Posted on November 18, 2010 by John Cronin
A south west based commercial property consultants reports that demand for smaller footage office space in Cardiff is returning.
Alder King, who have seven offices across the south west, believe that they are a seeing a slow return of demand for offices with a floor space under 5,000 sq ft. The agents have recently secured two office lettings in Cardiff, both involving floor space of under 2,000 sq ft. Partner, Owen Young says: “Whilst businesses remain cautious about committing to premises over 5,000 sq ft, they are proving more willing to commit to smaller suites in established locations.”
The first of the two lettings secured is for a 1,659 sq ft office suite on the ground floor of Wilson House at Ashtree Court on Cardiff Gate Business Park. Music systems specialist Linn Centres Ltd have taken a five year lease at a base rate of £16,000 – equivalent to £9.65 / sq ft although the rent good rise as the letting has incentives.
Cardiff Gate is a large business park over a 100-acre site and offers a range of office buildings (typical building pictured). The park has a wide range of tenants including several international businesses such as Coca Cola and Lloyds Banking Group. Serviced office provider Regus also has a centre within the business park.
Some 500,000 sq ft of floor space within the park is now occupied. Approximately 70% of the available land has now been developed and further office blocks are being constructed. Work started earlier this year on a speculative 82,880 sq ft development with a first 20,000 sq ft phase scheduled for release next month.
In a second, smaller deal, Alder King have secured a 742 sq ft office suite letting within the Globe Centre in the centre of Cardiff on a five year lease at an annual rent of £6,000 – equivalent to approximately £8 / sq ft.
Posted in South Glamorgan |
Tagged Rental Prices, Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on November 18, 2010 by Nell Frizzell
Watching the opening sequence of the Apprentice it’s hard not to bring to mind the Honey Monster, what with all these mentions of cereal entrepreneurs and Lords of Sugar. So, who are the Sugar Puffs and who are simply puffed up? Let the battle commence.
It’s 6am and the sun is rising over the exhaust fumes and extraction units of London. Oh the glamour. Lordy Lordy Sugarmordy is calling to order all his apprentices to Pinewood Studios. Hopefully this means he’s going to drown the whole guileless group in one of the James Bond shark tanks, or possibly lock them in one of the New York Warehouses.
“I have no idea what Pinewood is” admits Laura. “I’m pretty sure it’s a furniture store” counsels Sandeesh. This show really is a case of the bog-eyed leading the offensively thick.
An aerial camera zooms in on the ‘enormous bluescreen’ used in ‘blockbuster movies’. Which, it turns out, just looks like a big blue wall, however you try to jazz up the angles. If this is all Lord Sugarrush wanted he could have just nipped over to Hackney to stand around in front of the Olympic fence.
And so, like Oddjob himself, Lord Sugar drives up to his quivering young entrepreneurs in a shining black Bentley and vaguely ill-fitting suit. According to his following speech, this blue screen could ‘transport’ the apprentices to ‘anywhere in the world’. Oooh, you mean like a real job? Or an actual job interview? Run my children, run!
Their task, should they choose to accept it (and Christ knows why they still are) is to “sell the big screen experience to the general public.” In “London’s biggest shopping centre.” So, they’ll be looking after a telly in Westfield, basically. You can almost hear the chuckles rolling over from Currys and PC World. It appears that the apprentices will be showing hapless shoppers just what it would look like if, instead of popping out to buy some stomach-control pants and some in-soles, they were in fact flying to the moon or sailing a boat. So, reminding them just how comparatively pitiful a shopping trip to Westfield really is.
After the customary shake up of the teams (figurative, rather than physical, sadly) Stella and Joanna move over to Apollo to be lead by Stuart ‘A Face Even A Mother Can’t Love’ Baggs, while Sandeesh takes the reins of Synergy. And so they start thinking about how best to “sell the general public the chance to star in their own movie.” You know, if they’re too technically inefficient to make an honest-to-goodness sex tape like the rest of us.
