an office block adjacent to their stadium in an attempt to reduce rental expenditure.
Bradford City have announced that a deal to purchase the office block (pictured) that the club occupies next door to the Valley Parade ground has been secured with owners Prudential Property Investment Managers (Prupim). The purchase price has not been disclosed.
The football club, which is in poor financial health, rents the office block along with the stadium for an annual rental of approximately £1.3m, with the offices costing £370,000. Fans feared that the club might have to enter a ground-share agreement with the Bradford Bulls Rugby Club in order to reduce expenditure.
The football club will now not have to pay the rental on the office space it uses for ticket sales and administration. Having purchased the offices, known as Bantams Business Centre, club owner Mark Lawn hopes more local businesses will support the club by taking floor space at the building.
Commenting on the deal, Mr Lawn said: “I’d be keen now to talk to all the businesses around Bradford. I’d say to them ‘if you’ve got an office space in Bradford, come and talk to us and we can get you an office in our Bantams Business Centre'”.
The business centre offers fully-serviced offices, available from single workstations upwards. There is a staffed reception area and conference facilities are also available. Rental prices of £85 / week for a 218 sq ft office suite have been previously quoted.
Posted in West Yorkshire |
Tagged Rental Prices, Serviced Offices, Transactions |
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Posted on May 26, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
According to the official Apprentice twitter profile, tonight’s episode would see “the teams attempt to sell beauty products, fake tans and treatments to punters in Birmingham.” For those of you who don’t speak fluent TV, this basically translates as “thirteen jobless fools rub warm shells and cold gravy over the unwary of Birmingham.” That’s right; it’s a health and beauty trial.
“It’s about you providing your own salary,” nasals Lord Sugar over the opening credits. Provide your own salary? Is Lord Sugarbage actually just looking for an intern? Because there are easier ways of doing that, you know.
At his usual ungodly hour, the Suganator calls the contestants to a meeting at The British Museum. I suppose that in the context of the raping and pillaging of thousands of years worth of civilisation, his approach to recruitment will seem slightly more humane.
“What’s in the British Museum? Just like dinosaurs and stuff” asks Susan. Oh come on. This is like shooting fish in a soup bowl.
Standing in front of Aphrodite, goddess of youth and beauty is that epitome of physical allure, Lord Alanother Sugargantuan Tool. He is here to inform the teams that, this week, they are to choose two beauty treatments, get professionally trained and then descend on Birmingham to try a bit of mugging-by-proxy.
Birmingham? The words ‘bull’ and ‘ring’ bring to mind several things. Absolutely none of them even remotely resemble beauty.
The teams are once again jiggled around like unwanted puppies in a wet sack. Team Venture, led by Zoe, contains Susan, Shrek, Orblando Baggins and Edna. Oh, and that mute brunette again, whoever she is. Actually, who is she, and why is she dressed like a synchronised swimmer in a wool coat?
Team Logic, made up of Gaston Disney, Greyhound Jim, spectacled Tom and Moonwalking Melody, is led by Felicity – of top hat haggling fame.
So, how do the contestants feel about selling beauty to Brum? “I’m not what you’d call a polished girl” says matt-look construction worker Ellie. Never mind, Ells – maybe we can give you a quick going over with an industrial sander. That should bring out your natural shine. Vince, on the other hand, is like a pig in tinted shit, described by his colleagues as the show’s “most feminine man.”
With the teams selected, it’s time to trial those products. Tom is invited to lie down on a bed and put on blackface. Oh no, sorry, that’s a chocolate facial. Of course. That makes complete sense. Painting chocolate on your face. I, for one, moisturise using only mayonnaise and bread sauce.
Both teams rattle through blow dries, mud wraps, man make up, spray tans, hot shells and an unholy clip-on fringe wig called a ‘winge’. Or ‘forehead merkin’ if you prefer. Then Glenn attacks Susan’s face with a burning hot dildo. No idea why.
On team Venture, Zoe appears to have been mainlining temazepam. That, or she is now acting as a spiritualist medium for Rocky Balboa.
