Posted on March 3, 2011 by John Cronin
A large, multi-suite office building close to Manchester Airport has been sold in a multi-million pound transaction announced today.
Property investments company Infinity LLP has purchased the Manchester International Office Centre (MIOC – pictured) for a total of £13.5m. Although the deal is not yet announced on their website it appears that Highcross were the vendors. Highcross purchased MIOC in January, 2008 in a £16.5m deal. Highcross undertook an internal refurbishment of the building and had planned to construct an additional floor at the rear of the building.
MIOC, located less than 1 mile from Manchester International Airport, is a 3-storey building within grounds of 6.5acres and offers approximately 93,000 sq ft of floor space. The building is divided into 42 office suites ranging in size from 450 sq ft up to 8,000 sq ft. Meeting room and conference facilities are also available for hire along with a manned reception desk and on-site cafe. Flexible, 12 month leases are available and rental prices are available on request. Current tenants include Federal Mogul and Franke.
Les Lang, property partner at Infinity, said: “The property’s prime location and high specification accommodation offers an outstanding opportunity to increase occupancy, and enhance value.” Infinity were supported on the transaction by Barclays Corporate. The purchase is not the only investment Infinity has made in the Manchester office market. In April, 2009 Infinity purchased a 50% share in 53 King Street, a 43,000 sq ft office and retail building, for a total of £6m.
Marketing agents for MIOC include WHR Property and Knight Frank.
Posted in Manchester |
Tagged Renovations, Transactions |
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Posted on March 2, 2011 by John Cronin
Liverpool Vision is predicting the already limited supply of new office space in the city is set to shrink further in the months ahead.
Liverpool Vision, the city’s economic development company, has published its annual market review of the commercial Liverpool offices market. The report (.pdf format), covering 2010, is a comprehensive analysis of quality-assured data collated from local commercial property agents and professionals.
The report indicates that the Liverpool offices market is showing signs of recovery with demand for smaller office suites located in the Central Business District (CBD) up 30% compared with 2009. Liverpool is also seeing strong demand for office floor space from the creative, media and digital industries with a near 9% increase on 2009 amounting to a total take-up of 46,349 sq ft of floor space.
The availability of Grade A office space in the city centre is falling with further shrinkage expected due to the lack of speculative, new-build schemes. As at November, 2010 a total of 173,178 sq ft of Grade A floor space was empty and available for occupation. Grade B rated offices (defined as any office building over 5 years old) are the most popular and account for 59% of CBD lettings.
There is approximately 52,000 sq ft of unoccupied floor space remaining at the 20 Chapel Street scheme and the only other significant, Grade A development is the final phase of St Pauls Square (pictured). Expected to be completed by summer 2011, the speculative development will add an additional 109,000 sq ft of floor space to the market.
The published report does not include an analysis of rental prices however the Liverpool Daily Post reports that the headline rent for the CBD is £21 / sq ft. Mike Stares, director of Rumford Investments, 20 Chapel Street owners, believes that once incentives are taken into consideration the true headline rent is approximately £18 / sq ft.
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Rental Prices, Speculative Developments, Transactions |
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Posted on March 1, 2011 by John Cronin
Development work has begun on a new business innovation centre that will complete a multi-million pound scheme in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside.
Groundworks began yesterday for the new Tameside College business innovation and incubation centre at the large-scale St Petersfield scheme. The mixed-use scheme is predominately office based (pictured), offering approximately 320,000 sq ft of flexible floor space.
The new 3-storey building, designed by leading architects Aedas, will offer 10,000 sq ft of floor space and will be used by Tameside College to support new and existing businesses in the area. Developers for the building are Ask Developments.
Phase one of the £42m St Petersfield scheme included 1 Henry Square, a 46,800 sq ft office building and a 42,000 sq ft building that was pre-sold to Tameside & Glossop PCT. Plans for the latest building were approved over 12 months ago and include permission for two office blocks containing 113 suites of 500 sq ft each. These units were to be sold off-plan to private investors but it appears that this scheme is not currently being progressed as the units will be made available to let.
John Hughes, Development Director at Ask, said: “The Knowledge Mill at St Petersfield will provide a vehicle for young businesses and new ideas to grow in to fully-fledged businesses, and will make Ashton a centre for innovation and entreneurs.”
The St Petersfield scheme has received £14m of public sector finance from sources including North West Regional Development Agency and English Partnerships. The new Tameside College building is expected to be completed by August, 2011.
Posted in Manchester |
Tagged Public Sector, Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on February 28, 2011 by John Cronin
Infrastructure works have commenced at a new business park at Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.
The derelict, 3.5-acre site will become the Drumpellier Business Park (pictured) offering speculative, new-build office accommodation. The business park is located close the M8 and is 15-minutes from Glasgow by car.
The £12m scheme is a joint venture between Fusion Assets Ltd, North Lanarkshire Council’s regeneration company, and Stirling-based Ogilvie Group Developments. The infrastructure works are being part-funded by way of the Scottish Government’s Vacant and Derelict Land Fund (detail).
