NEWSFLASH 20th April 2015 BCFA Recruiting New Managing Director After eight years as Managing Director of the BCFA Colin Watson will be leaving the Association to return to consultancy. To learn more about the Managing Director role please go to our vacancy page http://www.thebcfa.com/vacancy29.html The Crown Estate, which owns property on behalf of the Queen, will fund the £140m development of a shopping and leisure scheme in Northamptonshire after agreeing a deal to buy the site. Rushden Lakes in Northamptonshire will create 400,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant chains and, in a growing sign of the changing nature of retail parks, the space will also include a lake for canoeing and wakeboarding. The site’s development is expected to start this autumn and be completed by next summer. Turner & Townsend has been chosen to deliver a £480m retail quarter for Sheffield City Council. The company will provide programme, project, cost and procurement management support for the 900,000 sq ft scheme, which will have more than 200,000 sq ft dedicated to new office and residential space. It will be fully complete in 2021, with phase one open by the end of 2019. Peel Land & Property has submitted a planning application for a sustainable, mixed-use development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, in Trafford, which marks an investment of £1bn. Close to the Trafford Leisure Village and intu Trafford Centre, Trafford Waters will be a sustainable urban neighbourhood, including leisure, retail and commercial space. The leisure element will include two hotels: one in the commercial area and a boutique hotel on the canal bank near the entrance to the waterway. Peel Land & Property was advised by a project team including IBI Group for masterplanning and heritage; Gillespies for landscape architecture and Low Carbon Design Consultants for energy and sustainability. No architects have yet been appointed. Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Property Partners have today completed the takeover of Docklands developer Canary Wharf Group pledging to plough ahead with the massive development pipeline. The £2.6bn deal for Canary Wharf owner Songbird Estates prompted the new owners to underline their commitment to the existing management building programme. The deal goes through as Canary Wharf Group is pressing ahead with plans to build out the last remaining sites with office and residential towers on its main Docklands Estate and gears up to start enabling works for the 4.9m sq ft Wood Wharf scheme to the east of its main site. Canary Wharf is also set to start work shortly on the £1.2bn Shell Centre redevelopment on the South Bank in central London. The creation of London’s next £1.7bn business district designed for companies from Asia has taken a big step forward. The Greater London Authority has granted the green light for the 4.7m sq ft development at Royal Albert Dock in east London. Chinese developer ABP is expected to be able to begin work on the 35 acre site later this year and build what is being described as London’s next financial business district following the City of London and Canary Wharf. It took months of negotiations between ABP and the planning authorities involving London Borough of Newham, Transport for London, and the Greater London Authority before agreement was finally reached. It is believed that ABP could eventually be required to upgrade the Docklands Light Railway stations and buses that connect directly on to the site as well as the nearby Crossrail station which will provide high speed journeys to Heathrow Airport in just 45 minutes. Boris Johnson’s office has now asked Communities secretary Eric Pickles to formally allow ABP to progress. Safestay is considering sites along Europe’s “main backpacker trail” as the upmarket hostel business looks to expand. Founded by Larry Lipman — the entrepreneur behind Bizspace and Safestore — Safestay raised £4.8m in a float in May 2014. Since then it has added to its existing hostel in Elephant & Castle, south London, acquired a site in York and signed a 50-year lease on a site in Holland Park, west London. Refurbishment of the York hostel ended in December and Safestay revealed this week it had starting taking bookings for Holland Park from July. Speaking after its final results, Lipman said it was actively looking at sites in the UK and mainland Europe. Safestay is looking to acquire about eight sites during the next two years. Results for the year to end-December showed a 19.8% increase in revenues from the Elephant & Castle hostel to £2.315m and earnings before tax rose to £0.972m. Studio Octopi – the architecture practice behind innovative plans to make outdoor swimming in London’s Thames a reality – have won an invited competition to design a new version of Peckham Rye Lido, also in the UK capital. The practice’s reputation for aquatic innovation proved a hit with Peckham Rye Lido campaign founders Ben