Posted on October 6, 2010 by John Cronin
Construction company Morgan Sindall has been awarded a £14.8m contract to build new civic offices for a West Yorkshire council.
It has been announced that a deal has been agreed between Morgan Sindall and English Cities Fund (ECF) for a 5 storey office building to be used as new civic offices for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. ECF is a joint venture partnership which comprises urban regeneration company Muse Developments, Legal & General, and the Homes & Communities Agency.
The new office is to be built in Burton Street, Wakefield and will offer 123,000 sq ft of floor space. The office building is the second phase of the mixed-use, multi-million pound Merchant Gate development that covers an area of some 17 acres in total.
Other recently developed offices in this quarter of Wakefield include 1 & 2 Burgage Square and Emerald House (pictured). Number 1 Burgage Square offers 17,300 sq ft of Grade A floor space over three floors. Number 2 Burgage Square offers 19,600 sq ft of Grade A floor space, also over three floors. Nearby Emerald House has office floor space amounting to 10,000 sq ft on the first and second floors. Commercial agents King Sturge are quoting rental prices of £16.50 / sq ft for the phase 1 offices.
This first phase was opened this September and at the opening event Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of ECF, said: “Whilst many other developments across the UK have been on hold due to the current economic climate, ECF partners have pressed on with the Merchant Gate scheme which now provides contemporary apartments, Grade A office space, restaurants and retail for the people of Wakefield.”
The second phase office scheme includes open-plan floor plates with a central atrium, extensive glazing and external rainscreen cladding with terracotta tiles. Work on the concrete frame of the building is to start this month, following the completion of the piling and groundwork. Planning permission was granted in March, 2010.
Morgan Sindall is aiming to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ for the scheme by introducing a biomass woodchip boiler, and using local suppliers wherever possible, in addition to control and management of waste on site.
The project is due to be completed in December 2011.
Posted in West Yorkshire |
Tagged Merchant Gate, Public Sector, Rental Prices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 5, 2010 by Rob Powell
Nearly £2m of tax payers money was spent on offices in Northern Ireland that were never used, according to a report by a Northern Ireland Assembly watchdog.
The Assembly’s Public Account Committee investigated the Industrial Development Board (IDB), now replaced by Invest NI, and found that public money was squandered on unused offices.
25-year leases taken out in 1991 and 1992 on offices in Campsie, Londonderry, cost the tax payer £1.8 million but the offices went unoccupied.
Mr David Sterling from the DETI explained in evidence to the committee that at the time the leases were taken out, local unemployment was very high and the offices were an “innovative” attempt to market the area “as a location for back-office business processing-type organisations. ”
Mr Sterling said that he “greatly regretted” that a break clause in the fourth year of the leases was missed.
Committee chairman, Paul Maskey AM, said that an “absence of risk management” had meant that the “Department [of Enterprise, Trade and Investment] was left for 19 years with two white elephants it was unable to let.”
Posted in County Londonderry |
Tagged Public Sector |
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Posted on October 5, 2010 by John Cronin
A property development company is facing stiff opposition for a planned multiple office block scheme in Edinburgh.
Tiger Developments’ plans for a site at Haymarket in Edinburgh are facing strong objections from several heritage groups. Previous plans submitted by the developers for a 17-storey five-star hotel were thrown out in the wake of a public inquiry and now the company is seeking permission for new office accommodation along with a much smaller hotel and retail units.
The land is a gap site in Haymarket on the outskirts of Edinburgh’s world heritage site, next to the Haymarket railway station. The initial scheme, which would have seen an Intercontinental hotel built on Morrison Street along with offices affording floor space of some 335,000 sq ft, was supported by Historic Scotland and approved by councillors after just one hearing, despite widespread concerns about the height of the main building. The scheme was subsequently rejected by the Scottish Government in October, 2009.