Once they’re in to their shopping centres, do both teams fly in to a flurry of activity? Of course they don’t. Although Zoe is rubbing cold clay in to the cankles of Birmingham’s Pat Butcher. Lucky girl.
In her treatment room, Helen orders her customer to, “Start with your arms up, like strong man” as she fiddles around on the floor with a reverse-hoover full of Bovril. I’m sure that wouldn’t be awkward at all.
Despite her repeated, and I mean repeated, assertions that she makes her living from selling skin and beauty treatments, Susan seems about as adept at selling tanning lotion as Boris Johnson is at selling Speedos. “If you set yourself up for something you’re not, then you’re heading for a big fall,” says Karen. This sounds impressive, until you remember that this is the very woman who sets a talking tortoise up as one of Britain’s most impressive entrepreneurs.
For team Venture, Leon has resorted to lassoing passing women with his penis. Sorry, I mean finger.
Amazingly, over at Team Logic, two men have taken up the offer of a free massage and chance to get on telly. Unfortunately for them, they are greeted by Jim, who gives them the wild-eyed stare of a greyhound in a glue factory.
All in all, winges are sold, hot shells are rubbed over water-skiing geriatrics, bows are bought and fake tan is sploshed around like gin at a royal wedding. Can you imagine the sodium glow that came off Birmingham 12 hours after this bunch of jokers fled the city? It must have looked like a Dorito with motorways.
Back in the boardroom, Lord Sugaga tells his assembled disciples that, if he hadn’t made his fortune selling coal-powered computers, he would have gone in to the beauty industry. What as? A toe separator?
It’s time for the final figures. Venture managed to make £203 profit, while those Logical masterminds pulled off a stunning £246 loss. Bang.
So the winners go off to dance with the stars of Strictly Come Dancing. Dining with Masterchef and dancing with Strictly? If only there were something – say a national television network – that linked all these prizes together. Ah well.
Over in Café de Despair, blame is passed around like a used wet wipe, with Melody and Ellie accusing Felicity of treating them like the mad women in Jane Eyre’s attic.
“Every single one of you should have said ‘what is going on?’” Lord Sugar tells the losing team. He’s quite right. They should have said “What’s going on? Why have I quit my job to rub hot shells over old ladies and sell face merkins to complete strangers?”
“If that were me, I’d be shaking my colleagues around the neck.” He really does sound like the dream boss, doesn’t he?
For the final three, Felicity brings back Ellie and Natasha. “I was sweating all day,” screeches Ellie in her defence. Good idea. That’s what I want in a business partner – perspiration. Although, amazingly it works, as it is pearly-eared Felicity who is given the boot by His Royal Sugarcubes. One more contestant for the dole queue.
Finally, may I just say how astonished I am that it’s taken me twelve episodes to notice that Lord Sugar’s hairline is a perfect recreation of the batman symbol? God knows what I’ve been looking at all this time, but now I’ve noticed I can’t tear my eyes away. And neither, I’ll wager, can you.
Posted in Misc |
Tagged Apprentice Blog |
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Posted on May 25, 2011 by John Cronin
An award-winning office scheme in the heart of London has been purchased by Invesco Real Estate in a multi-million pound transaction announced yesterday.
The Invesco Real Estate property fund has paid £141.5m for the striking office scheme at One Finsbury Circus, London EC2.
The Grade II* Listed building (pictured – website), originally designed by famed architect Lutyens, is a multi-let office scheme offering 187,000 sq ft of prime, Grade A space over 11 floors.
In 2009 the office conversion was awarded the annual Heritage Award by the City Heritage Society and the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers. The scheme was also shortlisted for a British Council of Offices award in the same year.
The offices were once the former City headquarters of BP and were known as Britannic House. BP occupied the offices twice, spanning the periods 1925 – 1967 and 1991 – 2003. Law firm Stephenson Harwood is now the significant tenant having relocated to the building from its One St Paul’s Churchyard offices last month. The firm agreed to (subscription) a 15-year lease for 132,000 sq ft of floor space over 8 floors. A rental price of approximately £35 / sq ft was agreed although incentives were included.