The business park will consist of one 3-storey and 8 2-storey office “pavilions”. Detailed planning permission has been obtained for the scheme. The 9 buildings will be constructed to a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’. In total the scheme will offer approximately 65,000 sq ft of floor space along with parking space for 220 cars. Floor space within the buildings ranges between 6,044 sq ft and 11,065 sq ft and floors can be sub-divided to create suites starting at 1,500 sq ft. A design and build option is also available. The developers are seeking owner-occupiers along with pre-let agreements for leasehold occupiers.
Steven Tolson, Director of Ogilvie Group Developments, said: “These initial works should speed up the commissioning of the new office buildings across the site. The overall aim is to create a business village, offering a number of small to medium-sized offices for established and growing businesses.”
Marketing agents for the scheme are Knight Frank. Rental prices are available on application.
Posted in Lanarkshire |
Tagged Business Parks, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on February 25, 2011 by John Cronin
Commercial property agents Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) have secured what is believed to be the largest office let in Hampshire for 18 months.
LSH have announced that aerospace and defence specialists Cobham plc have agreed a 10-year lease on an office block at Solent Business Park, Southampton. Cobham have let the entire Fusion 2 building which offers 43,000 sq ft of floor space.
The Grade A Southampton office space at Solent Business Park consists of 3 self-contained, energy-efficient buildings (pictured). The 3 buildings, known collectively as Fusion, offer a total floor space of 150,000 sq ft. Fusion 1 is a 3-storey, 67,000 sq ft office building that underwent a programme of refurbishment in 2007. There is 50,000 sq ft of unoccupied floor space remaining within the Fusion scheme.
Before Cobham occupy Fusion 2 in April, 2011 the new-build building is to undergo a fit-out. The firm is relocating from 3 other existing offices in Hampshire. Paul McCarter, Cobham plc said: “The Fusion site was chosen for its modern, open plan environment which is designed to the latest environmental standards. Integrating our sites will help to strengthen, standardise and streamline our operations.” Cobham are paying a rental price of £18.25 / sq ft.
Owned and managed by property developers Greenhills, the Fusion campus was previously known as 1000-1200 Parkway. Solent Business Park also contains several other speculative developments including the 17 building Links scheme that was completed in 2005 by collapsed construction company Rok. The business park, managed by Goodman, now covers 130-acres and offers in excess of 2.5m sq ft of floor space.
Related: office space in Hampshire
Posted in Hampshire |
Tagged Business Parks, Rental Prices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on February 24, 2011 by John Cronin
HRH The Princess Royal officially opened the distinctive new offices of the British Horse Society (BHS) on Tuesday.
The new BHS offices in the Grade II Listed deer park at Abbey Park, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire cost £3.5m to build and replace existing office accommodation within temporary buildings that were deemed unfit for purpose. The project was entirely funded by the BHS.
The unusual “squashed doughnut” design of the building (pictured) was necessary to preserve a 300 year old oak tree that now sits in a centre courtyard. Construction of the offices also had to take into account other protected trees on the site. The building has been constructed using natural materials such as stone and oak and a sedum roof has been included. The single storey building offers total floor space of approximately 20,000 sq ft of which 15,000 sq ft is now occupied by the BHS. The remaining 5,000 sq ft floor space is to be sub-let to various other equine organisations. The new offices offer an additional 4,800 sq ft of floor space compared to the old buildings.
BHS Chief Executive Graham Cory said: “A bright, spacious and airy office now stands in the space once occupied by a building which was none of these. Previously, I had felt mean when I asked staff to work in such poor conditions and embarrassed when we welcomed visitors.”
Planning permission for the redevelopment was granted in March, 2009. Architect for the scheme were SMC Corstorphine & Wright, now known as Archial. Construction works were completed in late 2010.
Posted in Warwickshire |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Renovations |
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Posted on February 23, 2011 by John Cronin
A raw cotton merchant has moved back to Liverpool and taken space in a new-build office scheme.
Plexus Cotton is relocating to Liverpool and vacating offices on the other side of the River Mersey at Birkenhead. The global-trading cotton merchant has signed a lease for 6,000 sq ft of floor space at the Grade A office scheme at 20 Chapel Street, Liverpool (pictured). The speculative, new-build office scheme is located in the heart of the Liverpool commercial district and offers total floor space of 155,000 sq ft.
Developers Rumford Investments constructed two, RIBA award-winning towers that were completed in 2006 and were known as Unity Liverpool. The taller, 27-storey building is purely residential and the smaller, 16-storey office building is now known as 20 Chapel Street.
The distinctive, stepped design of the building has resulted in reduced floor plates within the higher floors. The largest floor plates of approximately 13,000 sq ft are available on floors 2 – 6. The top storey offers a floor plate of 6,342 sq ft. The offices have a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’.
