Active Hayes

With its proximity to Heathrow, Hayes is a popular location for a wide range of companies. It also has an active market in terms of letting and investment. One of the latest, and largest, potential transactions is the multi let 20,066 sq.metres (216,000 sq.ft.) Hyde Park office development which LaSalle Investment Management has put up for sale through Jones Lang LaSalle for over £26.65 million, a yield of 8%.

Another deal in Hayes is the letting of Highcross‘ 3,319 sq.metres (35,723 sq.ft.) distribution unit at Clayton Road to the logistics company Circle Express through Colliers International in conjunction with BNP Paribas and King Sturge. Joshua Pater of Colliers said: ”We are positive that this represents a sustained increase in demand for flexible warehousing along the Heathrow Corridor.”

Colliers was also involved in the sale of another nearby property, the 4,155 sq.metres (44,724 sq.ft.) warehouse at Hampton Farm Industrial Estate, Middlesex to Dewhurst, a supplier of components to the lift, keypad and rail industries.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE THAMES VALLEY AREA.

Wanting it green

Sentiment in the key Thames Valley market of Reading will be boosted by the competitive bidding for PRUPIM‘s Green Park campus.

At the moment the expected price is around £400 million although that may not be the final figure. The bidders are substantial enough, (such as Delancey, Blackstone and MSREF) to make a deal effective. Indeed there is considerable potential because one third of the planned 204,380 sq.metres (2.2 million sq.ft.) still has to be developed.

In the past few years there has been a move towards town centre lettings in Reading to the detriment of the business parks, but this may well change as the availability of Grade A space declines.

Meanwhile, Reading Council is again looking for a substantial amount of space in the centre. While the general situation throughout the country is for local authorities to cut spending, Reading has a problem with its staff at the civic centre in Dusseldorf Way who are exposed to an asbestos problem. The current thinking is that the council will take a building of 7,897 sq.metres (85,000 sq.ft.), which is about 30% less than planned three years ago when the high construction costs stopped the scheme.

The council will have to develop the new civic centre but it also has the opportunity to trade its existing site. One new scheme in Reading is RO Developments’, in association with Urban Switch, refurbishment of the 1,440 sq.metres (15,500 sq.ft.) Napier Court office building in Napier Road, adjacent to the railway station. Refurbishment will be completed by the autumn and the property is being offered as a leasehold or freehold. Rhodri Shaw of Strutt & Parker, joint agents with Parkinson Holt, said: “RO‘s flexibility and realistic pricing, coupled with Napier Road‘s proximity to the railway station and outstanding parking levels will provide occupiers with the best of in-town and out-of-town locations.”

One recent large letting has been Capita taking 2,233 sq.metres (24,040 sq.ft.) in Schroder Exempt Property Unit Trust‘s New Century Place through Lambert Smith Hampton.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE THAMES VALLEY AREA.

Slough, again

SEGRO is unending in its expansion and improvement of the flagship Slough Trading Estate. The latest development is a 6,916 sq.metres (74,445 sq.ft.) warehouse for Selig, a manufacturer of sealing products, which has been located on the estate for more than 80 years and will take a 15 year lease.

SEGRO‘s Paul Lewis said: “In today‘s fast paced, global economy, the occupational requirements of major international businesses, such as Selig, evolve quickly. As the only location in the south of England to have Simplified Planning Zone status, the trading estate has a significant advantage.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE THAMES VALLEY AREA.

Healthier in Basingstoke

Basingstoke has had a lift with the letting by private landlords of a 3,409 sq.metres (36,700 sq.ft.) warehouse to Laleham Healthcare on Kingsclere Road. The deal, with London Clancy acting for the landlords and Hurst Warne for Laleham, means the healthcare company can consolidate its dispensary, laboratory, storage and packaging facilities

in Basingstoke from which they will carry out nationwide distribution via the M3 and M4 motorways. The warehouse known as Central 37 has been extensively refurbished and gives Laleham more space at its Alton factory to support expansion plans.

Also in Basingstoke, SEGRO has let part of Rawdon House, Kingsland Business Park to the IT maintenance and service provider, CDS.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE THAMES VALLEY AREA.

