Posted on February 1, 2011 by John Cronin
A business park in Swindon has reportedly accounted for more than 40% of the out-of-town office lets signed in 2010.
The Kembrey Park site (typical building pictured), on the outskirts of Swindon, holds a dominate position for office lets according to a report by London and Swindon based Keningtons. The chartered surveyors report that lets at the Highcross owned Kembrey Park amount to 70,000 sq ft of floor space. That figure is however largely made up of the letting of 58,400 sq ft of office space to technology company Motorola on a ten-year lease.
In total there were 8 new tenants who leased space in the business park in 2010. Keningtons say that office take-up in Swindon was 222,173 sq ft, a 71% increase on 2009. Out-of-town office space accounted for 160,982 sq ft of the total. Motorola relocated to the business park from another building within Swindon and took floor space within the 80,000 sq ft Trilogy Building at an agreed rental price of £14.50 / sq ft.
Kembrey Park consists of several office buildings of various sizes, many having been recently refurbished. Buildings are available to let in total as headquarters style premises or alternatively whole floors or flexible suites are available. The Cherry Orchard building has available office suites with floor spaces ranging in size from 700 sq ft – 5,000 sq ft with quoted rental prices of between £12.50 / sq ft – £14 / sq ft.
Highcross director, Nick Turner said “Kembrey’s strength is its supply of a wide variety of flexible, high quality space from 400 sq ft suites right up to 70,000 sq ft headquarters buildings.”
Joint agents are Keningtons and Loveday and Loveday.
Posted in Uncategorized, Wiltshire |
Tagged Business Parks, Rental Prices, Transactions |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 31, 2011 by John Cronin
Plans for a speculative redevelopment of the current Saatchi headquarters in Fitzrovia, London have been announced.
Property developers Derwent London are proposing a £100m mixed-use redevelopment at the site at 80 Charlotte Street in what would become one the largest developments in London. The current office block is home to advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi who lease the building from Derwent London. The existing lease is due to expire in March, 2013. Other office accommodation on the site is let to other advertising /marketing companies including Target Media, a tenant in an adjacent building in Whitfield Street. The current tenants will vacate the buildings when the leases expire.
The existing buildings on the 1.4acre site offer office floor space of approximately 230,000 sq ft whereas the proposed scheme (pictured) will include 320,000 sq ft of office and retail space along with over 50 flats and 15 affordable homes. Submitted plans for the scheme are detailed in applications one and two. The plans will be decided upon in late March.
The developers intend to retain the external frames of the office blocks, a technique that they have previously used on other office redevelopments such as the 157,000 sq ft Johnson Building in Hatton Garden. Simon Silver, head of regeneration at Derwent, said: “We really like retaining most of the buildings.”
Architects behind the scheme are Make. A pubic exhibition of the proposed development will be held from 4pm to 7pm, Thursday, 10 February 2011, Fitzrovia Exhibition Gallery, 43 Whitfield Street W1 (source Fitzrovia News). An indicative completion date of 2015 has been suggested.
Posted in London |
Tagged Planning, Renovations, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 28, 2011 by John Cronin
Newcastle City Council has announced the purchase of a multi-storey office and retail building in the city.
The council has purchased Higham House (pictured – image source), a 6-storey building for £5m. The transaction has been debt financed. The ground floor is used for retail units and the upper 5 floors are used as office accommodation.
The council intends to continue to rent out the retail units and offices and believes that it can make a profit with the rental income covering the loan repayments. Rental prices for office space within the building have been previously quoted in the range £15 – £15.50 /sq ft.
The purchase is not the first foray into the commercial offices market made by the council. In April, 2009 it purchased the empty Northern Rock Tower in Gosforth for approximately £22m. The glass tower, headquarters style offices were put on the market when Northern Rock collapsed during the banking crisis. The council purchased the 120,000 sq ft building and currently lets the floor space to environmental support firm Eaga.
The latest office purchase has been criticised by opposing Newcastle councillors. Newcastle’s Labour leader, Councillor Nick Forbes commented: “My fear is that the council will have a huge property portfolio of office space which will be difficult to let out and taxpayers will have to start picking up the running costs. At a time when services are being cut, this is ludicrous.”
Local marketing agent Naylors are currently marketing 3,196 sq ft of open plan floor space on the 3rd floor of Higham House. Rental prices are for negotiation and have not been disclosed.
Posted in Tyne and Wear |
Tagged Public Sector, Rental Prices, Transactions |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 27, 2011 by John Cronin
Construction of new, mixed-use building containing offices in the upmarket area of Victoria, London SW1 is set to start following the demolition of an existing building.
The speculative development at 1-7 Howick Place (pictured) will create a new building offering approximately 140,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation along with apartments and a ground floor retail unit.
