Posted on November 1, 2010 by John Cronin
The large-scale Fort Dunlop building in Birmingham has received an award to recognise the successful redevelopment project.
The Birmingham Civic Society has awarded its 2010 Renaissance Award to the Fort Dunlop project in recognition of the restoration of the huge, listed building that had been neglected for over 20 years.
The iconic building has been redeveloped over several years in a joint venture between brown-field regeneration specialists Urban Splash and Advantage West Midlands, the local regional development agency (RDA).
Paul Lister, chair of the Civic Society’s planning committee, which makes the award, told the Birmingham Post: “The conversion of Fort Dunlop by Urban Splash represents a brave and imaginative transformation of this massive structure in a truly sustainable way”.
Whilst the design of the scheme has previously included many innovative energy saving measures, additional modifications have enabled the developers to further reduce the energy consumption at the scheme, giving an expected saving on fuel bills of some £200,000 pa.
A major Birmingham landmark, visible from the nearby M6 motorway, Fort Dunlop was constructed in the 1920’s and was once used as a warehouse by the Dunlop Rubber company. After being left unused for two decades the developers commenced a large-scale, mixed-use redevelopment project in 2004. Now, along with a 100 bedroom hotel and retail units the building offers over 300,000 sq ft of flexible office space. The redevelopment project, completed last year offers floor plates of approximately 33,300 sq ft on each of the six allocated office floors within the building.
The developers claim the scheme offers the biggest floor plates in the largest speculative office building outside of London. Lets are available from floor spaces of 2,000 sq ft upwards. Current rental prices are £15 / sq ft for the Grade A rated floor space. Current tenants include regional newspaper publishers, construction services, insurance companies and PR & design agencies.
Letting agents are GVA Grimley, DTZ and GBR.
Posted in West Midlands |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Renovations, Rental Prices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 29, 2010 by John Cronin
The Local Government Minister Bob Neill has criticised a London council for spending money on re-fitted award-winning offices.
In response to a BBC investigation, Bob Neill has said Newham Councillors and staff were “living the ultimate Champagne socialist lifestyle on the taxpayer”. This reaction comes as the build cost of the new Newham Council office building has been revealed as totalling £18.7m. A spokesperson for the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “This glitzy refit is the sort of thing you might expect of a five star hotel”. In their defence the council has stated that taxpayers within the borough would see annual savings of £7m a year.
The British Council for Offices organisation gave a “fit-out” award to the new office scheme at their annual awards ceremony earlier this month. The award is given for a quality fit-out that “betray no signs of opulence or financial exuberance and offers outstanding value for money”.
The new building replaces some 50 existing offices that were located in various buildings and portakabins across the East London Borough. The revamped offices are located in Newham Dockside. By adopting a shared-desk system the offices have 1,780 work spaces for 2,500 staff – a ratio of 1.4 people per desk. The building, known as Building 1000, has a total floor space of approximately 166,840 sq ft.
Architects of the scheme Sheppard Robson suggested that the offices needed a “wow factor” to make the building interior work and to generate a more collaborative work environment. More images of the office interior are available here and also at Overbury who were the main contractors for the building.
Posted in London |
Tagged Public Sector, Renovations |
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Posted on October 28, 2010 by John Cronin
Legal & General Property has announced the exchange of contracts with Mindshare for their first office let in the distinctive Central Saint Giles scheme in central London.
Mindshare, a global media company and part of the WPP group, has signed-up for some 78,000 sq ft of floor space over the 7th and 8th floors in the commercial led, mixed-use scheme. Rental prices and the duration of the lease for the deal have not been disclosed.
Central Saint Giles is a mixed-use, 12-storey development located at St Giles between Covent Garden and Soho. The development, which was completed in April and officially opened at the end of May, 2010, offers private residential accommodation, restaurants and bars and approximately 408,000 sq ft of Grade A office space. It is a joint venture owned by Legal & General Property and the Mitsubishi Estate Company. The developers claim the building offers some of the largest office floor plates (43,000 sq ft) in London’s West End.
Described by Paul Finch, chairman of CABE as “one of London’s great commercial buildings, setting the standards by which office architecture should be judged”, the Central Saint Giles scheme has received mixed public opinion due to its striking appearance. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano – also the designer of The Shard at London Bridge Place – the building has a colourful exterior due to the 121,000 red, green, yellow and orange ceramic tiles that adorn the walls.