“Yeah I’ll work in the ranks if I have to but only to get to the top. I don’t sit anywhere but the top.” honks Stuart ‘The Brand’ Boggs. What about when you’re on the toilet Stuart? Surely you don’t stand to deliver?
On the other team, recruitment consultant Sandeesh is trying to book the aquarium. Or is it motorbike? Oh well, it doesn’t really matter, as long as they take their cue from trigger-fingered snipers across the world and “Get ready and shoot one of their own.”
Apparently naan-faced Stuart wants to attract the ‘affluent’ people of Westfield with motor racing. Has this man never been to Westfield? We’re talking about the home of discount support tights and meal deals, for Chrissakes. “Stuart’s leadership style leaves me trembling with irritation,” admits Nick! That’s not irritation Nick. It’s lust. Believe me.
“I have to reign in my extreme masculinity in this task,” blurts out Stuart. “I absolutely live adrenaline and for me, if my heart’s not racing, why be alive? I mean, why be boring? That’s for everyone else to do.” This man has been inorganically constructed from Ricky Gervais’ belly button fluff and the mould in Richard Branson’s fridge. I am quite sure of it.
On the other team, Marine Christopher and Hollyoaks Jamie are indoor skiing in Milton Keynes. Indoor. Skiing. Milton Keynes. Think ‘doing the lambada in the fourth circle of hell’ and you’re nearly there. They even put Jamie in a Pingu penguin outfit just in case he wasn’t feeling depressed enough.
Apollo’s Stuart decides to market to children. “I feel so much more comfortable now we’re all going for kids.” Someone give this guy a CRB check, and fast.
Sandeesh, meanwhile, wants Jamie to do the leg work running between front and back of the production. What does he think to that? “I think I’ll be wasted.” Well, at least he’s honest about his drink problem. To be fair, a tipple sounds rather appealing to me right now.
“No arse covering. I hate that as a practice. Clearly defined roles. Happy days,” farts Stuart out of his big, fleshy face. Oh dear. Stuart ate Jamie Oliver.
Down on the shop floor (well, under a staircase in a starkly-lit shopping centre) Joanna and her sales team are shovelling driving DVDs like candy to a baby. Those minors must really love Grand Theft Auto.
Sadly, things aren’t going so well for Sandeesh’s team. So, like all good sales people, they cut their prices. Still, the idea of spending £8 on a craply shot DVD of my joy riding toddler somewhat boggles the mind.
By 8pm, the show is over. Which can mean only one thing – it’s time to look tense in a boardroom antechamber. Which they all do most professionally.
Lord of the Borings wants to talk figures. Apollo made £347.50, spent £85 and so walk away with a profit of £262.50. Synergy made £372.97, spent £150, which leaves a profit of just £222.97. Somehow, in the midst of his gorilla-like arse scratching stupidity, facile and offensive blustering and obscenely inadequate leadership, Stuart ‘the Jo Brand’ Baggs has managed not to lose. So, him and his team head off to a champagne tasting masterclass, which is rather wasted on the chumped-up little squit who barks “It’s like drinking anti-freeze!” after every sip.
Meanwhile, in the losing team, Liz is feeling gutted next to a squeezy brown sauce. Is there anything sadder than a glum condiment?
However, even in the boardroom the team barely manage to muster up a good ding dong. Instead, they simply admit guilt and show remorse. Come on guys! You’re here to rip each others’ throats out and beg for mercy! This is a gladiator fight, not a self help group.
The firing line is between Chris, Liz and Sandeesh. So, between Blue, Bambi and Bulbous.
It’s the fourth time that Sandeesh has been in the final three and the third time that Christopher has been on the losing team. Let me hear you spell f-a-i-l!
“Regretfully someone is going today.” I’m so glad to see that Lord Sugarmort has finally picked up the rules of this whole business pantomime. The team give him almost no backchat. Which, of course, drives Alan up the wall. So, he fires Sandeesh. Well, you know what they say, ‘there’s no googly eye in team’.