Tiger Developments is now proposing four “environmentally-friendly and contemporary office buildings” – as well as a budget hotel on what is described as “one of Edinburgh’s longest existing gap sites”. The tallest of the new office buildings will be 8 storeys high. The Cockburn Association, the main heritage watchdog in Edinburgh said other than the removal of the towering hotel from the previous scheme, there was “little difference” with the new plans. It is claimed that the new office blocks will have a detrimental affect on views to and from the area and will be an eyesore thanks to its “lumpy” design and “ugly” buildings, which will “tower over existing properties”.
Cockburn Association director Marion Williams told The Scotsman: “The overall height of the development is a significant concern. The roofs of the proposed buildings are lumpy and cannot be considered a landmark”.
Campaigners say the new plans fail to link the buildings with other developments in the area, such as the redeveloped railway station building and the nearby Springside development. The latter development includes Springside One, a new 5 storey office block offering over 60,000 sq ft of flexible floor space with an estimated completion date of 2010.
Tiger Developments is part of the O’Flynn Group which is one of the largest privately owned Irish property and construction companies. The company hopes to gain planning permission for the Haymarket scheme by the end of 2010.
Posted in Edinburgh |
Tagged Planning, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on October 4, 2010 by John Cronin
Privately owned property investment giant Peel Group has today submitted outline plans for a £5.4 billion scheme in Liverpool.
Four years ago Peel presented its vision for the transformation of 150 acres of derelict dockland in Liverpool into a huge 14m sq ft mixed-use development. The scheme is known as Liverpool Waters and complements the £4.5 billion, 18m sq ft Wirral Waters redevelopment scheme that received planning approval in August.
The plans for Liverpool Waters have been scaled back from the initial footage of some 20m sq ft. Plans for the controversial, mixed-use hotel and prime Grade A office scheme called the Shanghai Tower have also been revised, lowering the proposed number of storeys down from 60 to 55. If built, the scheme will still be the tallest tower outside London. Discussions with planning watchdogs English Heritage, CABE and Liverpool City Council resulted in building heights being restricted to 15 storeys at the waterside through most of the scheme. Much of the existing office accommodation in Liverpool is in much older, lower-rise property and would be dwarfed by high, multi-storey office towers.
Peel Holdings are aiming to promote the scheme to potential Chinese investors at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai that is due to end later this month. The aim is to promote Liverpool as a new international business destination with the city becoming the satellite location to service not just the UK but the whole of Europe. It remains to be seen if there is interest in such a large speculative development. As with the Wirral Waters sister development, both schemes have planned development timescales of 20-30 years and are unlikely to get off the ground without significant outside investment.
Cllr Joe Anderson, Labour leader of Liverpool City Council, said: “Liverpool Waters is a hugely ambitious and exciting scheme which has the potential to bring about the transformation of an area which has been in need of regeneration for decades. The scale of the project is breathtaking and it will benefit generations to come. We, along with other agencies, have worked with Peel to help shape this scheme but we do recognise that there are great sensitivities attached to it and there will be full consultation before a decision is made as part of the normal planning procedure to ensure the best possible outcome for the city.”
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles will now decide whether a public inquiry is required.
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Liverpool Waters, Peel Group, Planning |
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Posted on October 3, 2010 by Rob Powell
A £60million investment will see a former car park in Dorchester turned into new offices, alongside the creation of shops, affordable homes and a hotel.
The controversial Charles Street Scheme was voted through by West Dorset councillors last week – with the council themselves set to relocate to the new office space once built.
The move by the council into the new offices will cost £11million, but leader of the council, Cllr Robert Gould, told the BBC: “Obviously there is a cost to moving, but the figures show that this will be outweighed by the significant fall in running costs.”
Critics of the large development called it a “monster” and expressed concerns about the loss of mature trees on the site, but with planning permission granted, work looks set to begin early next year.
Posted in Dorset |
Tagged Planning |
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Posted on October 1, 2010 by John Cronin
The Crown Estate has named the new office scheme that is being developed in Regent Street, London.