Lloyd-Ennals and Jim Glynn, who chose Octopi’s designs over those of fellow contestant Red Deer architects. The proposed site on the common bordered by Peckham Rye and East BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 1 Dulwich Road has a rich history of bathing. Swimming in the area dates back to the 1800s, while a 50m (164ft) lido was in use at the site from 1923 until 1987. Initial designs for the new Peckham Rye Lido include a 50m (164ft) heated and chlorinated pool, with scope for a smaller natural swimming pool alongside it. The natural pool could potentially draw water from one of London’s infamous lost rivers, The Peck, which runs directly under the site. Studio Octopi has outlined plans for the lido to be surrounded on two sides by single-storey pavilions housing a gym, café and multi-purpose community space. Studio Octopi will now work with founders Lloyd-Ennals and Glynn, alongside the local community to deliver the lido, with funding expected to be sought from a mixture of public and private sources. There is also potential to launch an online crowdfunding initiative, as has been the case with Octopi’s Thames Baths project. Design consultancy Mather has been awarded the contract for the upcoming £7.7m interactive visitor centre at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales. Providing exhibition design and management services, Mather will produce an interactive museum experience that will explore the history of the Royal Mint, showcasing more than 1,100 years of coin manufacturing. The project, which is expected to attract 200,000 visitors annually, is due to be completed in Q1 of 2016. The visitor centre has been made possible, in part, through a £2.3m grant from the Welsh government. Scottish Enterprise has launched a search to find a development partner to bring forward a 44-acre site on the banks of Loch Lomond. Potential uses for the Loch Lomond site: 1. Balloch station Size: circa 3.34 acres Current use: This site includes the two-storey Loch Lomond Visitor Centre, held on a lease, as well as a car park and parkland. Potential use: A hostel 2. River Leven Size: circa 8.61 acres Current use: Parkland Potential use: A four-star lodge retreat, with up to 50 private lodges and a central service hub 3. Pierhead Size: circa 7.22 acres Current use: Parkland with road access Potential use: A boutique hotel with about 60 bedrooms, restaurant, spa and meeting space 4. Shore Size: circa 3.38 acres Current use: Water sports operators Potential use: The expansion of existing retail and restaurants 5. Drumkinnon Woods BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 2 Size: circa 19.03 acres Current use: Woodland Potential use: The hope is to retain the majority of the trees on the site, so low-impact development is preferred. The area could become a glamping site, capable of housing 20-30 units Eat, the sandwich and salad shop, is planning to double in size over the next three years, despite a VAT charge and lease writedowns widening its losses last year. The chain, founded in 1996 and majority owned by Lyceum Capital since 2011, generated steady revenues of £94m in the year to June 2014, but losses widened from £500,000 to £11m. The company set aside £4.4m to pay VAT on toasted sandwiches while rival Subway tried to challenge the tax rules. Subway exhausted its appeals in January, and Eat has now paid its bill. Eat also booked a £3.2m provision to cover leases on unprofitable stores that it cannot exit. Trading has already benefited from a £12m store upgrade programme that finished earlier this year, funded by a £40m refinancing supported by Ardian. About 85pc of Eat’s portfolio of 113 sites is within London, making expansion beyond the capital a priority. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has introduced Tribute Portfolio™, the company’s 10th brand and second collection of independent hotels. Promising owners, Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG®) members and guests the ability to “Stay Independent,” the Tribute Portfolio brand will be comprised of outstanding independent hotels and resorts. With a firm focus on four star, upper upscale hotels, Tribute Portfolio will complement Starwood’s The Luxury Collection brand and further solidify Starwood as the world’s most global high-end hotel company. The brand will make its debut today with its first featured hotel, the iconic Royal Palm South Beach Miami and will soon open new hotels in Asheville, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. Starwood’s goal is to have 100 Tribute Portfolio hotels and resorts over the next five years. Initial focus on growth of this new brand will be in North America and Europe, and travelers can expect to see Tribute Portfolio properties in global markets within the first year. Surf Snowdonia, a massive surf facility in north Wales, UK, has announced an opening date of July 2015. Architects seven have been working alongside the master-planning