In 2009 professional services group Alvarez & Marsal agreed to a 10-year lease for 22,600 sq ft of floor space. The agreed rental price was £47.50 sq ft and included a 33-month rent free period (pdf link).
Vendors Hermes Real Estate and Property Merchant Group had previously acquired One Finsbury Circus in 2005 for £165m and invested over £30m in an extensive renovation programme.
Knight Frank represented Invesco. GM Real Estate acted for the vendors.
Posted in London |
Tagged Awards, Listed Buildings, Renovations, Transactions |
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Posted on May 24, 2011 by John Cronin
Offices designed for Wiltshire Council have won a second design award this month.
The Bourne Hill Offices scheme (pictured) in Salisbury has just been awarded a British Council for Offices (BCO) regional award for best ‘Refurbished/Recycled Workplace’. This follows the architecture award given to the scheme by RIBA earlier in May.
The council offices, designed by architects Stanton Williams, are a combination of an existing Grade II* Listed mansion and new, low-energy office accommodation. The offices have achieved a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.
Lead contractors for the £15.8m scheme were Morgan Sindall and the project was completed in August 2010. The offices were officially opened in March by the Countess of Wessex. The existing mansion and gardens are used for various activities including weddings and ceremonies. The office space, amounting to approximately 28,000 sq ft spread over 3 floors, is now home to 500 Wiltshire Council staff. Council staff have now relocated from 11 existing Salisbury offices.
The scheme was originally proposed by the council who argued that a reduction in the number of council offices and a move to an energy-efficient building would be cost effective in the long term. The council also suggested that one larger, eco-friendly office building would reduce their carbon footprint.
However, the scheme was not without its critics when the plans were voted on in 2006. A 2,000-strong petition against the development was presented to the council and around 50 residents protested outside the council meeting. Ruth Kelly, then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, approved the scheme as did the Audit Commission and English Heritage.
Posted in Wiltshire |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Public Sector, Renovations |
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Posted on May 23, 2011 by John Cronin
Property developers have purchased land at a strategic business park in Liverpool and plan to construct new office buildings.
Centric Property Group (Centric) has acquired a 4.6 acre site at Estuary Commerce Park, South Liverpool (pictured). Centric has purchased the land for approximately £1m and plan to spend £6m on a speculative, 86,000 sq ft development of Grade A offices and warehousing.
The new development, for which a planning application has already been submitted, is to be known as Estuary Banks. Centric has secured over £2.5m in development funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Centric are to work alongside lead construction company Barnfield Construction. Both companies are already working in partnership on the forthcoming Crown Business Park in Rochdale.
Estuary Commerce Park is a large, flagship business park located next to Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Tenants include Shop Direct Group, Lloyds Banking Group, DHL and the National Blood Centre.
Centric aim to market the new office buildings at the bio-pharmaceutical and knowledge sectors. The speculative scheme will compete for tenants with the nearby Liverpool Science Centre that launched in February. Construction is scheduled to start later in 2011 and the planned, energy-efficient buildings are expected to achieve BREEAM ratings of ‘Excellent’.
Commenting on the land sale, Mark Coulthurst, of Mason Owen’s Business Premises team, who acted on behalf of vendors Liverpool Vision, said: “In these difficult economic times it is a breath of fresh air to find somebody prepared to speculatively develop commercial property. This will be a major boost for the South Liverpool area and we are confident that the quality of the product will generate great demand in the area.”
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Business Parks, Speculative Developments, Transactions |
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Posted on May 20, 2011 by John Cronin
Further lettings have been secured at a large business park in Portsmouth.
Commercial property specialist Highcross has announced further lettings at their Lakeside North Harbour Business Park in Portsmouth.
Since the start of the year lettings have been agreed on 70,000 sq ft of office space with a further 30,000 sq ft of floor space currently under offer. When agreed, these lettings will take the occupancy rate of the 1000 Lakeside building (pictured) up to 65%, with 85,000 sq ft remaining. Leases agreed at the speculative scheme account for 50% of the total office take-up in the Solent region in 2011.