The building is highly energy-efficient and has achieved a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ due to the implementation of measures such as using captured rain water to flush toilets and bio-mass boilers for heating.
The developers suggest that interest in office space within the speculative scheme is strong and further lettings are expected soon.
Agents for the scheme are Cushman & Wakefield and Jones Lang LaSalle.
Posted in London |
Tagged Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 27, 2010 by Nell Frizzell
“In this climate you need to stand out from the crowd,” snarls Britain’s favourite entrepreneur, Michael Caine sound-a-like and greying Travolta chin twin. As the thumping cellos and booming violins screech to a halt, episode four of the business buffoonery we call The Apprentice gets under way.
This time it’s Stuart who answers the early morning phone call, sheltering under a vase of flowers so enormous that it even manages to partly obscure Baggsitandbinit’s enormous rubbery face. Apparently they’ve got a hot date at the Science Museum, so it’s back in to that ubiquitous fleet of black cabs (I’m starting to suspect that S’rAlan’s sons may be called Addison and Lee).
“Science museum, so it’s probably going to be something to do with science… or museums,” muses the frighteningly astute Hollyoaks Jamie. This is a man who knows how not to shit out of his elbow, and no mistake.
“All these great inventions started off as someone’s crazy idea,” Alan tells the team. A crazy idea like a hulking great DOS computer that eats cassette tapes and craps out glowing green letters, eh Sugar? Boy were you backing the right crazy horse on that occasion.
Inspired by their sci-fi surroundings the teams are told to sell the product of the future to major retailers. Or ‘traders’ as SugarDaddy insists on calling them. Great scot! The Apprentice is finally knocked up with Dragons Den’s illegitimate lovechild and we’re all here to witness the birth. Rubber gloves at the ready; this one’s going to be messy.
According to Alanstrad, this week’s task is all a case of matching the right product to the right retailer. So, no Tampax at the Toyota garage or mirror balls at the morgue.
Surprisingly, Su Pollard stand-in Mel wants to prove herself as Synergy team leader, yet again. And so does Hollyoaks Jamie, yet again. Déjà vu? Bah oui! This time, however, the estate agent beats the hairdresser hands down. Is that a shit-storm I see brewing on the horizon?
Plum-voiced, slack jawed, vertically-haired Chris heads up Apollo. So, it’s time to pick a product or two. First off, we have the no-knife face lift, which turns out to be an infrared American football helmet designed by NASA and drawn up by Darth Vadar. Or how about an irritating alarm that goes off every time you slouch (in my childhood I called this device ‘a grandmother)? Or a £50 t-shirt that chokes your chesticles? A garden fork that moves earth like shit off a shovel? An energy-saving shower head? How about a global hypercolour babygrow? Apparently it prevents cot death.
“Would you like some free money? Urrh, yes please!” interjects Stuart with possibly the least ironic David Brent impression ever to grace the face of the earth. “At 30 degrees, am I right in thinking a baby would be dead?” he adds, just for good measure. Nice work potato face – you are now officially a twat and twonk. Everybody’s favourite mother substitute Stella tells him off, warning, “That might just lose us the Baby Glow.” Well guess what? She’s right! Apollo bag the chameleon child while Synergy are left holding the shower head.
In a quite staggering example of the stupid leading the inane, Synergy then pitch said showerhead to a shop that doesn’t sell showers and a spade to a shop that doesn’t sell garden ware. Nice work guys! Go team!
Over in the Apollo corner Chris is talking muffin tops and despite Liz’s arresting sales technique, Baby Glow is continually let down by its packaging. The scream team of Paloma, Laura and Sandeesh are getting so few offers that each one is fought over like the last cup of tea in the Sahara. The decision to give each contestant their own order book is a stroke of TV genius. It’s like clash of the morons out there.
To test the ‘sex sells’ theory to its absolute limit, the scream team hawk their pec-puckering t-shirt around Soho, resulting in a cat fight in the gutter and a demand for DV8 exclusivity. Meanwhile, Syngery’s Jamie proves that he’s also willing to talk dirty, promising that “this product will give you a new shower sensation.” He’s not selling shower accessories; he’s giving head.
