Posted on May 16, 2011 by John Cronin
A landmark office building in Durham could be redeveloped as it nears the end of its working life.
The Milburngate House (pictured) office building on a key site in Durham City Centre is set become unoccupied as current tenants the Identity and Passport Service and the Department of National Savings and Investments plan to relocate to other offices in Durham.
The future of the building is to be discussed during a 2-day public consultation later this week. The building was constructed in the 1970s and Durham County Council chiefs believe the interior does not suit modern office operational requirements.
Councillor Neil Foster, cabinet member for regeneration at Durham County Council, said: “There is now an opportunity to take this very significant site to the market to see how it can best be redeveloped and have a positive impact on Durham’s city centre’s regeneration.”
The large office block is generally considered as being unattractive and was once described as “an assertive lump of hideous concrete” by architectural historian Alec Clifton Taylor. Architectural and urban design specialists Taylor Young have been commissioned to produce a framework and design brief for the potential redevelopment of Millburngate House. It has not yet been decided if the building will be completely demolished or converted in to more attractive and economic office space.
Office suites within the building ranging in size from 5,200 sq ft – 28,000 sq ft have previously been marketed at headline rental prices of £9.50 / sq ft.
The 2-day public consultation event is being held in the Lantern Room, at Durham Town Hall; Friday, 2pm – 7pm and Saturday 10am – 2pm.
Posted in County Durham |
Tagged Public Sector, Renovations, Rental Prices |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 13, 2011 by John Cronin
A landmark office building in city centre Glasgow is back on the market after a comprehensive refurbishment programme.
Grosvenor Building (pictured – website) in Gordon Street, Glasgow is now actively being marketed as prime office accommodation following a £3m interior refurbishment.
The works have been managed by King Sturge Building Consultancy and undertaken by Ignis Real Estate.
The 7-storey building offers total Grade A office floor space of just over 50,000 sq ft. The offices are being marketed as total floor suites and floor plates range between 8,130 sq ft and 8,585 sq ft. Larger lets of 25,000 sq ft are available as is whole-building, sole occupancy.
The building, originally constructed in 1859, has had something of an unfortunate history with fire. Soon after completion it was burnt down but rebuilt in 1864-66. The building had another fire in 1901 and was rebuilt in 1907. A final fire occurred in 1967. The building was previously used for warehousing and retail units along with a restaurant on the top 2 floors. The building was converted to commercial office space in 1992. Ignis Asset Management purchased the building for £20.25m in 2006.
The office block has been previously occupied by the oil giant Shell, banking group HBOS and solicitors Anderson Fyfe. Rental prices are around £21.50 / sq ft with the 1st and 2nd floors expected to achieve a slight premium due to their larger windows and higher ceiling heights.
Commenting upon the refurbishment, King Sturge Building Consultancy Partner Ken Frew said: “We set out to raise the bar for Glasgow office refurbishments. The specification, finish and attention to detail are on par with many new buildings in the city and we believe that occupiers will be impressed by the quality of the fit-out.”
Joint marketing agents are King Sturge and GVA.
Posted in Glasgow |
Tagged Renovations, Rental Prices |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 12, 2011 by John Cronin
An interior fit-out of a striking office scheme in Glasgow has been recognised at an industry awards event.
At the regional lunch event of the British Council for Offices (BCO), offices within the Capella Building in Glasgow were judged to be the winners of the best fit-out award. Scottish law firm MacRoberts LLP, won the design award for their office interior that was designed by Haa Design. The MacRoberts offices total some 35,000 sq ft of floor space over nearly 4 floors within the Capella Building and Haa designed a colourful and open plan office environment.
The Capella Building (pictured) is a 12-storey office scheme with retail floor space at ground level.
Located within Atlantic Quay, the 110,000 sq ft glass structure is the centrepiece building within the International Financial Services District. The speculative scheme was completed in 2009 at a development cost of £26m.
MacRoberts LLP relocated from existing offices in Glasgow to the Capella Building in June 2010. Commenting ahead of the relocation Michael Murphy, Managing Partner said: “MacRoberts have made a very bold decision to secure what we consider to be the best office location in Glasgow for our business.”
MacRoberts agreed to a 15-year lease. Agreed rental prices have not been disclosed though there has been speculation that rents of around £24 / sq ft were probable.
Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive of the BCO, said: “The competition was fierce, and our winners are truly at the forefront of top quality design and functionality. We’re thrilled that Scotland continues to produce first class workspaces and it’s clear to see that the future is bright for Scottish offices.”