team to design the buildings. The outdoor adventure destination features a 30,000sq m (322,000sq ft) lagoon – with waves courtesy of Spanish wave technology company Wave Garden. It will be the world's first commercial application of the technology. About 75,000 visitors are expected each year. seven have designed the main Hub Building with a 50m (164ft) long glazed elevation overlooking the surfing lake, giving spectators clear views of the action from the restaurant and retail spaces. The building also contains the main reception, equipment hire and changing facilities. The Family Activity Building contains a multi-decked children’s assault course and coffee shop overlooking the activity lagoon to enable spectators to watch ‘blobbing’ and the waterslides. The Camp Site Amenity Building houses the campsite reception and office, lifeguard welfare facilities and WCs / showers for campers. There will also be camping accommodation and sleeping ‘pods’ located along the lake’s waterfront. Larger lodges will also be built and will retain the natural character of the woodlands surrounding the lake. Despite the majestic surroundings, the facility is being built on the site of a former aluminium factory. Surf Snowdonia is recycling and re-using the materials on the construction site and using 100 per cent rainwater to fill the surf lake. Surf Snowdonia is being developed by Conwy Adventure Leisure Ltd, allied to the Ainscough Group and Ainscough Strategic Land, who acquired the brownfield site in 2012. Budget hotel operator, easyHotel is to open a £3m 68-bedroom hotel in Liverpool in Spring 2016. Subject to obtaining planning consent, the group plans to convert the four upper floors of the building into an easyHotel, with the ground floor of the building will remain a restaurant operated by a third party. Hotel giant, Accor has announced that first-quarter 2015 business activity was strong across almost all of the Group’s markets with global revenue standing at €1,225m, up 5.6%. The results were particularly positive in France, Germany and the UK. In the UK, business activity again improved strongly in the first quarter (up 6.1%). Boosted by the Winter Campaign and the Super Sales, HotelInvest and HotelServices recorded like-for-like revenue growth of 6.0% and 8.9% respectively. Business activity in London stabilised during the first quarter due to a decline in leisure customers from the eurozone, primarily attributable to the Euro’s depreciation against the sterling. Regional cities delivered solid performances, with RevPAR up 8.9% in the first quarter. Hilton Worldwide is preparing to bring its Hilton Garden Inn brand to one of the UK's top sporting venues, under a franchise agreement with Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC). Construction of Hilton Garden Inn Emirates Old Trafford is expected to begin later this year, before the hotel welcomes its first guests in early 2017. Once construction is complete, the hotel will offer 150 guest rooms, spread over five floors, and 24 hour fitness centre. City Pub Company is planning to invest £15m in the expansion of its London-based chain of pubs over the next six months. The firm currently operates 14 pubs. The firm, which is split into two companies - City Pub Company East and City Pub Company West, was set up in December 2011 by three entrepreneurs from the pub and drinks world; David Bruce, the original creator of the Firkin pubs, Clive Watson, and John Roberts, formerly MD at Fuller’s. TLC Inns is planning to expand its chain of Grand Central restaurants with new sites in Essex and Hertfordshire. The firm is currently developing a new £1.3m American-themed restaurant on Ipswich Waterfront. TLC acquired the former Quayside Restaurant and the adjoining vacant commercial unit in Key Street, and aims to create a 6,000 sq ft, 250-seater Grand Central Bar & Grill diner. The independent operates outlets in Ely, and Basildon and has also recently acquired another restaurant in Colchester, which has just opened. BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 3 Mid-market restaurant group Carluccio’s is set to expand with the opening of seven new outlets: three in the UK and four overseas. The openings, in London, Cheltenham and Cardiff, alongside new restaurants in the USA (two), Dublin and Dubai will take the total number of outlets for the group up to 112. The first American site for the brand will open shortly in the old town of Alexandria, just outside of Washington, with a second opening in the autumn at Pike & Rose, a mixed-use development at Montrose Parkway, near Washington. Launching later this month, the new outlet in Dubai will be the company’s 12th restaurant in the Middle East. Around half of office occupiers that moved took some or all of their operations out of their existing London location last year, according to research from Cushman & Wakefield (C&W). A new report written by the agency found that the shift from west to east