The new development has been named AirW1 and will offer approximately 200,000 sq ft of prime, Grade A office space when completed. Availability is currently timetabled for Q4, 2011. The offices are part of a mixed-use new development in the heart of London on the site of the former 94 year-old Regent Palace Hotel.
The listed hotel has been demolished and redeveloped in to a mixed-use building containing 7 floors of office space. Many of the existing historic facades are being repaired and retained, while four glamorous 1930s entertainment venues are being completely restored within the redevelopment. The development is currently the largest being undertaken in the West End.
The scheme, originally named the Quadrant 3 development, is being managed by Stanhope plc. Architects behind the development include Dixon Jones and Johnson Naylor. Strict planning conditions were imposed by heritage and planning bodies and the developers have agreed to create a 44,000 sq ft public realm area as part of the office development. Planning permission was granted in 2007 and permitted a maximum of 7 floors of offices in the main building with additional, smaller offices in The Prow with access from the Glasshouse Walk entrance.
The offices will be serviced by a high-tech energy centre installed on one of three basement levels in the Quadrant block. The energy centre will be powered by a cutting-edge hydrogen fuel cell – similar technology used to power space shuttles. As such a BREEAM rating of ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ should be expected.
The Crown Estate reported in February 2010 that Regent Street is an international business destination and as a landlord it provides serviced offices to over 300 businesses. Forthcoming office space schemes known as projects W4 and W5 (south) have also been submitted to the planning authorities. The Crown Estate aims to redevelop these two office blocks with a £200 million scheme to deliver two new office buildings each offering in excess of 150,000 sq ft of world-class retail and office accommodation.
Marketing agents for the AirW1 scheme are CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle. Rental prices have not yet been made available.
Posted in London |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Planning, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on September 30, 2010 by John Cronin
Online train tickets retailer thetrainline.com has chosen to lease office space in a premium office development in Edinburgh.
The independent retailer of online train tickets has taken 12,000 sq ft of floor space on a 10 year lease at the Tanfield office scheme in Inverleith Row, Edinburgh. thetrainline.com are only the second tenant in the large office development after project’s first occupier, Aecom, a technical and management support services provider, moved into the first floor of the building last autumn, taking just over 17,000sq ft.
The Tanfield building is now owned by the Carlyle Group and was the former offices of investment company Standard Life. Upon its opening in 1991, the building was one of the most ambitious developments in the UK and boasted the largest floor plates of any office in Europe. Having acquired the office in April 2007, Carlyle Group has since invested in a programme of renovation and redevelopment on the building and completed the works in around June 2009. The first lease was secured with Aecom in October, 2009.
Located on the northern edge of the city centre, the building now offers Grade A rated office space, available to let as self-contained office suites ranging from just under 7,000 sq ft up to the full three floors of over 190,000 sq ft. Each suite is accessed through a 78m long feature atrium via a double height reception area. The building has a BREEAM rating of ‘very good’. Corporate and Personal Services are available at the reception desk along with a concierge facility.
Market reports suggest there has been a lack of interest in the building and Carlyle has not disclosed the agreed rental price for the leased floor space. Despite news of this second letting in excess of 170,000 sq ft of space is still to be taken.
Mark Harris, director of Carlyle Group, said the firm has made several improvements to Tanfield since the development was opened last autumn. He told the Scotsman: “Since our first letting, we have strengthened our efforts to further develop facilities in the building, with the introduction of a concierge service to enhance the experience for those working at Tanfield, ensuring we remain the first choice for occupiers with office requirements in Edinburgh.”
Posted in Edinburgh |
Tagged Renovations, Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments, Tanfield |
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Posted on September 29, 2010 by John Cronin
An office block known as The Building, Chiswick High Road, London is to welcome a new tenant after a 10 year lease deal has been secured.