Spreading a little happiness

West London has benefited from the market improvement in the capital which could bolster growth along the Thames Valley. That has led to rental increases in such centres as Hammersmith where Grade A space is now £339 a sq.metre and a return of the development cycle. Ever quick to spot a development opportunity, Stanhope is negotiating with the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to buy the former headquarters of Gillette.

The 10.5 acre site was owned by Bonnington Group who had aplan to build a 500 bedroom hotel and offices after paying £30 million for the Grade II listed Art Deco building. Stanhope is bidding £15 million for the Isleworth site. Another Art Deco gem is due for refurbishment with Cathedral Group and Development Securities buying the London Business Park, Hayes, Middlesex from JER Partners, Blackstone and Resolution. The new owners intend to spend £250 million on the park, which was the former headquarters of EMI, the music Group.

The estate was designed by one of the most successful designers of Art Deco buildings, Wallis, Gilbert & Partners, who were also responsible for the Hoover Building and the Firestone Factory, now demolished, both in West London, and Victoria coach station. Sadly many of the buildings, said Cathedral, have been forgotten and the park is “a special place that had not been recognised by its previous owners.” Cathedral‘s Richard Upton said: “This site is part of the magic of the UK‘s industrial and architectural history, but it has been hidden and forgotten for decades.” So his crusade is to uncover the park‘s heritage and restore its full glory. As part of the development, the amount of commercial space will increase from the current 69,675 sq.metres.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE LONDON AREA.

New in Richmond

In a further sign of the buoyancy of West London, AXA REIM, on behalf of Friends Life Assurance Society, has secured planning permission for the refurbishment of the 4,461 sq.m. 1 Church Road, Richmond. The office is in the centre of the town close to the railway station and the refurbishment is to be completed in summer 2012. Kevin Mersh of Capita Symonds, joint agent with Martin Campbell, commented: “1 Church Road will be the first major HQ office building to come to the market for many years. Given the extent of the works we are confident the building will appeal to major occupiers in the area.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE LONDON AREA.

Science Oxford

The popularity of Oxford as a business location appears to be increasing, judging from recent deals. One of the largest is Goodman’s plan to build a 7,525 sq.metres (81,000 sq.ft.) headquarters for British Gas at its 86 acre Oxford Business Park. It will house 1,000 employees and construction starts in September. Science Oxford bought Macclesfield House in the centre of Oxford and pending the development of a science centre the building will be re-branded as Oxford Centre for Innovation and provide offices and business support for 30 small and growing companies.

The new centre will be managed by Oxford Innovation, which already manages 14 centres throughout the UK. The wider plan is for a £30 million science centre, designed by Foster & Partners, a cultural centre for science and enterprise that will attract over 100,000 visitors a year.

Better than it looks

Two towns are symbolic of the M3 market with the lowest rents in the Thames Valley. Basingstoke is the lowest at £193.68 followed by Bracknell at £215.20 a sq.metre (£20 a sq.ft.), Simon Fryer of Fryer Commercial does not accept the current pessimism about Bracknell. “Rents have tumbled which has brought the desired effect of producing sales and lettings,” he said. “Take up was 17,651 sq.metres (190,000 sq.ft.) in 2010 and so far this year we have done 4,465 sq.metres (50,000 sq.ft.), half of that to Symphony IRI at 1 Arlington Square and another large chunkto Riverbed Technology at 1 Thames Valley House.”

Fryer said: “There is plenty of supply and Bracknell is the best value town in the Thames Valley. The improvement will be helped by the town centre regeneration which has now got underway.”One major building coming onto the market in Bracknell is the 9,002 sq.metres (96,900 sq.ft.) 5 Arlington Square which is being marketed by Lambert Smith Hampton and Knight Frank. Unusually, it has a Tier 2 data centre which cost £10 million to install and makes the building an attractive proposition for technology, media and telecommunications companies. Knight Frank‘s Will Foster said: “Bracknell is a key Thames Valley office centre and such high grade space that is not only available, but already fitted out and geared to the needs of the 21st century occupier, will differentiate it from much of its competition.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE THAMES VALLEY AREA.