Joint developers Doughty Hanson and Terrace Hill Group have appointed Kier as main constructors and the 18-month build is expected to start next month following the completion of the demolition works. Debt financing has been provided by Aareal Bank AG.
Six floors of the proposed 8-storey building will be made available for offices. Floor plates will be in the range 15,000 sq ft to 20,000 sq ft. The former, 155,000 sq ft building on the site was used by retailer House of Fraser as mixed-use retail and office accommodation.
Architects for the £45m scheme, Rolfe Judd, have designed a glass and red-brick building to complement the existing buildings in a conservation area. Planning permission for the scheme was granted in January 2009 after successful negotiations with the Mayor’s Office. The new building will incorporate a range of sustainability measures and is expected to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.
Philip Leech, Chief Executive of Terrace Hill said: “We are already seeing rental growth in the Victoria office market which we expect to be sustained over the next three to four years.”
An autumn, 2012 completion date is expected. Marketing agents for the offices element of the scheme are Cushman & Wakefield and CB Richard Ellis.
Posted in London |
Tagged Demolitions, Planning, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 26, 2011 by John Cronin
Pieces of concrete from a demolished multi-storey car park in Tyneside that was featured in the cult ‘Get Carter’ film are being sold in cans as a memento.
The former 1960’s car park stood on the site of the forthcoming Trinity Square mixed-use development and Gateshead Council has produced a limited number of the ‘concrete in a tin’ souvenirs (pictured) for fans of the film. Each tin comes with a piece of the car park and a certificate signed by its architect Owen Luder.
Trinity Square is a £150m, large-scale redevelopment in the centre of Gateshead consisting of retail units, student accommodation, offices, car parking and public realm improvements. The developers behind the scheme are Spenhill, a property regeneration subsidiary of retail giant Tesco. A new, replacement supermarket is also being constructed. Gateshead Council granted planning permission (subject to condition) last November and the development is expected to start this Spring.
The mixed-use development, designed by 3DReid includes approximately 38,000 sq ft of speculative office accommodation. The offices are being built in a new 28m tall tower on the corner of the redevelopment site. The office block had to be redesigned to have coloured, exterior elevation panels after the planning committee raised concerns about the “bland appearance” of some of the new buildings in the development. The tower will incorporate an internal illumination system to create a glow which will provide vertical emphasis.
A completion date of late 2012 has been given for the construction of the offices. Marketing agent arrangements and indicative rental prices have not yet been published.
Posted in Tyne and Wear |
Tagged Speculative Developments, Trinity Square |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 25, 2011 by John Cronin
A private property company is actively seeking financial backers for a significant office development in a prime London location.
Pace Investments has appointed agents Gresham Down and Savills to secure financial backing for the proposed £200m Sugar Quay speculative redevelopment in the heart of London (pictured). The offices will be located on a prime, landmark site next to the River Thames, offering views of Tower Bridge and The Tower of London.
Pace Investments purchased the existing office building in 2003 for a sum in excess of £30m. The 110,000 sq ft building is let to Tate & Lyle until 2012. Other former tenants MAN Group, who sublet the majority of the floor space within the building, have now relocated to Riverbank House, a 325,000 sq ft office complex also owned by Pace Investments.
Pace Investments want to redevelop the Sugar Quay site at One, Water Lane with a new office scheme offering some 230,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation (planning documentation). Designed by David Walker Architects, who also designed the Riverbank House building, the proposed offices will offer large floor plates of approximately 30,000 sq ft within an above-ground, 8-storey building. The existing, 1970’s building is to be demolished. An estimated completion date of 2014 has been given for the proposed development.
Savills have reported that strong demand for prime City office accommodation is driving rental growth and falling vacancy rates are expected. Having recorded a rise in City rental prices of 11% for 2010, Savills are predicting further market growth in 2012.
Posted in London |
Tagged Rental Prices, Speculative Developments, Sugar Quay |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 24, 2011 by John Cronin
A new business village in Rossendale, Lancashire is to be officially opened later this week.
The new Rising Bridge Business and Enterprise Village, which is being formally opened on Wednesday 26th January, is a £7m speculative development consisting of nine self-contained office units within 3 office buildings that are available to lease or as outright purchase.
The scheme has been developed by Lancashire County Council in partnership with the North West Development Agency (NWDA), who contributed approximately £800,000 of the build cost, and Rossendale Borough Council. Councillor Bill Challinor, Rossendale Council said: “These offices are in a great location. They will provide a big boost for jobs and the economy in Rossendale. The development is superb.”
The 3, 2-storey units offer suites ranging in floor space from 2,483 sq ft to 3,472 sq ft. In total the scheme offers total floor space in excess of 27,000 sq ft. It is estimated the 3 buildings can accommodate up to 159 people. The pavilion-style offices have been constructed to a high specification and have been awarded a BREAAM ‘Excellent’ rating.