Back in the boardroom there’s a nervous wait for S’rAlan to come back through those magic doors. Surely I’m not the only one to expect dry ice and Matthew Kelly to be holding a microphone every time he does this? It’s pure Stars in Your Amstrad.
Synergy (Jamie, Melissa, Stella, Joanna, Military Christopher and Stuart) put in a strong performance racking up £76,000 of sales, which would ordinarily be a winning score. However, Apollo’s Liz alone manages to sell £99,000 worth of Baby Glows. In the words of Sir Alan, “It’s a bladdy record!” and springboards the rest of the team (Chris, Liz, Paloma, Laura, Sandeesh, Maverick Alex) on to the winning spot.
So, who will take the fall for the shower-spouting Synergy? Jamie calls in Melissa Cohen and Stuart Baggs. Mel and Stu? Unless Jamie drops his trousers and shits on the conference table, The Apprentice is about to lose a comedy gold contender.
Melissa is told that “You are very annoying,” by SuperNanny Karen, while Alanstrad tells Stuart that “A lot of what comes out of your mouth is hot air. So in the name of glaciers, watch your mouth.” Good one Alan.
In the end, the SugarDaddy decides to finger Melissa. The nation recoils in horror. “Save your skin and get out of my face,” Mel growls from her outer-boardroom lair, once the humiliation is complete. “Karmically they will be retributed.” I think Sir Alan just crossed the peroxide Pollard mafia. You’d better start running Alan, you’d better run fast.
Posted in Misc |
Tagged Apprentice Blog |
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Posted on October 27, 2010 by John Cronin
The Belfast Harbour organisation has formally announced plans for a large scale development and regeneration project for the Clarendon Dock area of the city.
City Quays (pictured) is a proposal for a large-scale, £250m mixed-use development within the maritime district of Belfast and incorporates a 20 acre site. It is a commercial led scheme with over 60% of the total 2.4m square footage being allocated for speculative office floor space.
A proposed pedestrian and cycle bridge will link City Quays along with the existing Titanic Quarter and Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP) to the centre of Belfast.
NISP is also active in the Belfast office market as it owns four buildings, offering floor plates from 23,000 sq ft to 56,000 sq ft. Flexible lease arrangements are offered to prospective tenants on lets starting at 400 sq ft. Floor plate arrangements for City Quays offices have not yet been published.
Len O’Hagan, Belfast Harbour chairman, says: “City Quays is an occupier led project to provide high quality waterfront landscape for business, leisure, tourism and the arts. The aim is to help regenerate and reinvigorate the heart of historic Belfast, providing an attractive setting for potential overseas investors.”
A ‘master plan’ for the development has been created by the practice fronted by architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, who was heavily involved in the design of the multi-award winning Eden Project in Cornwall. Belfast Harbour claim their proposed scheme will be a “leading edge” sustainable development.
A public consultation exercise is on-going and full planning permission is yet to be granted. Furthermore, the developers have indicated that construction will only commence on the speculative development once initial tenancy agreements have been secured.
Posted in Belfast |
Tagged City Quays, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 27, 2010 by John Cronin
Plans have been approved to replace an old office block in Teddington with a Travelodge and a new smaller office building.
The existing six-storey office called Park House in Station Road, Teddington is to be converted into a Travelodge after local councillors granted planning permission. The adjacent building that was at one time used as a production studio but it currently empty is to be demolished and replaced with a new four-storey building that will have a ground floor restaurant with three floors of offices above.
Park House (pictured) is a 1960’s office block constructed from reinforced concrete, offering 40,000 sq ft of floor space over five of the floors and is currently home to 140 office workers. Tenants of the offices have included Barclays Bank who previously leased the building for use as a training centre. Acxiom, a data management company currently let floor space in the building. The building was bought by Longford Securities in 2003 as part of a £20m transaction involving another multi-let building in Kingston.
The office block is considered by many locals as being an ugly building. Douglas Barrell, a member of the local action group The Teddington Society told the Richmond and Twickenham Times that his group were in favour of the redevelopment plans. He said: “The building itself is very prominent and it’s not a very nice building – it’s all very run down. It will get a face-lift – it will improve it”.
The new four storey, mixed-use building will offer approximately 8,600 sq feet of office floor space over the top three floors of the building. The building will incorporate the latest energy saving design techniques and is to incorporate green roof technology that uses a Sedum vegetation blanket. A BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’ is expected.