Quoted rental prices at the scheme are from £16 / sq ft plus a service charge of £4.24 / sq ft. Various sizes of flexible office suites are available, starting at around 2,000 sq ft. A Regus business centre is also onsite, offering serviced office facilities. Incentives are available for prospective tenants, including rent-free periods.
Highcross has just agreed a letting of 54,000 sq ft on the 1st floor of the 4-storey building to an unnamed company. This letting surpasses what was the largest Hampshire office letting in 2011 at the Solent Business Park. Other recent tenants include The Southern Co-operative and Path Intelligence who leased 15,300 sq ft and 4,200 sq ft respectively.
Commenting on the latest lettings, Highcross director, Nick Turner, said: “These lettings secure Lakeside’s reputation as a leading location for business and demonstrate the range of high quality space available to companies employing from 10 to 300 staff.”
Marketing agents for 1000 Lakeside are Hughes Ellard and Vail Williams.
Posted in Hampshire |
Tagged Business Parks, Rental Prices, Serviced Offices |
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Posted on May 19, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
“Do you have the balls to actually smell what’s going on in business”, asks Lord Sugar as a parade of polyester, spray tans and cufflinks flap across the opening credits. I have no idea what this phrase actually means, but it has given me a rather unsavoury image involving mozzarella, jock straps, wheelie chairs and a nailbrush.
As we enter episode three of The Apprentice there are fourteen candidates left. For one job. Hold on. Fourteen people for one job? Six hundred people applied to work in the Helston branch of Tescos last November. Are we sure this show is as competitive as they make out?
As usual, Lord Sugar Ray Slobinson has woken up in the night for a pee and decided to ring the housemates. Poor thing; he must be getting lonely. Having made sure that no-one will have their judgement impaired by a decent night’s sleep, Lord Alan orders them all to the Savoy. Glenn is putting on deodorant and Natasha can’t find her knickers. I can’t help but think there’s more going on here than the cameras are allowed to show.
Anyway, the taxis are here and it’s time to, in the words of Roxy Music, do the Strand and, in the words of Louis Armstrong, stomp down to the Savoy. “There is no option but to win” says Vincent, who has woefully misunderstood the rules of this competition. Unless that is the Belgian pronunciation of ‘whine’.
The Savoy Hotel looks like a Dubai public toilet, as designed by Michael Jackson and decorated by Jackie Collins. However, according to the manager, there are still things left to buy. If it’s yet more marble tiling and gold-effect souvenirs then there’s a wholesale furniture outlet in Walthamstow that I think would be right up their alley. It’s called Elegant Interiors and has a bronze tiger coffee table in the window.
Like teenagers at a school disco, the teams are then shuffled in to a mix of boys and girls.
Susan, Dildo Baggins, Gollum Glenn and Felicity are in Team Venture. As is an extremely thin woman, dressed as Pavaroti (white cravat and all) who I swear to god, I’ve never seen before in my life. Susan is elected team leader, which may seem a good idea until you realise that, as a dealer in organic skin care, this is a woman who will pay £120 to rub tree sap in to her face.
Over in team Logic, a.k.a Team Spectacles, scouser Gavin is chosen to lead Commando Zoe, the Emerald arse Jim Eastwood, Vincent “Gaston” Dinosaur and Tom Pellerau, who appears to be wearing his dad’s glasses.
As this is a shopping list episode, the teams will have to spend other people’s money on an eclectic range of goods, including 52,000 pieces of cutlery, a top hat and 2,000 uniforms. Good training if any of them ever fancy becoming MPs then.
Sadly, Logic’s Gavin Winstanley is having trouble recognising a couple of things on the list. “There are a few items I have no clue what they are like… ice.” Well, you know what they say; the sun always shines in Liverpool.