Posted in Glasgow |
Tagged BCO, Rental Prices |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 12, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
It’s episode two and the booming strings of Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights is back in business. Which can only mean one thing; it’s time for The Apprentice contestants to joust to the death, using a ‘smart phone’, riding a noble black cab, wearing a suit of M&S polyester armour.
“If you go sitting in the office for three hours I aint going to be a very happy bunny”. I do wish he’d stop doing that. The vision of Lord Sugartits jumping around the Playboy mansion dressed as a bunny is making my mind turn inside out.
And so, with the initial episode still warm in its grave, we’re on to Episode two. It’s 5am and Lord Sugar has a message. I’m starting to wonder what exactly it is that the Baron of Clapton does between 2am and 9am. Shouldn’t he be hibernating? Or, I don’t know, starring in the opening credits of One Foot in the Grave? Anyway, Lord Sugar wants to pass on some vital business information and what better way than having a house full of half-naked strangers gather around a laptop for a quick blast of Chat Roulette. First up, it’s it’s Lord Sugar.
This week’s task is to make a mobile phone application. “Better known as an app,” for those of you watching this in 1987. The teams have just two days to design and launch this new app. A run-up time so guaranteed to result in a shit product that Apple refused to host them.
The teams are, once again, boys versus girls. If by ‘boys and girls’ we mean ‘thirty-something suburban sociopaths.’ In the back of their taxi – one sadly not driven by a homicidal, gun-toting Robert DeNiro – the boys are spitting lyrics and swapping rhymes on this whole ‘app’ idea.”What an app-ortunity”. “We’re fast app-roaching where we need to be”. “This is app-solutely tremendous.” “Did you have an App-le…?” Oh Vincent . Poor, sweet, copper-coloured Vincent.
With Lord Sugar’s unparalleled reputation for electrical innovation and groundbreaking technology, I assume that the Appstrad1000 will be easily downloadable on to your portable minidisc player using Netscape and a dongle made of cheese.
The first step on this highway to iHell is for each of the boys to pull up a small white pouffe, gather around a doll table and brainstorm: Traffic light? Popping bubble wrap? What the weather was a year ago? Steve Jobs better be taking notes – this shit is dynamite. In the end they go for an app that allows you to insult people in regional slang. And the name for this piece of mobile misanthropy? “Slangatang. That is brilliant.”
Over at the girls’ brainstorm Susan Ma takes what is known as the ‘Ryanair approach’ to making her point – taking several good passes over it, before eventually grinding to a halt 10 miles from anywhere. Fittingly, the girls come up with the idea of marketing the most annoying noises they can. This meeting would make a good start. As would Susan Ma lowing like a cow mid-insemination.
Over in their recording studio the boys have finished scraping the barrel of their impressions and have now set about tunnelling down in to the earth’s mantle. We’ve got a licencious Scouser and a Welsh sheep farmer (who appears to have spent a lot of time in Bangalore).
“It’s sort of bland and meaningless to me.” Yet again, Nick smacks it out of the ballpark.
After those poor designers and programmers have spent the night polishing these turds, the Apps go live, accompanied by plenty of footage of the BT phonetower. Because, you know, what says ‘mobile phone technology’ like a monument to the landline.
Unfortunately, during his sales presentation Vincent goes blanker than Paris Hilton’s CV. Someone must have spiked his foundation.
After a series of stilted, awkward meetings, both teams then head off to a gaming fair. Now, if this were a proper fair Leon would be getting mugged up against a Helter Skelter by an onion-smelling, B&H-smoking 14 year old, while Glenn Ward snogged a fat girl for a bag of candyfloss. In fact, this ‘fair’ appears to be a rally for dexterous virgins.
Edna delivers her speech to the fair attendees in what can best be described as a ‘Valium drone’, wearing a very worrying pair of elbow-length leather gloves, while the boys dress up like a stag party at V Festival.
After those interesting conference gloves I was expecting Edna to at least glide in to the boardroom wearing a gimp mask and fetish hooves. Instead, she settles for silver lipstick and a face like she’s squeezing a cat’s anal gland.
The results are in and the girls’ 24 hour downloads outstrip the boys’ slangeotypes by 6,000. The female of the species, it appears, understands the international language of mewling.
To celebrate the girls head off to dinner with Michel Roux, while Lord Sugaga delivers one of his zingers about how “the next application you’ll be making will be a job application.” Closely followed by the admission that “I’m bored.” Someone needs a biscuit and bit of quiet time on the mat, I think.