Architects for the project are JWA Architects. Demolition and construction work is expecting to start in early 2011 with an expected completion date of spring, 2012.
Posted in London |
Tagged Renovations, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 26, 2010 by John Cronin
A former airfield in North Somerset is set to become the site for a new serviced offices scheme.
North Somerset Council has approved plans for a new office scheme to be built on the old Weston Airfield site that is now branded as the Weston Gateway business park. The proposed three storey building will offer 20,000 sq ft of floor space, with a first phase offering approximately 12,000 sq ft by spring 2012.
Within the whole mixed-use redevelopment area, a total of five office blocks have been proposed. Weston Gateway will offer Grade A office floor plates from 3,000 sq ft to 390,000 sq ft. Offices will be available either to purchase outright or as leased space. The business park affords easy access to the motorway network and is adjacent to the M5 at J21.
The particular scheme, to be called The Hive, is backed by the North Somerset Enterprise Agency (NSEA) and aims to provide flexible office space on short-term leases. With a target of between 40-60 tenants the NSEA aims to lease floor space to start-up and growing businesses and create an enterprise hub backed with on-site support services. The Hive will offer on-site business training, shared office services and access to shared office equipment. The NSEA itself intends to take floor space within the building.
The offices will be built to comply with best-practice, energy efficient design. Natural lighting and ventilation will be relied upon and the building will not have air conditioning. Energy resources amounting to approximately 15% of the total consumption will be supplied from on-site sources. It is expected that the offices will achieve an ‘A’ rating Energy Performance Certificate on completion. A BREEAM pre-assessment indicated that the building is expected to achieve a ‘Very Good’ rating. Architects behind the scheme are Barton Willmore.
Commercial property agents Hartnell Taylor Cook started a marketing campaign for the scheme prior to planning permission being granted. They reported to the council that they have eleven potential office occupiers requiring between 2,000 to 30,000 sq ft of floor space with timescales for occupancy ranging from six to eighteen months.
Posted in Somerset |
Tagged Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments, Weston Gateway |
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Posted on October 25, 2010 by John Cronin
This morning British Land PLC has announced that it has agreed a deal Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of the OMERS Worldwide Group of Companies, to develop the Leadenhall Building in the City of London, on a 50:50 joint venture basis.
The distinctive, tapered design of the 225m high office tower has earned itself the nick-name of “The Cheese Grater”. Detailed planning consent is in place and demolition and preliminary basement works have already been completed. The total development cost is expected to be around £340 million. Now that a deal has been struck, the bidding process to select a contractor will commence in January 2011 with the aim of completing the shell and core of the tower by summer 2014. The 47-storey Leadenhall Street tower project, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners was due to go-ahead three years ago with Bovis Lend Lease as builder but construction stalled when the recession took hold. The previous building on the site was only 14 storeys high.
The tower is set to become one of the tallest and most iconic buildings in the City of London (future London skyline pictured). The new building will offer 610,000 sq ft of premium Grade A office space in the heart of the Square Mile and will also include public space, retail and leisure facilities. The four storey landscaped public space at the base of the building, covering nearly half an acre, will be on a scale unprecedented in London.
The scheme offers adaptable floor plates, which range from 21,000 sq ft at the base of the building to 6,000 sq ft at the top of the tower. The main drawback of the design of the building is the relatively small floorspace for a building of its height. However, it is hoped that the slanting wedge-shaped design will have less impact on the protected sight line of St Paul’s Cathedral when viewed from Fleet Street. British Land indicates the project is already generating interest from a broad range of occupiers from across the insurance, financial, professional and corporate business sectors.
Chris Grigg, Chief Executive of British Land, said in a press release issued this morning: “We are delighted to be announcing the development of the Leadenhall Building. With its unique and iconic architecture, it is a building which will provide an unbeatable combination of style, presence, location and office floor space in the heart of the City of London. Our partnership with Oxford Properties, brings together two world-class property companies with proven development and asset management expertise.”
This latest deal reaffirms the renewed interest in major new developments inside the Square Mile. Only last week Land Securities announced that construction on the “Walkie Talkie” tower is set to start immediately. Speculative development has also started on the Pinnacle Tower, also known as the “Helter Skelter”. Peter Rees, head of planning at the City of London Corporation suggests that the London office sector is bouncing back after the recession with help from overseas finance. He said: “This is investors bringing money into London from outside the UK, money that would have been spent in New York or the Middle East.”