IVG Institutional Funds GMBH, represented by commercial property agents Savills and Altus Edwin Hill, has let the ground floor at The Building, 578-586 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 to Television Versioning & Translation Ltd (TVT).
TVT, a media supply services business, has signed a new 10 year lease on office space totalling 3,923 sq ft and has agreed to rental prices of £25 per sq ft (£98,075 pa). Other tenants at the property include Taleo and Broadcast Text International. Two floors remain available comprising 5,000 sq ft each.
The Building is a 5 floor, fully glazed office building offering total floorspace of approximately 25,000 sq ft. Floor plates from 2,550 sq ft are available. The office has a BREEAM rating of ‘very good’. The Building has 12 secure car parking spaces available for tenants.
Andrew Willcock at Savills comments: “The Western corridor of M25 has seen a good level of demand from corporates this year and The Building, which lies close to the heart of Chiswick, continues to attract excellent levels of interest.”
Posted in London |
Tagged Rental Prices |
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Posted on September 29, 2010 by John Cronin
The first phase of the plans to redevelop the Taunton former livestock market into a £270 million office and residential scheme have been approved by Taunton councillors.
Regeneration specialist, St. Modwen, the development partner of Taunton Deane Borough Council on the Firepool scheme, has been given permission to press ahead with plans to transform the 4.5 acre Priory Road Car Park into new office and residential space.
Firepool (pictured – click for larger), the first major phase of Project Taunton, is the largest town centre regeneration project in the South West with the potential to create up to 4,000 local jobs. The objective of the scheme is to make Firepool the new commercial heart of Taunton. The large-scale development will offer over 400 homes, leisure facilities and 500,000 sq ft of new office space. Phase one of the development will make available 113,000 sq ft of office floorspace. The development will offer “distinctive offices to accommodate major occupiers, alongside smaller scale buildings for local businesses”.
Pete Davies, development manager for St. Modwen, said: “This is very positive news for Taunton town centre. We are already progressing plans to build the first office building at the site and this announcement shows the Council’s commitment to the development as a major new build office scheme supporting the town and county’s growth”.
Posted in Somerset |
Tagged firepool, Planning, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on September 28, 2010 by John Cronin
Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) has secured grants worth £4.7m to help fund a further phase at a business park it owns in Sefton.
RLAM and partner Industrial Securities has been awarded the funding for the next development phase at the large Atlantic Park scheme on the former Rolls-Royce plant in Sefton, north of Liverpool. The grants are made up of £3.1m from the European Regional Development Fund and £1.6m from the North West Development Agency. The project will involve site preparation and infrastructure works to bring forward 22 hectares of land with the potential to develop approximately 807,300 sq ft of office and industrial accommodation, create 1,500 jobs and attract £40 million of private sector investment.
An existing single-storey office building, is to undergo a comprehensive programme of refurbishment and remodelling to provide Grade A office accommodation. Named Caspian House, the building, formerly an administration office for Rolls-Royce, will provide a modern office space of around 37,700 sq ft and will be available to let either as a whole or sub-divided into two individual self-contained units.
This latest phase of development complements Atlantic Park’s existing five-storey flagship Grade A office building, No 1 (pictured), which was completed in 2008 to increase the quality of out-of-town office accommodation in the local area. The building offers ‘L’ shaped floor plates ranging in size from 8,100 sq ft to 9,982 sq ft. The offices have BREEAM ratings of ‘very good’. Rental prices are available upon application.
Gareth Dickinson of Royal London Asset Management, the owners of the site, said:
“Investment of this scale allows us to kick-start the next phase of our speculative development and is a vital step towards making Atlantic Park a key employment site.
“A 36 week programme of works can now begin and will see us bring additional high quality space and much needed choice to the office market in the north of Liverpool. Caspian House will be completed by the end of the year and the site wide infrastructure will be in place by March 2011.”
Marketing agents include Mason & Partners.
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Renovations, Speculative Developments |
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