Posted on September 10, 2010 by John Cronin
The administration of the collapsed commercial law firm Halliwells continues with their former Manchester offices coming to market.
The prestigious office building 3 Hardman Square, Spinningfields, Manchester is available to let with immediate occupation from 26th September, 2010. Spinningfields is a large office, retail and residential development in Manchester that lies in the western side of the city centre. CB Richard Ellis have been instructed to let the building which is owned by Credit Suisse Asset Management and asset managed by Müller International.
Ecclesiastical Insurance occupies 5,000 sq ft on the first floor of the property, but the remaining 175,000 sq ft is available by way of new lease at a headline rent of £30 per sq ft.
When development at Spinningfields is complete there will be 20 buildings on the 6 acre, 4.5m sq ft, former brown field site. Developers behind the project are Allied London Properties. Launched in July 2000, Spinningfields was quoted in the Financial Times as being the “Canary Wharf of the north”. Other occupants in Hardman Street include Manchester Evening News, Deloitte, HSBC and Grant Thornton.
Number 3 Hardman Street was designed by Foster and Partners (Norman Foster being originally from Stockport) and was completed in 2007 offering approx 188,000 sq ft of Grade A floor space over 9 floors. The Manchester Civil Justice Centre currently stands as the tallest building in the Spinningfields district. There are plans for a 40 storey building at 1 Hardman Street offering 600,000 sqft of office space.
Premium Grade A office floor space is in short supply in Manchester’s Central Business District and 3 Hardman Street offers the largest remaining Grade A office floorplates. Will Kennon, associate director of office agency at CBRE North West, said the building would “act as a pressure valve in the city centre office market”.
Posted in Manchester |
Tagged Allied London, Foster and Partners, Rental Prices, Spinningfields |
Leave a comment
Posted on September 10, 2010 by Rob Powell
Serviced office provider, ‘The Office Group’ has been sold for over £40 million, according to a report in City AM.
The company, which operates serviced offices in locations across London, has been bought by Lloyd Dorfman – the man who founded Travelex.
The office company was sold to the business man by private equity firm, Bridges Ventures.
“With interests in this sector already I was looking to diversify and it was evident that The Office Group had a very clear, differentiated proposition, an established customer base and a great vision for the future,” said Dorfman told City AM.
The Office Group has serviced offices in Farringdon, King’s Cross, Shoreditch, Marylebone and outside of London in Bristol.
Posted in Bristol, London |
Tagged Serviced Offices |
Leave a comment
Posted on September 9, 2010 by John Cronin
Minerva, the London offices developer, has successfully defended itself from a complete change in management proposed by activist investor Nathan Kirsh.
At an extraordinary general meeting yesterday, all six of the resolutions proposed by Kirsh’s investment company KiFin were rejected overwhelmingly by independent shareholders. Mr Kirsh, who owns 29.5% of Minerva has previously failed to take control of the property company and it is suspected that this latest setback will not deter him from a further takeover attempt. However Salmaan Hasan, (Minerva CEO) is quoted as saying “the dialogue with KiFin is something we will seek. We don’t want this to carry on and we don’t want a conflict”.
Minerva (website) has a portfolio of high-end residential developments, office and retail assets within the companies Croydon Estate and two of the City’s largest office developments, The Walbrook and St Botolphs.
The Walbrook is a 445,000 sq ft office development designed by Internationally renowned architects Foster and Partners and was completed to shell in February 2010. With a principal entrance on Walbrook, just south of the Mansion House, the building is equidistant from Bank and Cannon Street tube stations. The Walbrook is a redevelopment of three existing Minerva properties; St Swithin’s House, Granite House and Walbrook House. The development offers 410,000 sq ft of offices suitable for a major occupier along with 35,000 sq ft of retail and restaurant floor space.
St Botolphs is a 14 storey landmark office building with circa 560,000 sq ft accommodation, including retail space. The building, standing on an island site of 1.25 acres on the eastern side of The City of London, offers office accommodation suitable for company headquarters use. The office development, designed by internationally renowned architects Grimshaw, celebrated its topping out on 5th February 2010. Some 45% of the office space is pre-let to Lockton International (insurance brokers) and Clyde and Co LLP (international commercial lawyers).
Posted in London |
Tagged Foster and Partners, KiFin, Minerva |
Leave a comment
Posted on September 8, 2010 by John Cronin
After declining demand for office space during the whole of 2009 and much of 2008, Glasgow is seeing a sharp turnaround with rising occupancy levels for the first 6 months of 2010.
Demand for Grade A office space in central Glasgow is buoyant and accounts for over 50% of transactions in the first half of 2010. Reports suggest that prime rents have also increased by over 10%. Prime rents of £26.00 psf (per square foot) in January 2010 have been surpassed, with recent deals at the prestigious G1 building in George Square being secured at circa £29.00 psf. Some 82,000 of the available 130,000 sq ft within the 9 floor complex is already let.
In another significant transaction, NFU Mutual purchased the 77,000 sq ft Clarion Building in Wellington Street, predominately for its own occupation as Chartis UK had already signed-up for 8,000 sq ft of floor space within the building.
Within central Glasgow there is currently just one speculative office complex under construction, that being the 65,000 sq ft Copenhagen Building. This new development is nearing completion and offers Grade A office accommodation over 9 floors. The glass-fronted building is located in Hope Street, opposite Central Station in the International Financial Services District (IFSD).
Lettings agents expect the strengthening demand for Grade A space to have a knock-on effect upon good quality Grade B refurbishments, particularly in core city locations. Without new, premium developments coming to market, Grade A space availability will contract due to lack of supply rather than any lack in demand, creating an upturn in the B+ quality office accommodation market.
Posted in Glasgow |
Tagged Rental Prices |
Leave a comment
Posted on September 7, 2010 by John Cronin
Peel Holdings has announced its bid for Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) status for its Atlantic Gateway scheme.
Peel Group is a major land and property owner with significant assets in the UK and especially the north west including Liverpool Airport, Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal, The Trafford Centre and MediaCityUK in Salford, soon to be offices and studios for several BBC productions relocating from central London.
LEPs are to replace regional development agencies which currently fund local regeneration and Peel wants LEP status for its mixed-use £50 billion Atlantic Gateway scheme (previously called Ocean Gateway).
As part of that scheme, Peel was granted planning permission by Wirral Borough Council in August for the controversial £4.5 billion Wirral Waters development – the largest planning application in the UK for a 30 year, 18million sq foot mixed-use development project.
A similar project – Liverpool Waters – for dock land on the other side of the River Mersey includes proposals for over 50 new buildings including an iconic 60 storey hotel and office complex to be called the Shanghai Tower.
Offering approximately 1 million square feet of development space and expected to cost in excess of £300 million, Shanghai Tower will also boast a heli-pad on the roof of the building and underwater, basement car parking. It will be the tallest skyscraper outside London and river facing offices at the top of the tower would command a healthy premium for offering stunning views of what is a World Heritage Site.
Liverpool has the oldest Chinese community in Europe and is twinned with Shanghai and the tower was named after a visit to Shanghai by Peel executives. Shortlisted architects for the skyscraper are AFL, Broadway Malyan, Chapman Taylor and Benoy. Approval for this development and the broader Atlantic Gateway development is still however far from certain.
Posted in Merseyside |
Tagged Liverpool Waters, Peel Group, Wirral Waters |
Leave a comment
Newer posts →