British Land was the first large developer to announce that it had stopped work on its tower in 2008. Other projects soon followed with developers citing both a lack of available finance and a sharp fall in demand for new office floor space as the reasons for halting construction. Industry pundits suggest that fewer new buildings will be delivered in the next few years and with several lease breaks due among the City’s larger occupiers there could be an increased demand for new office space.
Posted in London |
Tagged Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 22, 2010 by John Cronin
The derelict site of the former Fountain Brewery in Edinburgh will see a large, mixed-use scheme of offices, hotels and residential properties under ambitious plans lodged yesterday.
The Lloyds Banking Group has submitted proposals for the transformation of the giant Fountainbridge site (pictured), which will see the tall main building featuring the iconic McEwan’s logo being demolished. Agents for the proposed scheme are CB Richard Ellis (Edinburgh). The full planning application can be viewed here. A decision from the planning committee is expected in February, 2011. Architects for the scheme are Edinburgh based Allan Murray.
The site, sold by brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle to HBOS in 2008, was initially going to be a major office hub for the company, bringing together all of its offices apart from its headquarters onto one site. It now intends to get planning consent for the new mixed use scheme, then sell off individual parts of the site to developers. The scheme would create approximately 15,000 square metres of new office space.
In accordance with the Edinburgh City Council ‘Protection of Key Views’ policy, tall towers are considered as being detrimental and are therefore not proposed for the site. The maximum height for a new office scheme would be no higher than 90m. As a speculative commercial development, available office floor space within the scheme would compete with the nearby commercial hubs at Haymarket, The Exchange and Springside. Tiger Developments have also recently submitted controversial plans for a speculative office scheme in the Haymarket district. The £850m St James Quarter development is to offer approximately 160,000 sq ft of modern office space.
Local property experts suggest that a mixed-use scheme rather than just an offices scheme on the old brewery site will take much longer to become a reality however. Alasdair Humpherey, managing director of property firm Jones Lang LaSalle in Scotland, told The Scotsman:
“Development on that site is unlikely in the short term because of the lack of development finance and other such problems, but getting planning in principle then detailed consent can take several years and things may have picked up by then. While the current market remains difficult, it is likely that there will be stronger interest from potential developers in the coming years, when the market picks up and the amount of available office space reduces”.
Posted in Edinburgh |
Tagged Planning, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 21, 2010 by John Cronin
A large and derelict office block in Southend-on-Sea in Essex is currently being used as film set in a forthcoming film.
The half-demolished office block on the seafront at Southend-on-Sea is currently being used as a mock-up for an Iraqi market scene in the forthcoming film entitled “Screwed” that is due for release in 2012. Filming continues this week.
The derelict office block is called Esplanade House (pictured, image source) and is located on the seafront on Eastern Esplanade, Southend. The former offices to the old gas works have been empty for over five years and the building is beginning to be known locally as the “Esplanade Eyesore”. Despite access to the floors being restricted due to the lack of stairs, vandals have risked injury by climbing the building to draw graffiti on the walls.
The offices have not been completely demolished because developers would then lose the right to construct a potential new office scheme on the site. Now owned by the Robert Leonard Group the site is believed to be partially contaminated due to the previous town gas works.
The construction company originally wanted to demolish the existing office block, decontaminate the site and build a mixed-use scheme of residential apartments, a hotel, student accommodation and retail outlets.
Having finally won three year, hybrid approval for the latest proposed plans in August 2010, the company has since decided to market the 3.5-acre site. Chelmsford-based Bidwells Property are selling the site by informal tender and the asking price is by application only.
Independent councillor for Thorpe ward, Ron Woodley, who opposed plans for the site, told the Southend Standard: “The council should be looking at developers to make sure they have the finances in place to fulfil the commitments they’re putting forward in planning applications. Every time we fail to do this. Esplanade House is in ruins but residents have been looking onto this site for so long. What a testament to Southend Council’s planning policies. The whole thing is wrong.”
Mark Flewitt, the Tory councillor for planning, was positive about the sale and hoped any new owners would develop the site in line with the planning permission. He said: “Rather than have it lying there empty, of no use to the local economy, we need to get these buildings in use”.
Posted in Essex |
Tagged Planning |
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