Luckily, Natasha has had the blinding idea of phoning up another hotel and asking for all the answers. This is like when the school bully told me to give her my homework or she’d phlegm in my bag; I can’t decide whether to be disappointed that she’s cheating, or impressed by her sheer tenacity.
Over on Team Venture – which is very nearly an anagram of Ever Mutant, by the way – Orlando Bloom/ Dildo Baggins is trying to buy a top hat for a fiver. Sadly, he has gone to one of the most expensive milliners in London. This, as Nick is so keen to point out, is the place where the King of Tonga comes to buy his headwear. Whatever the hell that means.
As we all know, if you need a top hat quickly and cheaply, you just mug a goth. Or Jethro Tull.
In an equally expensive, but slightly more cleaver-heavy shop, the ironically-named Team Logic – which is an anagram of Atomic Leg, by the way – Jim Eastwood is haggling over meat. Now, The Apprentice goes to Smithfield every other ruddy episode. So why, the one time they actually have to buy meat, they go to Mayfair instead is beyond me.
But back to those mystery items. Because The Apprentice is basically the Virgin Trains of business-orientated telly, absolutely nobody seems able to access the internet. That’s right. Not a single person manages to jab the word cloche in to Google. So, instead we are regaled with questions like, “Where might we find a 10-inch bell in London?” Go to Soho and ask for Jumbo Jim? Just a thought.
Of course, the absolute hero of the episode is the ball-breaking fabric salesperson who treats the request for cheap organza silk with all the enthusiasm of someone offered an orgasm with Robert Kilroy-Silk.
Like any sane-minded shopper, by 4.30pm Team Logic are looking for a cup of tea. Camomile tea, specifically. Sadly, the box they’ve found is £990 and being sold to them by Mrs Smugpants – a representative from the Planet Retro. I know how they feel – I once paid £3.25 for a cup of tea and a Bounty in a Little Chef off the A30. Sigh.
So, as the shopping frenzy comes to a close, the teams return with their wares. A top hat, 500 loo rolls, half a cow and some camomile tea? Either the Savoy is preparing for some sort of aristocratic apocalypse or they’ve signed up to the most extreme series of Come Dine With Me to date.
Back in the boardroom the results are closer than Sir Alanstrad’s eyebrows, but Logic take it by just £8. To celebrate, the winners are taken to a ‘burlesque cocktail bar’. A post-work trip to watch semi-naked women swing their nadgers around as you get drunk on overly sticky drinks? Wow, The Apprentice contestants are finally acting like high-ranking business men. I just hope they don’t get a pube in their daiquiris.
Back in the boardroom, the losers are accused of “three hours of pontificating.” I mean really – in that time S’r’Alan could have fired up the AmstradB00B and applied a tanning wipe. These chumps really are wasting his time.
Gavin takes Vincent and Zoe back in with him for the final three. “If I see things going wrong, if the ship’s sinking, I bloody jump in there myself,” divulges Lord Sugarlumps. Oh how, I’d love to put them all in a leaky boat and see who jumps first.
“I know you’re Belgian. That’s where the waffles come from.” Lord Sugar hits Vincent with one of his trademark zingers. Or, should that be zingeurs. So, are we about to lose the axe-nosed, mock-Madeley, Disney man himself?
Thankfully, no. Gavin is given the boot instead. And rightly so. The man doesn’t know what ice is, for chrissakes.
Posted in Misc |
Tagged Apprentice Blog |
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Posted on May 19, 2011 by John Cronin
Internet search giant Google has agreed to lease offices at a landmark building in London.
Google UK has agreed to a 10-year lease for 160,000 sq ft of floor space at Legal & General Property and Mitsubishi Estate Company’s Central Saint Giles Development (pictured – website).
Google is taking the entire 4th, 5th, and 9th floors and part of the 3rd and 6th floors within the mixed-use, 12-storey building. The Central Saint Giles scheme offers residential apartments coupled with 408,000 sq ft of Grade A office space and ground-floor retail units. Rental prices have not been disclosed but market reports suggest that a figure of around £65 / sq ft has been agreed.