Conclusion: When ‘reality television’ starts selling ‘virtual reality’, it’s time to give yourself a reality check.
Missed an episode? Catch up with all the posts in our Apprentice Blog series.
Posted in Misc |
Tagged Apprentice Blog |
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Posted on November 17, 2010 by Rob Powell
The boss of developers British Land has expressed his disappointment at the moniker given to one of his forthcoming developments.
The 47 storey development, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, at 122 Leadenhall Street has been nicknamed and widely referred to as “The Cheesegrater“.
But Chris Grigg, Chief Executive of British Land is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: “We’re not massive fans. We think it will be a stunning piece of British architecture, so to call it a “Cheesegrater” is very disappointing.”
BL refers to the development simply as “The Leadenhall Building”. The shell and core of the building is expected to be completed by the summer of 2014.
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Posted on November 17, 2010 by John Cronin
An under-construction, speculative office building in the centre of Belfast is expected to be available for tenants early in 2011.
Hamilton House (artists impression pictured) is a new 4-storey building being constructed in Joy Street which is part of the Linen Conservation Area of Belfast. The new offices are being built in between two significant listed buildings and uses materials that create an exterior that is sympathetic to the area.
The building occupies a prominent position in Belfast’s prime business district, in close proximity to the Law Courts, landmark retail developments and is less than 100m from Belfast City Hall.
When completed the building will offer high grade office floor space in a building that has been designed with a specific emphasis on energy performance. The building will have a low carbon central air conditioning system which will provide conditioned air to all lettable areas, offering running costs two-thirds lower than that of a conventional heating system.
The building will provide office units from 2,500 sq ft to 9,200 sq ft with a high internal specification. The largest floor plate is 3,525 sq ft on the third floor of the building. However, Hamilton Architects who are behind the scheme have decided to take the majority of floor space on the top two floors having outgrown their existing offices.
Marketing agents for the development are RHM Commercial who suggest the speculative build will be a success. Quoted by associate architectural practice Kriterion, Ciaran Hughes of RHM said: ” We believe the client is offering a quality [office building] which will ‘tick the boxes’ for prospective occupiers in terms of location, specification and aesthetics.”
Construction work is expected to be completed on schedule by February, 2011.
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Posted on November 16, 2010 by John Cronin
The first, pilot phase of a new business hub for the creative industry in Liverpool has been completed.
An area within the centre of Liverpool opposite the Albert Dock, known as the Baltic Triangle (pictured), is being promoted as a new business hub for local companies working primarily within the creative and digital industry. Approximately 9,000 sq ft of new office space within three buildings is now being offered to prospective tenants.
The scheme is being run by a Community Interest Company (CIC) and is a not-for-profit venture. Financial backing amounting to £5.2m has been given by the NWDA. There are also proposals for a £2m spend on road improvements and public realm works in order to create better links between the new offices and other commercial areas of the city centre.
Development of the initial £600,000 phase began in May, 2010 and includes both studio and office space along with offices for the centre itself that will offer on-site support services. Office space is available in a range of sizes including “Mezzanine / creative units” at 750 sq ft and “creative units” with the smaller units being more suited to office space at around 500 sq ft and larger units offering up to 1,600 sq ft of floor space.
Subsequent phases of development will create studios and offices of various sizes. It is expected that when complete the business hub will offer approximately 45,000 sq ft of flexible floor space within a maximum of 18 low-rise units.
Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, executive member for regeneration at Liverpool City Council, who opened the first phase, told Liverpool Vision: “The creative, digital and IT sectors employ around 25,000 people in the Liverpool city region and generate millions for the economy. Having a dedicated business hub for the creative industries in the heart of the city will encourage further investment and growth.”
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Renovations, Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on November 15, 2010 by John Cronin
A former factory in Durham on the site of a planned mixed-use scheme is now being demolished.