continued to be a key trend, with more than half of the 327 moves analysed involving West End occupiers migrating to one of the City and Docklands submarkets, compared with just four in the opposite direction. The majority of City core “out-movers” still chose to remain in the wider City market, with four relocations further east to Canary Wharf and only two east-to-west shifts, while more than half of Midtown out-movers relocated to the City core. The West End, Soho and Covent Garden, followed by Mayfair and St James’s saw the largest number of out-movers, relocating to City and other West End markets. At 31, the number of west-to-east moves in 2014 was considerably higher than the previous year’s 24. This was primarily due to rising rents and a shortage of suitable stock across the West End, said the report, which analysed moves in excess of 10,000 sq ft. Between 2010 and 2014, West End average prime rents increased by 37%, compared with 16% growth in the City and Docklands and the cost differential increased from £10/sq ft to £20/sq ft. During the same period, West End supply levels almost halved, whereas in the City and Docklands supply remained relatively stable, declining by less than 2%. West End investment volumes have doubled in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2014. Statistics released today by JLL indicate that first quarter 2015 investment volumes in London’s West End hit £862m, compared £440m in the first quarter last year. Despite an impending general election, £1.7bn worth of West End office stock was under offer at the close of the first quarter of the year. Recent transactions include Queensbury House, 3-9 Old Burlington Street W1, acquired by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) for £190.6m from Sorgente Group; Threadneedle Investments purchased One Neathouse Place from IVG Euro Select 8 for £100.5m and 1 Mabledon Place WC1 was purchased for £72.6m by a private Middle Eastern investor. Overseas buyers were active during the quarter with Norway and Hong Kong the most prominent sources of overseas capital. More than £1bn was invested into Scotland’s three key office markets in 2014, with Aberdeen accounting for almost half of the transaction volumes, according to Colliers International. The value of completed transactions in Aberdeen and Edinburgh almost doubled last year, compared with 2013, reaching £492m and £356m respectively, while transactions in Glasgow rose by almost a third to £176m. Take-up on business parks in the UK hit its highest level in nearly 20 years in the second half of 2014, according to a Bilfinger GVA report. The Business Parks Review showed take-up on business parks across the UK amounted to 3.2m sq ft in the second half of the year, the highest six-monthly total since Bilfinger GVA started its biannual survey in 1996 and surpassing even the levels of takeup seen during the dotcom boom. Two large prelet deals in Aberdeen as well as continued buoyant demand in the South East were the main drivers of the uplift, but activity in most regions was well above the six-monthly average for the past five years. Availability fell to 15.7m sq ft at the end of 2014, down 3% year on year and 16% on the peak of 18.6m sq ft at the end of 2012. Oxford Policy Management (OPM) has signed to take 18,000 sq ft in Lothbury Investment Management’s Clarendon House in Oxford. The development consultancy is doubling its presence in the city as it moves its team from its current premises at St Aldates, creating the largest letting in the city in two years. Home counties residential developer Weston Homes has taken the last office space in British Land’s 10 Portman Square, which means the building is now fully let. Weston Homes has taken a new lease for 1,548 sq ft on the ground floor of the building. The housebuilder will join a mix of occupiers in the building, including Aspect Capital, Aramco, Arrowgrass Capital, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Ardagh Glass and Independent Franchise Partners. Professional services firm Arup has agreed a deal to occupy a floor in Clearbell and M&G Real Estate’s 1 West Regent Street office in Glasgow. The firm will occupy the building’s seventh floor, which comprises 13,603 sq ft of space on a 10-year lease. Rents in the building, which Clearbell and M&G Real Estate completed last month Property development and investment company Green Property has secured a £185/ sq ft record-breaking rent at 8 St James’s Square. Helly Nahmad Gallery, the art-dealing family, has signed a 15-year lease on the sixth floor of the building. The 2,959 sq ft space achieved a rent of £185/ sq ft and will be used as a private family office. Additionally, Societe Generale, the French multinational banking and financial services company, has signed an 11-year lease on the fifth floor of the building. The 7,888 sq ft space achieved a rent of £150/ sq ft and will be used by the company’s private bank SGPB Hambros. 