The offices have been built on a former 0.58-hectare brown-field site that was previously used as an unofficial tipping ground. Planning for the development was approved in December 2008 despite there being some concern over the number of existing offices within Rossendale lying empty. The council however believes there will be strong interest in the development from prospective tenants looking for high-specification office accommodation within the town. The construction contract was awarded to ROK, who completed the development before collapsing in to administration in late 2010.
Rental prices are available upon request. Marketing agents for the development include King Sturge.
Posted in Lancashire |
Tagged Business Parks, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 21, 2011 by John Cronin
Confectionery giant Nestle has won approval for plans to redevelop a large area of the former Rowntree factory in York.
The planning committee at the City of York Council last night granted unanimous approval for the large-scale, speculative Nestle South redevelopment scheme (plans). The proposed, mixed-use scheme will see houses, flats, retail units and in excess of 100,000 sq ft of office space being built at the Haxby Road, York site (pictured).
Nestle first announced the redevelopment scheme in September 2006 and said it wanted to upgrade and improve production facilities in the more modern northern part of the site, the funding for which would come from redevelopment opportunities on the older, southern part of the site. The proposed development had raised objections from neighbouring council wards such as Heworth who suggested the scheme was over-developed and unsustainable. However, York Civic Trust had broadly welcomed the scheme, considering the redevelopment “appropriate to the location”.
The office accommodation is to be located in renovated and extended factory buildings, offering flexible configurations within large floor plates. The tallest office block will be 7-storeys in height while another existing factory building will offer 5-storeys of office space. The outline plans indicate that the office buildings will incorporate various energy-saving measures and are expected to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’.
Michael Jones, City of York development management officer said in his report that: “the reuse and partial redevelopment of the Nestle South site represents a regeneration opportunity of strategic importance to the city”. The offices will be marketed at prospective tenants from the creative and digital media industries alongside new, local start-up businesses who require serviced office facilities.
The large-scale, multi-million pound construction project is now being put out to tender.
Posted in Yorkshire |
Tagged Planning, Renovations, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 20, 2011 by John Cronin
Urban Splash, the specialist urban regeneration developers, have announced that they have been granted planning permission to develop a fourth building at Royal William Yard, Plymouth.
The Manchester-based company have been given Listed building consent to convert the New Cooperage building into 20,000 sq ft of office and retail use.
This will be the fourth building to be converted at the £70m Royal William Yard site (pictured). The site is a former naval victualling yard and consists of several, large-scale buildings that are considered to be one of Britain’s most important groups of historic military buildings. Construction work on the New Cooperage building has started immediately.
Urban Splash have again partnered with Totnes based architects Gillespie Yunnie who also designed the now completed Mills Bakery building. The Mills Bakery conversion is a mixed-used scheme offering in excess of 46,000 sq ft of floor space used for both office accommodation and leisure services. Some 32,300 sq ft of office floor space is available over 3 floors, with large and flexible floor plans based around a central atrium. The current occupancy rate is running at approximately 90% with tenants including Hoare Lea, the Ministry of Defence and the University of Plymouth. Quoted rental prices are £10 / sq ft with an additional service charge.
Nathan Cornish, director at Urban Splash commented upon the latest office conversion: “To get planning consent and start on site with a speculative office scheme at New Cooperage in the current climate shows our confidence both in the Plymouth market and in our offer at Royal William Yard.”
Posted in Devon |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Renovations, Rental Prices, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Posted on January 18, 2011 by John Cronin
A new, modern office development in Woking, Surrey has been approved by the local planning authority.
Architects Holder Mathias have been granted approval (subject to a section 106 agreement being agreed) for plans for a 27,000 sq ft office development that will see a two-section, modern office building being constructed on a site at 121 Chertsey Road in the town. According to the planning documentation, the investment company behind the scheme is Canada Life.
The site, upon which an existing, vacant building currently stands, has been subject to four previous planning applications for office developments. The last application for a new office scheme was rejected upon appeal in March, 2009. The existing building is to be demolished and the new building will offer in excess of 3 times the floor space of the existing one.
The “uncompromisingly modern” building will feature a 6-storey main block with an additional 3-storey, curved section. The new offices are being constructed near residential housing and existing office blocks that were constructed in the 1970’s and 1980’s and the architects felt that a single block design was not appropriate. The speculative development is to be marketed as being suitable for either headquarters style premises or as multiple tenant occupancy.
Indicative rental prices for this new, Grade A development are not yet available. Other serviced offices in Chertsey Road are marketed at rental prices in the region £15 / sq ft – £17.50 / sq ft.
Posted in Surrey |
Tagged Demolitions, Planning, Rental Prices, Speculative Developments |
Leave a comment
Newer posts →
← Older posts