After a painful bit of indecision, Leon’s top heavy-face announces that it will be taking Glenn and Alex back in to the boardroom for the final selection. So, it’s between Dobby the House Elf, Orlando Baggins and Marlon Blando.
“If you and I were to go in to my business there would be no bush to hide in,” Alex tells Lord Sugar. I literally have no idea what he’s talking about. I’m just hoping it has nothing to do with bushels or bunnies. Is his bushwhacking enough to save him from the chop? Will his ability with the breadknife save his neck? Of course not – he’s all eyebrow and no bollocks.
Alex: you’re fired.
“You take a situation, learn from it and move on.” Unless, of course, you’re Stuart Baggs.
Posted in Misc |
Tagged Apprentice Blog |
3 Comments
Posted on May 11, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
“It’s the business deal of the decade.” As another hysterical voiceover breaks its broadcasting waters over the feet of business, Series 7 of The Apprentice is born.
“I started a global business, literally with nothing,” squints Melody Hossaini. Ding ding! Nineteen seconds in and already we have an incorrect use of the word ‘literally’. That must surely be a record. Unless, of course, old Melody managed to launch a global business without so much as a telephone, pencil or pair of knickers. Seeing as she’s been working with “over 12 Nobel prize winners in over 100 countries” let’s all just pray that, by now, she’s been able to invest in a toothbrush and some shoes.
“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit if there are footprints on the moon.” Yeah, you guys. Stop blinding poor Melody with your motivational space talk. And, while I’m at it, don’t tell her to reach for the sky while there are rings around Uranus, either.
“I’ve got plenty of charisma and, yeah, I’m not bad looking.” Hold on. Is that a talking bikini wax? Is it Richard Madeley? No! It’s Gaston from Disney’s The Beauty and the Beast aka Vincent Disneur (you’d think Disney could have come up with a slightly more inventive pseudonym than Disneur).
“My social life, my personal life, literally don’t mean anything to me. I live to work; it’s all I do.” Oooh, Helen Louise Milligan sounds like fun, doesn’t she? I bet Christmas round at hers is an absolute scream.
“I am cold and hard,” says Alex Britez Cabral. Well, I suppose that would explain why all the female contestants appear to be wearing morgue makeup. “A limp handshake is unforgiveable,” according to Edna Agbarha. Not to mention a pimp handshake. Or a shrimp milkshake.
“Doing it the hard way, Lord Sugar went from market stall to market leader,” farts out that relentlessly dramatic voiceover. I suppose by ‘hard way’ we mean ‘hard for anyone to understand how he convinced the BBC this was a good idea.’
And so, at long last, the opening montage is complete. By this time even Rocky Balboa would be curled in the foetal position, mournfully pushing staples in to his forehead.
It is 4pm on day one and everyone has gathered in the boardroom for a pep talk from the Lord himself. Apparently, S’rAlan is frequently asked if it is still possible to start a business from a humble background, like he did, way back in 1987. The answer? ”Yes. Absolutely yes.” He really is like the British Obama, isn’t he? If Obama were a tortoise who made fax machines.
The first task will be to buy £250 of produce, add value and sell it on. Hold on. Is that how business works? I watched every single episode of the last series and had no idea that was what they were trying to do.
As usual, Nick and Karen will be “following you all the time and reporting back to me.” Contravening most European industrial laws, not to mention the odd human right.
With the contestants split in to gender-specific teams it’s time to come up with a really professional, slick, impressive name. Or, failing that, to throw around some meaningless buzz words until your mouth literally throws itself off your face in desperation.
The women consider Galvanised and Platinum before finally settling on Team Venture? Venture? I suppose Team Ept, Team Mirable and Team Roit were all taken. The men, on the other hand, go for Team Logic. Only on the Apprentice could Vincent’s question “Who likes ability?” be met with deathly silence and awkward glances at the floor.
So, it’s time to turn crates full of fruit and veg in to, well, small plastic tubs of fruit and veg. The boys are making fruit and juices; the girls fruit salads and pasta pots. If I go to hell, these people will be running the canteen.
“I’m just rolling with the punches and I want my team to do the same,” riffs lyrical master and team leader Edward Hunter. Well, he does have an extremely punchable face.
Over at the kitchens, both teams have dressed up as forensic scientists in order to chop oranges. That’s nice. Maybe next week they’ll dress up as firemen and surgeons to bake scones.
Once the produce is prepped and packed both teams head out to hit that hungry London market. Except they all stop selling at 4pm. Well, you know what they say; if you want to get ahead in business, always close up by teatime.