Legal & General have confirmed that the office space within the building is now fully let. The first tenant, media company Mindshare took 78,000 sq ft last October. The colourful building, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, offers large floor plates of approximately 43,000 sq ft and has a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.
Google is expected to continue to search for additional office space within London as it continues to recruit staff. The company already leases floor space at Belgrave House, Buckingham Palace Road. The offices hit the headlines in 2009 when a lunchtime barbecue got out of control and the fire brigade had to be called out. Google has recently commissioned a striking interior fit-out at the offices.
Commenting on the deal, Matt Brittin, MD of Google UK, said: “This is a fabulous building and we’ll be working hard over the next few months to fit it out in Google style, ready for some of our teams to move later in the year”.
Posted in London |
Tagged Rental Prices, Transactions |
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Posted on May 18, 2011 by John Cronin
A wealth management company is the latest tenant to take floor space in a prime Liverpool office building.
Cheviot Asset Management has signed a 10-year lease for floor space at 5 St Paul’s Square (pictured – website) in the commercial district of Liverpool city centre. Cheviot has taken 2,900 sq ft at a rental price of £18.50/sq ft, which is a slight discount to the quoted headline rental of £19 / sq ft.
St Paul’s Square is a mixed-use development amounting to 400,000 sq ft and includes offices, residential and retail space. Number 5 St Paul’s Square is a speculative development funded by a joint venture between Standard Life Investments and developer English Cities Fund. Other tenants include law firm DWF and commercial surveyor Edward Symmons.
Number 5, constructed during phase 2 of the St Paul’s Square development, offers 133,000 sq ft of Grade A floor space over 8 storeys. Largest floor plates are approximately 20,300 sq ft. The building was completed in June 2008 and had a development cost of £20m. The building has achieved a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’. Architects for the building were RHWL.
Commenting on the letting, Max Steinberg, chief executive of economic development agency Liverpool Vision, said: “We are delighted that Liverpool continues to attract businesses of this calibre … Cheviot’s location in St Paul’s Square is also a welcome endorsement of this new Grade A office space and underlines how vibrant and attractive Liverpool’s Commercial District is.”
The final phase of the project is Number 4, St Paul’s Square, an 8-storey 109,000 sq ft office building. Scheduled for completion in summer 2011, the speculative scheme will be the first office building in Merseyside to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’. Developers ECF successfully secured £8.8m of public funding for the development from both the Northwest Development Agency and the Northwest European Regional Development Fund.
Marketing agents include CBRE.
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Rental Prices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on May 17, 2011 by John Cronin
Investment managers Rathbones have announced plans to relocate offices in London.
Rathbones, a publicly-listed company, has announced that it has agreed a 12-year lease on 42,200 sq ft of office space on the 3rd and 4th floors of No 1 Curzon Street, London W1.
The agreed rental price for the prestigious Mayfair offices has not been disclosed, but is expected to be high. Offices in nearby Savile Row were recently let at rental prices just under £100/ sq ft.
Agents DTZ are marketing a 13,430 sq ft lower-ground office suite within the building at a quoted rental price of £35 / sq ft plus rates of £13 / sq ft and service charges of £12.88 / sq ft.
Rathbones has indicated that it expects the relocation from its current New Bond Street offices to be completed by February 2012. The company expects the move will result in non-recurring charges of up to £5 million.
One Curzon Street was a speculative development, completed by Development Securities in 1998 at a cost of £180m. The building is now owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family, who purchased the building in 2005 for around £280m. The 215,000 sq ft building is occupied by investment and hedge-fund management companies, including an off-shoot of AIG that was considered to be at the centre of the 2008 financial crisis.
Commenting on the office relocation, Andy Pomfret, Rathbones CEO, said (pdf link): “The move to No 1 Curzon Street not only keeps Rathbones in the heart of Mayfair, but also increases our effective space in London by around 10%, through a combination of a larger and more efficient floor plan than our existing offices, without a material increase in the ongoing cost base.”
Posted in London |
Tagged Rental Prices, Transactions |
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