Long recovery road

The Thames Valley office market is ratcheting up steadily as the recovery broadens and speculative activity is renewed. That brought a strong first three months of the year with a surge to a record performance, said King Sturge (who have now merged with Jones Lang LaSalle). It calculated a 37,996 sq.metres (409,000 sq.ft.) take up, which beat the five year average andwas a 37% rise on the same period of 2010. The encouraging change for long term growth is that total availability declined by 10% compared with a year ago to 641,010 sq.metres (6.9 million sq.ft.). Piers Leigh of Jones Lang LaSalle commented: “Due to the slow progress of large transactions, we are still forecasting a slightly below average take up for the year of 139,350 sq.metres (1.5million sq.ft.).”

He noted Grade A supply could fall to a critical level in west London which means rents will rise. For the future we have seen a significant rise in speculative development with four key schemes within the M25 under construction or due to start within the next six months.” Knight Frank highlights the dominance of manufacturing and pharmaceuticals which account for a third of total demand. It also noted that active demand declined in the first quarter by 14% to 472,119 sq.metres (508,201 sq.ft.) after a numberof requirements were satisfied.

While the agent welcomes the rise in speculative development it believes that it will be limited and confined to prime locations. According to Knight Frank, Maidenhead had four deals in the first quarter, the largest being 4,645 sq.metres (50,000 sq.ft.) to Adobe in Market Street in the centre of the town which only completed in the final three months of 2010. As far as the M25 market is concerned, the agent cautiously predicts a 5% increase to 213,670 sq.metres (2.3 million sq.ft.) this year compared with 2010 but expects little change on the total for the M4 and even a 15% decline in the M3 take up.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE THAMES VALLEY AREA.

Canadians to the rescue

A Canadian company has stepped in to develop the £300 million Caltongate scheme and provide a boost to the market in Scotland’s capital city.

Prism Developments is discussing taking it over from Deloitte, the Administrator, and the Bank of Scotland. The site is located in the Old Town and was the subject of a mixed use scheme by Mountgrange.

The plan was for offices of 17,187 sq.metres (185,000 sq.ft.), 200 flats and a Sofitel Hotel which encountered considerable local opposition. Prism is not the first developer interested in the scheme because Deloitte has talked to a number of companies including Allied London and British Land.

One major scheme which is going ahead in the Old Town is the £45 million development on the Royal Mile of a hotel and mixed use project in the Castlehill area by the Chris Stewart Group.The hotel will be operated by Motel One which has 32 hotels in Germany and one in Austria and will be housed in the former buildings of Edinburgh City Council Development Department on Market Street.

In addition there will be residential space including self catering apartments, six offices totalling 5,574 sq.metres (60,000 sq.ft.) and two restaurants. The site stretches from Market Street towards Advocates Close and will take three years to complete. Chris Stewart said: “Although this site was challenging for us due to its sensitive nature and historic context, we were sure it could provide Motel One with everything they were looking for. I hope that Market Street is the first of many projects which we do with Motel One.”

As far as the office market is concerned, the first quarter saw a fall from the level of September- December 2010. Even so, it was a healthy 13,935 sq.metres

(150,000 sq.ft.) in 39 deals.

Small is beautiful

Apart from a shortage of prime offices, industrial property is also under increasing pressure because of a lack of new speculative schemes. The most acute problems are in the smaller and medium sized units because the big shed market is now quiet. “Demand in the smaller end is there but there is a requirement for more units up to 2,787 sq.metres (30,000 sq.ft.),“ said Alan Gilkison of Ryden.

One of the problems is the difficulty of prising funding out of banks, he added, noting the fact that demand from manufacturing companies has become more prevalent. Gilkison quoted the example of two engineering companies who have brought production back from the Far East to Glasgow because of the need to improve quality.

One scheme that caters for current demand is at Clyde Gateway East, a development of three units totalling 5,620 sq.metres (60,500 sq.ft.) At Bathgate, J Smart has bought a 6.05 acre site close to Junction 3A of the M8 motorway from Scottish Enterprise to build 4,665 sq.metres (50,218 sq.ft.) of distribution, business and warehouse space.