After Lord Sugarcubes has called everyone back to his for a wicked boardroom afterparty, Edward’s leadership starts to be criticised as “random”. This is like watching Prime Minister’s Question time, scripted by Hollyoaks. Then, in one of the more sinister moments of the show, Edward starts muttering “Don’t fit the mould, don’t fit the mould” like some sort of malfunctioning Terminator as Lord Sugar tries to impart his wizenedom.
The results are in and the girls’ £2 fruit pots have thrust them in to a storming £500 victory. Which can only mean one thing: the boys are sent to the Café of Despair. Imprisoned by the giant mugs of failure and sauce-bottles of heartbreak. It’s basically Central Perk, but in Hades.
Lord Sugarthepill finally calls Leon, Edward and Gavin back in to the boardroom for a man-to-hobbit-to-potato-to-ex-Everton-player chat.
“All I’m guilty of is being too ambitious,” moans Edward. Oscar Wilde, it appears, has been reincarnated as a stubbly accountant from Reading. Is his wit and determination enough to save him? Of course not. The man is thunderous moron.
Edward ‘hairy neck’ Hunter: you’re fired.
Posted in Misc |
Tagged Apprentice Blog |
1 Comment
Posted on May 11, 2011 by John Cronin
A rental deal has been secured for prime office space in Mayfair at a rental price approaching £100 / sq ft.
Hedge fund York Capital Management has agreed to lease office space at the prestigious office building at 23 Savile Row, Mayfair (pictured – website) at an agreed rental price of £97.50 / sq ft.
A 12-month rent-free period has been agreed as part of the 10-year lease agreement. Having taken an office suite of 7,610 sq ft floor space on the 4th floor, York Capital will be paying an annual rent of £741,917.00 to landlords D2 Private.
23 Savile Row is a landmark building of 7-stories, offering a total Grade A floor space of 100,000 sq ft. The largest floors can accommodate up to 200 people and unrestricted floor plates are up to a maximum of 16,500 sq ft. Market reports indicate that D2 Private are aiming to achieve rental prices in excess of £100 / sq ft for the remaining 25,000 sq ft of vacant floor space in the building.
In recent research commercial agents CBRE reported that in the 1st quarter of 2011 West End office prime rents rose 2.2% to £92.50 / sq ft. This compares to unchanged City office rental prices of £55 / sq ft and Canary Wharf office rental prices of £37.50 / sq ft.
In 2007, D2 Private claimed to achieve the highest rental prices for office space worldwide when it let 7,289 sq ft of floor space at its 12 St James’s Square development for £140 / sq ft.
Other commercial buildings in the D2 Private portfolio include Waterside, Paddington Basin and Woolgate Exchange in the City. Waterside is entirely occupied by Marks & Spencers as their corporate headquarters. Woolgate Exchange, a 350,000 sq ft office development is occupied by West LB Bank.
Agents GVA advised York Capital.
Posted in London |
Tagged Canary Wharf Group, Rental Prices |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 10, 2011 by John Cronin
Commercial agents King Sturge have been instructed to market a refurbished office building in Edinburgh.
The property investment arm of insurance giants Aviva has instructed King Sturge to market the Hayweight House office building (pictured – website) in central Edinburgh.
Constructed in the early 1990’s the 19,378 sq ft building has recently undergone a £1.3m refurbishment programme managed by King Sturge’s Building Consultancy. The building has achieved a revised and improved energy rating of ‘C’.
The building offers 6 floors of open plan office space with floor plates ranging in size from 2,033 sq ft up to 3,580 sq ft. Each floor provides fully self-contained offices with lift access. Suites are being marketed on a floor by floor basis. Letting of the whole building for headquarters office occupation is also available.
Hayweight House was previously purchased by Morley Property Investment Fund, which was subsequently acquired by Norwich Union. The building was purchased in 2006 for £5.85m and was let to the Scottish Courts at an approximate rental price of £16.60 / sq ft. Last year the Scottish Courts were in dispute with the landlord over the cost of building repairs (.pdf link).
The agents anticipate strong interest in the centrally located Edinburgh office. John Clement, Partner at King Sturge comments: “Hayweight House has been refurbished to a very high standard and we are offering flexible open plan floor by floor lettings with competitive terms”.
Headline rental prices are available on request. Lease terms of 5 to 10 years are available.
Posted in Edinburgh |
Tagged Renovations, Rental Prices, Transactions |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 9, 2011 by John Cronin
A significant pre-let agreement has been secured on a landmark office building in Great Portland Street, London.