Plexus Cotton will share floor space in the building with other tenants including Fujitsu, Ernst & Young and Liverpool Football Club who lease nearly 30,000 sq ft of floor space over 3 floors. Approximately 42,000 sq ft of floor space within the building was let during 2010, equating to a reported 25% of the total Liverpool office market share.
Architects for the scheme were Alford Hall Monaghan Morris. Marketing agents include DTZ. Rental prices are available upon application.
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Speculative Developments |
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Posted on February 22, 2011 by John Cronin
An expanding Swedish bank has opened a second office in Greater Manchester.
Handelsbanken has agreed a 10-year lease on office accommodation in Salford in order to support additional private banking clients.
The bank has agreed to let 2,000 sq ft of floor space at the Deva Centre in Salford. The Deva Centre, owned by Belfast-based Benmore Developments, is an award-winning office conversion scheme in a former Grade II Listed brewery. Benmore Developments purchased the building for £13.25m in 2007 from the Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund, managed by GMPF. Benmore have 3 other Manchester based office schemes including 2 city centre buildings in Mosley Street.
The Deva Centre in the former Threlfall Brewery was completed in 2001 and offers high-specification office suites ranging in size from approximately 780 sq ft up to 20,000 sq ft. In addition to the conversion of the existing building, two 2-storey office buildings have also been constructed. In total the scheme offers in excess of 83,000 sq ft of self-contained office accommodation.  The scheme is divided into sections including the 17-office Brewery Yard and The Malt House which offers 3, self-contained office suites. Quoted rental prices are £15 / sq ft. Currently available suites range in size from 1,547 sq ft to 8,484 sq ft.
Nick Nelson, surveyor at CBRE North West, advising, said: “Handelsbanken has chosen the Deva Centre for its unrivalled accessibility to the motorway network, excellent on-site car parking ratio and its close proximity to the city centre.”
Marketing agents for the Deva Centre include CBRE Richard Ellis and WHR Property.
Posted in Manchester |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Renovations, Rental Prices |
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Posted on February 21, 2011 by John Cronin
Transport engineering specialist MIRA has revealed more details about the proposed multi-million pound expansion of their Nuneaton technology park.
MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) was initially a government backed research centre for vehicle testing. It has been an independent enterprise for many years and is currently planning an ambitious expansion scheme.
The organisation is proposing a £300m investment to create a transport technology park. Many of the existing buildings at the Nuneaton site were constructed in the 1950’s and MIRA considers more modern facilities are required to attract global transport engineering companies who require R&D facilities not only to support the automotive sector but also defence, aerospace and rail.
New headquarters offices are planned along with a range of buildings (pictured) between 2 and 4 storeys offering laboratories, engineering workshops and sustainable office buildings. The focal point building will be a 4-storey, 460,000 sq ft office complex that will be occupied by MIRA itself. The MIRA Technology Park will offer total floor space amounting to 1.66m sq ft within an 850-acre site.
Terry Spall, commercial director for MIRA said: “While our work is at the cutting edge of what is possible, we have many buildings, including our main office block, that are environmentally inefficient and far from ideal. We are in danger of missing business opportunities as a result.”
A second public exhibition of the technology park masterplan is being held on 5th March at the Rope Walk Shopping Centre in Nuneaton. A submission for outline planning permission is expected later in the month. MIRA secured full planning permission for new workshops and a 4-storey office block in January.
Architects for the proposed scheme are Geddes Architects. Construction is expected to start in 2012.
Posted in Warwickshire |
Tagged Business Parks, MIRA, Planning, Renovations, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on February 18, 2011 by John Cronin
Conversion plans for the former Manchester Eye Hospital have been given the go-ahead by Manchester City Council.
Plans for a speculative, commercial scheme to convert the former eye hospital in Oxford Road, Manchester were submitted just before Christmas 2010.
The scheme is a joint venture between commercial property developer and office provider Bruntwood and Manchester Science Parks (msp). The companies plan to convert the Grade II Listed building into a 100,000 sq ft centre for biotech and medical technology companies with the aim of creating 450 jobs and adding £61m to the city’s economy. The scheme is already generating pre-let enquiries from biomedical companies.
The speculative development, branded as FREH, will include teaching rooms, wet labs, research facilities and flexible office space with shared services. The existing building is to be converted and a new 5-storey extension is to be constructed. Consent for the demolition of 3 existing rear wings of the building was also granted.
Floor space within the project will be specifically marketed at startup biotech firms. The proposed scheme includes a “MedTech Centre” that will offer flexible office space, a shared reception area and serviced office facilities. There will also be a communal area offering breakout areas, meeting rooms and a cafe.
Chris Oglesby, Bruntwood said: ‘The development of the former Royal Eye Hospital is a great project for Bruntwood. We’re looking forward to working with msp and using our development expertise to help the city fulfil its potential’.
Architects for the scheme are Sheppard Robson. Construction is expected to commence this spring and a completion date of summer 2012 is expected.
Posted in Manchester |
Tagged Demolitions, Listed Buildings, Renovations, Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments |
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