Unwanted buildings that were once part of a Black & Decker tools factory are now being demolished to make way for the £200m Durham Gate (also known as DurhamGate) development in Spennymoor, County Durham. The 60 acre brownfield site is being redeveloped as a mixed-use scheme (pictured) that will include approximately 440,000 sq ft of energy-efficient, high quality office space. The scheme is a joint venture between Carillion Development and Hartlepool property investor Arlington Financial.
The backers are offering either buy or lease-only deals on a selection of proposed buildings offering a range of floor spaces from 15,000 sq ft up to 100,000 sq ft. Land sale opportunities also exist for organisations looking to build their own offices within the development.
One deal has already been secured with Sedgefield Borough Homes, a leading social housing provider, agreeing to relocate around 170 staff to new office accommodation within the scheme. Their new, purpose-built headquarters are expected to be completed by the end of 2011.
The local Spennymore News website reports that planning permission for the scheme was granted in March 2009. Allan Cook, director at Arlington said at that time: “I am very excited that we can now move on with seeing our initial vision for the site as a regional business location become a reality”.
The current demolition works are scheduled for completion by the end of the year. Progress of the development is also being made public on twitter.
Posted in County Durham |
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Posted on November 13, 2010 by Rob Powell
A high profile protest by students this week has caused disruption to businesses and organisations at an office block in London.
Angry students targeted offices at 30 Millbank because it is the Conservative Party’s headquarters but neighbouring tenants are still feeling the effects of the protest.
The Charity Commission, based on the first floor of the building have posted a message on their website saying:
“Due to damage at the Commission’s London office at 30 Millbank following demonstrations, the London office will remain closed to staff and visitors. We anticipate re-opening the office on Tuesday 16th November at 10:00.”
Other organisations that share the building include Cox & Kings travel consultants, Tata Steel, EPR Architects, outsourcing company Liberata and Encore Hospitality.
Protestors angry at plans to increase the cap on university tuition fees to £9,000 stormed the building, smashing windows and damaging property in the process.
A group gained access to the roof of the seven-storey building and a fire extinguisher was thrown to the ground – an act which is now the subject of a police investigation.
The National Union of Students issued a statement thanking the students who turned up to demonstrate but said said they “were deeply disappointed at the actions of a small minority of those 50,000 people who attended.”
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Posted on November 12, 2010 by John Cronin
Work is expected to finish later on the demolition of two dangerous buildings in Whitehaven, Cumbria.
Copeland Council has announced that demolition work on two old buildings in Albion Street is expected to finish by the end of today. The buildings, that have been demolished by hand due to their awkward location, are making way for the proposed new office development known as the Albion Square project.
Albion Square is a proposal for a £20m development incorporating quality office space, offering enough floor space to accommodate 350 workers. The proposal is for the construction of a group of office blocks, ranging in height from 3 to 5 storeys, creating a new business hub within an area of Whitehaven that has suffered from neglect in recent years. It has been suggested that a large number of office workers from the nearby nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield could be relocated to offices within this new development.
Copeland Council originally published artists impressions of how the new office blocks might look. However, there was much public criticism and the design was subsequently changed. A local newspaper reported that local residents said the buildings “looked like a bad piece of linoleum” and “Vera Duckworth’s cladding”.
A compulsory purchase order on land proposed for the scheme was granted in 2008 on the understanding that the Albion Square scheme would offer 70,000 sq ft of modern office catering for both small, starter businesses and larger, established operations. As part of a wider £200m Whitehaven redevelopment master plan, Jamie Reed, MP for Copeland, said of the Albion Square development: “The plans for the new Albion Square development will provide new modern office accommodation that will help attract new businesses into the town centre”.
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Posted on November 11, 2010 by John Cronin
One of the most striking office buildings in the centre of Glasgow has changed hands in a £40m deal.