Great Portland Estates plc (GPE) has secured a pre-let agreement with visual effects company Double Negative for offices at 160 Great Portland Street (pictured – website).
The headquarters offices are currently undergoing a complete refurbishment programme and are scheduled to be ready for occupation by May 2012.
Oscar and BAFTA award-winning Double Negative have agreed to a 20-year lease for the whole 85,000 sq ft offices. The 8-storey building was substantially redeveloped during the 1990’s with only the exterior facades retained. The building offers column-free floor plates up to a maximum size of 14,400 sq ft, arranged around a full-height, glazed atrium.
There are both rent-free periods and capital contributions involved in an agreement that equates to a quoted rental price of £59.60 / sq ft on the 1st to 5th floors of the building. In addition, GPE have accepted to surrender the existing lease that Double Negative have on their existing offices at 45 Mortimer Street W1, a 108,000 sq ft office building also owned by GPE.
160 Great Portland Street was up until last April solely occupied by Telewest UK (now part of Virgin Media) who paid £30m to buy out a lease that was due to expire in 2018. The lease termination was agreed in December, 2010 and equated to 6.3 years of the 7.5 years remaining rent.
Commenting on the pre-let agreement Neil Thompson, Portfolio Director of GPE said: “160 Great Portland Street is part of GPE’s 1.9 million square feet development programme, timed to coincide with a shortage of good quality space in central London over the next few years”.
Posted in London |
Tagged Renovations, Rental Prices, Transactions |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Cronin
Commercial property developers Land Securities have announced plans for a mixed-use redevelopment in Westminster, London.
Land Securities is seeking planning consent for the redevelopment of their Kingsgate House office block at 66 to 74 Victoria Street. The company plans to replace the existing building with two new buildings offering commercial and residential accommodation.
Kingsgate House is a 1960’s office block containing 155,500 sq ft of office space along with approximately 31,000 sq ft of retail space. The offices are predominately occupied by a range of Government departments. The existing building is expected to be vacant by March 2012.
Subject to planning consent, two new buildings (pictured) are to be constructed on the site. Total Grade A office floor space will amount to 203,000 sq ft.
The West Building will provide the office accommodation and the East Building provides the residential accommodation. Both buildings will offer ground-floor retail units. The office block steps up in height from 8 storeys up to 13 storeys and will be slightly taller than Kingsgate House.
Land Securities owns several buildings in Victoria Street and other current projects include the £150m refurbishment of 123 Victoria Street and the speculative 253,000 sq ft office development at 62 Buckingham Gate.
Colette O’Shea, Head of Development, London Portfolio, Land Securities, commented: “Our plans for Kingsgate House will play a vital part in continuing to transform Victoria into a distinct and vibrant destination, responding to the modern requirements of those who live, work and visit the area.”
Architects for the scheme are Lynch Architects. Market reports suggest the proposals have a development cost in the region of £150m.
Posted in London |
Tagged Demolitions, Planning, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Posted on May 5, 2011 by John Cronin
The first tenant has been signed-up for office space at a multi-million pound development in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Leading pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond plc has agreed to a 15-year lease for 10,000 sq ft of floor space at Number 2 Burgage Square, Merchant Gate.
Merchant Gate is a speculative development by English Cities Fund (ECF) offering a mix of commercial and civic office space, alongside residential property and retail units. It was announced last October that Morgan Sindall had been awarded a £14.8m contract to construct new offices for Wakefield District Council.
Numbers 1 and 2 Burgage Square are 3-storey office buildings offering Grade A rated floor space of 17,300 sq ft and 19,600 sq ft respectively. Quoted headline rental prices are £16.50 / sq ft. Albemarle & Bond have taken the top floor of 2 Burgage Square and are to centralise their administration functions from existing offices in Leeds and Wakefield.
Emma Cordingley, development director for ECF, said: “Having Albemarle and Bond as the first commercial tenant at Merchant Gate is a really significant development for the scheme.”
Situated opposite Westgate railway station on a 17-acre site, the mixed-use scheme will provide over 700,000 sq ft of development, including 300,000 sq ft of office accommodation. The first phase of offices offer just over 48,000 sq ft of space within 3 buildings. The buildings include leisure accommodation at ground floor level with 2 floors of offices above.
Richard Thornton, partner at marketing agent King Sturge, said: “This substantial letting is a major office deal for the city and is a significant milestone for the Merchant Gate development”.
When completed the scheme is estimated to have a development cost of approximately £140m.
Posted in West Yorkshire |
Tagged Rental Prices, Speculative Developments, Transactions |
Leave a comment
Newer posts →
← Older posts