8 St James’s Square provides 65,534 sq ft of office space across eight floors. BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 4 Brookfield Multiplex has bagged a major contract to redevelop the Saatchi & Saatchi office building in central London for client Derwent. The contractor has been chosen as preferred bidder for the mixed-use development at 80 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia W1. The project will feature 321, 000 sq ft of offices, 45,000 sq ft of residential units – of which 10,000 sq ft has been classed as affordable – as well as14, 000 sq ft of retail and a new public realm park. The project has a value of £130m. Completion is scheduled for 2018. Developer Town Centre Securities has received detailed planning for the first of three eight-storey office buildings on the 600,000 sq ft mixed-used scheme at Whitehall Riverside in Leeds’ west end. TCS has partnered with GMI Construction to secure the planning approval for No.2 Whitehall Riverside, the largest of the three office buildings at 207,000 sq ft. The new project is part of the TCS Whitehall Riverside scheme, which also consists of 375,000 sq ft of offices, as well as a 500 multi-storey car park and extensive public realm. The development will link to the established walkway and pedestrian bridge that connects to the Whitehall Riverside Canal path – a popular cyclist and pedestrian route to the city centre. Architect Cartwright Pickard designed the new office building, which was granted only days before the new Community Infrastructure Levy was launched in the city on April 6. Developer Canary Wharf Group has been granted full planning permission for 1 Bank Street and outline planning permission for 1 Park Place on its main docklands site in East London. Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, 1 Bank Street is planned as a 700,000 sq ft building with 27 storeys including three levels of trading floors and shops at ground level. There will also be public access to a new promenade along the South Dock. Site enabling works started earlier this year and construction is now scheduled to begin later this year. Banking giant Société Générale has already agreed a lease for 280,000 sq ft of 1 Bank Street. It will occupy the ground and first to seventh floors on a 25 year lease at a rent of £47.50 per sq ft and 36 months’ rent free commencing from the summer of 2019. Tower Hamlets Strategic Planning Committee also granted outline planning permission for the 1 Park Place scheme, a 31-storey office building at the vacant site next to West India Middle Dock. Consent has been given for an office building comprised of up to just over 1m sq ft of floorspace. The Council will now determine a reserved matters application for this office building which is designed by Squires & Partners but there are no immediate plans to develop this site. It will be located next to CWG’s proposed Diamond Tower residential skyscraper and a new 185m tower at Herons Quay West. Wates Construction is set to start building work next week on the £24m Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy in Somerset. The academy on the new Southwell Park campus will cater for children between 3 and 19 years, as well as opening up new resources for the wider community. The 58-week academy project will include building a 200-seat performing arts theatre, heated swimming pool and sports hall. The new campus is set to open in September 2016 and will cost £24m. The campus was initially set to open a year earlier but issues with planning and need for an extra £10m investment caused delays. BAM Construction is emerging as favourite for the job to build the country’s biggest Free School in Leeds, the £21m contract to build a new Ruth Gorse Academy in Leeds. Bam is looking like the favourite to take the deal to build the Government-funded free school on derelict land between Black Bull Street and the New Dock development close to the Royal Armouries. The new school building will sit on the former Yorkshire Chemicals site in a growing “educational cluster” on the emerging South Bank of the city, surrounded by the nearby Leeds City College Printworks Campus and Leeds College of Building. It is envisaged to have four floors, but the site will incorporate indoor and outdoor sports facilities as well as making use of nearby college campus facilities and the John Charles Centre for Sport. It will eventually have 1,580 pupils and 150 staff, and it is hoped the development could also drive the regeneration of the south of the city centre. Plans for the construction of four buildings and the restoration of Durham's Kepier House to be used as 214-bed student accommodation have been approved despite receiving objection from Durham University and local residents. The proposal by Gilltown for the 75,000 sq ft site includes demolishing six of the seven unoccupied buildings which have been subjected to "extensive vandalism and a lack of maintenance" since Durham University