The iconic 110 St Vincent Street building, once the Union Bank building has been purchased by SEB Europe REI, a German real estate fund for institutional investors. The previous owners were Scarborough Group who are believed to have sold the building for around £40m.
The 9-storey building offers prime, Grade A office floor space amounting to approximately 96,000 sq ft. The building was designed in the 1920s by architect James Miller and was based upon American neoclassical commercial architecture. The building still features the original ground floor banking hall (pictured) that is now used to house several meeting areas.
In 2007, a £20m renovation added additional floors to the building that doubled the amount of lettable floor space. A new steel frame was constructed inside the building facade in order to replace the existing U-shaped floors with larger floor plates of approximately 12,000 sq ft.
Current tenants of the offices are Bank of Scotland who have 12 years remaining on 15-year lease, paying an annual rent of £2.4m, equivalent to a rental price of £25 / sq ft.
Cushman & Wakefield acquired the offices on behalf of SEB. Steven Newlands, Partner at the firm said “the dynamics of the [Glasgow] city centre property market are strongly weighted towards landlords thanks to a combination of a low supply of available Grade A accommodation and strong tenant demand”. He adds “With the £20m purchase of 1 Waterloo Street last month, there isn’t a great deal of Grade A left and, as the remaining buildings fill, rents will start to rise.”
CB Richard Ellis acted on behalf of Scarborough Group.
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Tagged Renovations, Rental Prices |
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Posted on November 11, 2010 by Nell Frizzell
The Apprentice opening credits are starting to look a little like the obituaries section of the Oscars, so many of the little Lord Sugarists have been given the push. Oh well, at least we have this poignant look back at the heyday of Mancunian fashion failure to warm our rapidly freezing cockles.
Ah look, there’s that infamous tie dress. And look, here’s Bambi-eyed Liz dressed a bit like a lap dancer. And look, Paloma dressed as a call girl. Nostalgia, eh? If you could bottle it you’d be a millionaire. Or, in the case of Stuart ‘the brand’ Baggs, a man with fifteen thousand bottles of nostalgia gathering dust in your parents’ garage.
So, anyway. Here we are. Week six. And the brilliantly staccato narrator is back. You know. The man who can’t speak. In sentences longer than seven syllables: “7.30am. A lie in. This morning a wake up call. In person.”
Cor blimey! Stone the crows! Paint my face with Cuprinol and call me Alan! Lord Sugar is in the house! He’s turned up unannounced to give his minions their marching orders before they’re all suited and booted. I’m sure the fact that he might catch a few of them dangling about in their underpants is pure co-incidence. Far be it from me to presume that this whole little stunt was just an elaborate ruse to get a look at Stuart Baggypants in his socks and unsupportive undershorts.
Amazingly, having a relative stranger turn up at their home unannounced first thing in the morning does little to dim the Apprentices’ enthusiasm to have him as their boss. I’m starting to believe that if Lord Sugarmort turned up at the birth of their first born and demanded a pedicure and PowerPoint presentation on the various uses of the pencil these people would still want him for a manager.
So, this week the task is to create a brand for a new household cleaner in just two days. That means a label, a radio advert and a television commercial. So, it’s not entirely obvious why they all had to rush down in their wobbling pyjamas to get briefed, but there you go. Ours not to reason why.
Team Synergy, by default, is led by ex-Marine Christopher as he is the only one not to have ‘managed’ so far. Synergy also have cleaning company Joanna on their team. I hate to use the term ‘secret weapon’ here, so instead I will use the term ‘sulky cow’.
For Apollo it’s either Maverick Alex or Stuart ‘the brando’ Baggins. While Baggins undoubtedly has the face to sell grease remover, Maverick Alex “thinks so far outside the box that if I was an apple pie, then the apples inside would be orange.” Mmmmm, genetically modified radioactive apple pie. That settles it – Alex has got the job.