vacated them in 2005. Vinci’s building arm has started construction of the £63m Spire hospital project in Manchester. The new hospital will be built in West Didsbury on the Siemens campus and replace Spire’s existing facility in Whalley Range in the city. The enabling works contract will run for 29 weeks before main building work starts in September with completion scheduled for early 2017. Parsons Brinckerhoff is acting as M&E consultant on the four-storey hospital, which will be a flagship hospital for the private hospital group. Spire Manchester’s new hospital will be equipped to undertake a range of services, including highly complex surgery and medicine through a large and fully functioning Intensive Therapy Unit, together with advanced diagnostic and imagery equipment. The hospital will also have hydrotherapy, a hybrid theatre and a 150 seat education centre. Carillion left as sole PF2 bidder for £350m Midland Hospital. The Laing O’Rourke-Interserve consortium has suddenly dropped out of the bidding for the first hospital to be built using the PF2 model. Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust said that the procurement process would continue to the same timetable even though one firm was left to price the £350m, 670-bed hospital. BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 5 Construction of the new hospital is expected to start in 2016 and be completed by 2018-19. The Midland Metropolitan Hospital will be located in Smethwick, close to the boundary between Sandwell and Birmingham on a derelict industrial estate in Grove Lane. It is likely to be 8 storeys high with around 670 beds providing capacity for around 107,000 inpatients and 120,000 outpatients each year. UKTI Alerts France – Supply needed, prefabricated bathroom units specifically adapted to elderly people The French contact, who has been set up as a one-man company since 2013, has ten years’ experience in business development. This full online edition with links is available at: http://www.businessopportunities.ukti.gov.uk/uktihome/item/881160.html Brazil - Company specialized in development of eco-friendly materials sought by local organisation Organisation seeks partner for development of natural material to replace MDF and MDP in the furniture and construction industries This full online edition with links is available at: http://www.businessopportunities.ukti.gov.uk/uktihome/item/880700.html Singapore – Interior design and consultancy services required The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has called for a tender for interior design and full consultancy services. This full online edition with links is available at: http://www.businessopportunities.ukti.gov.uk/uktihome/item/880422.html Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has revealed plans to open its first property in Dubai Media City (DMC) in 2017 – a move that capitalises on the vibrant business district's fast-paced expansion. The 251-key Mövenpick Hotel Dubai Media City will stand adjacent to the AED 4.5 billion (US$1.23 billion) 'innovation hub' announced by the Dubai Government last year – a new centre for communications and technology facilities that spans an area the size of two football pitches across DMC, Dubai Internet City and Knowledge Village. Minor Hotel Group (MHG) has partnered with Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment – the development arm of the Qatar government – to develop two new Anantara-branded resorts in North Africa, both of which are due to open in 2017. The Anantara Tozeur Resort in the city of Tozeur, southwest of Tunisia, is being developed by Qatari Diar to include 93 bedrooms, a selection of restaurants and bars, business facilities, a health club and a signature Anantara Spa. This resort is being marketed as an oasis located in the home of the original Star Wars film set. Presumably MHG expects to capitalise on the movie’s tourism trail, however, following the threat of Islamic State (ISIS) to tourists in Tunisia, the UK Foreign Office recently advised against all but essential travel in the Tataouine area – in Libya. It also warned against all travel in the south of Tunisia, where Star Wars fans visit the location that inspired Luke Skywalker’s home planet. Also being developed by Qatari Diar is the Anantara Al Houara Tangier Resort in northern Morocco. The hotel will be part of the US$600m (€558m, £400m) Al Houara leisure destination project along 2.5km (1.6-miles) of beachfront that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Real estate and infrastructure project management company QPM is leading the development. The Anantara property will house 230-bedrooms, food and beverage options, a large Anantara Spa, a wellness centre and a gym. The 578-acre (234-hectare) leisure destination will also have an 18-hole golf course by Graham Marsh Golf Design in collaboration with Vijay Singh, residential homes for sale, a Moroccan spa and a country club. BCFA NEWSFLASH Page 6