The first thing to be decided is the product name. Old blues eyes himself, Monotone Chris, comes up with the snappy ‘Germ-o-nater’. I know that leather-clad Republican killing machines are certainly the people I’d entrust with light domestic chores. Talking of lethal operatives, the next scene sees Syngery’s Christopher go in to a nursery to conduct some market research. They’ve sent a marine in to a nursery? Please god someone tell me they’ve hidden the water pistols and spud guns. Mum Eva comes up with the idea of the housewife as octopus – not so much a football-predicting cephalod as many-armed domestic goddess. The rest of the team fall on the idea, as Nick later puts it, ‘like tramps on chips’.
Next stop is the graphic design office to get their labels ready. Surprise, surprise, the Apollo designer has a silly haircut and is wearing a Breton-striped jersey. To be fair, this does look like the design job from hell, with two squabbling no-marks shouting things like ‘colour’ and ‘punchy’ in to your face as you try to quietly load photoshop.
Over in the Synergy Corps, The Apprentice seems to have been replaced with a new reality show called ‘The Marine wants a Mistress’ as Christopher auditions actresses to play his wife in tomorrow’s advert. “If she’s a minger then it just won’t work… Sex sells. Let’s be honest. Sex sells everything.” Couldn’t have put it better myself commander. Really challenging that sexist squaddie stereotype with this victory for female equality. Strangely, Sugary assistant Nick isn’t so convinced; “This commercial is about a stereotypical mumsy housewife sending her children off to bed early so she can grope her husband.” In fact, the advert sees this dream wife dressed up in a padded octopus suit, spraying bleach around the kitchen like an agent of chemical warfare. Well I for one know that whenever we’re planning an early night my boyfriend likes me to slip in to my kinky octopus outfit.
For Apollo’s advert Stu-artlovlierthanasummer’sday is doing a quite incredible impression of a cheesy local radio DJ. I mean, who would have thunk it? The man makes ‘hasta la vista, gravy’ sound like the voiceover for an upcoming Jason Statham movie. Sadly, in the television advert the Germ-o-nator is played by a small child – precisely the sort of person warned never to come in to contact with the product on the very bottle. Ah well.
Both teams then pitch to industry experts including squeaky clean employees from Unilever who fail, universally, to hide their sniggers. Particularly when Sandeesh announces, “This brand is going viral.” A bit like leprosy.
“I’m not sure if you’re selling marital harmony or a cleaning product,” one of the experts asks Commando Christopher. Don’t be silly Unilever, he’s selling sexism. After the pitches are complete, the experts feedback to Lord Sugardaddy as he cruises around town in his black Bentley. They use words like ‘travesty’ and ‘offensive’, which Monotone Chris handily translates as ‘memorable’ and ‘funny’.
In front of the assembled cast, Lord Sugartits gently introduces Christopher to a little thing called gender politics. His 1950s advert would, Lord Sugar tells him, “go down like a lead balloon,” with his female market. Or like a flaccid pair of pulverised bollocks, as the saying goes.
Still, it seems they just about managed to pull it off. “Synergy. I wouldn’t say you’ve won. Technically, you haven’t lost,” admits Lord Sugar. So, it’s off to a ‘private karaoke party’ so they can all to get shitfaced and sing ‘We Are the Champions’. Or ‘We Are The Vaguely Less Shit Ones’ as Twitter suggested.
So, we finally come to Lord Sugarmort’s favourite bit. The shouting, bitching, betraying firing squad. This week it’s between Alex, Sandeesh and Chris. So, between the bog-eyed, the monotone and the minutely testicled. Alex screams about how rude it is to talk over people and tries to fire on his colleagues like a vigilante paintballer on Byker Grove, but all to no avail. He’s as fired as a 12 ft high canon ball and leaves in a flurry of grovelling politeness and quivering voice.
Back at the house, the remaining competitors are in a contemplative mood. “If Alex comes back then I will genuinely eat an item of clothing from every one of you.” Oh Stuart Baggs, I love you.
Conclusion: Where there’s muck, there’s people ineptly trying to sell yet more muck.
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