Bryce Stewart of Colliers International, joint letting agent with Ryden, said: “There is increasing activity in the smaller sized market, with the industrial sector currently more robust thanothers.” One manufacturing company expanding in Scotland is Rearo Laminates which has opened a new 1,022 sq.metres (11,000 sq.ft.) plant in Govan. In addition it has opened a new depot on the Longman Industrial Estate, Inverness, complementing existing outlets at Rosyth, Glasgow and Tyne & Wear.

Rearo’s Graham Mercer said: “In addition to the Inverness depot, an opportunity arose to expand our manufacturing business within Glasgow and the property at Drumoyne Road will allow us to do this fairly readily with little or no disruption to our production lines and, as importantly, our staff.”

Attractive Aberdeen

An example of the attractions of Aberdeen is that, for its first investment in Scotland, Arium, the fund manager, is poised to buy the recently completed 11,613sq.metres (125,000 sq.ft.) IQ building on Justice Mill Lane, which brought a yield of 6.5%.

The attraction is that the property was quickly let to two energy companies, Centrica and Wood Group. It underlines the status of Aberdeen as a top regional city since there is so little empty space available. Another significant transaction is the sale of the 9,290 sq.metres (100,000 sq.ft.) former warehouse of Diamond Envelopes at Dyce (now occupied by oil and gas supplier Petrowell) for £6.7 million to Highcross. The yield is 9%.

Chris Grinyer of J&E Shepherd, who acted for Diamond, said: “The sizeable sale is one of the largest industrial buildings sold in Aberdeen in recent years.”

Minting it at Minto

The pace of new development in Aberdeen has been maintained and has generally surpassed other parts of Scotland.

For example, Knight Property Group has now completed the second phase of the 11 acre Minto Commercial Park, Altens scheme and will move onto the final phase on Site 6. So far, Knight has invested £20 million over a three year period in Minto. Knight’s Howard Crawshaw said: “Being involved in a regeneration project such as this has been extremely satisfying.”

Elsewhere at Minto, Brinker Technology (represented by J&E Sheppard) has leased the 1,115 sq.metres (12,000 sq.ft.) Renewable Energy Centre, a warehouse and office property. Graham & Sibbald acted for the landlord.

Also being developed is Stockland Muir’s Aberdeen Gateway Business Park as part of a 45 acre mixed use scheme of industrial units and offices. Stockland Muir commented: “We will capitalise on a strong occupational market and an apparent shortage of good quality industrial stock. As the oil price has risen above $100 a barrel our marketing agents have experienced a significant increase in enquiries for properties in the 929-1,394 sq.metres (10,000-15,000 sq.ft.) range.

The geographical spread of developments around Aberdeen is impressive with a speculative scheme for houses, a waste recycling centre, technology units and business centre at Alford, a village outside the city. Also, ten miles from the city centre, two new detached office pavilions have been completed on the Kingseat Business Park and are being marketed through Knight Frank and DM Hall.

Sparkle in the Highlands

Although it appears to be far north in the Highlands, Inverness has recently had a sparkling commercial property market. The most significant transaction is Roxhill Developments starting on a seven year plan with Inverness Airport Business Park to develop 37,160 sq.metres (400,000 sq.ft.) at the airport. Roxhill’s David Keir said: “This is one of our most significant investments to date. Inverness is a fast growing city, yet it has a real shortage of industrial space.”

According to agent Graham & Sibbald, it has had 14 transactions in the past two months “which is an encouraging sign of increased activity throughout the Highlands and Islands.” These deals included six industrial units ranging from 12,995 sq.metres (139,880 sq.ft.) to a small unit as well as city centre office investments in Inverness, Lochalsh and South Uist. In Skye and Lochalsh demand for industrial units exceeds supply, the agent said.

Positive monitor

While the recovery in the UK economy may be creaking, the outlook for property appears to be improving.

The latest ICAEW/Grant Thornton confidence monitor found that in the second quarter 57% of professionals in the property sector are more confident about economic prospects for the next 12 months compared with the past year. Only 12% are less confident. Interestingly, the monitor records that the drivers of increased business confidence are manufacturing and property. Specifically on property, the confidence index was 24.5 points compared with only 2.9 points in the first quarter of 2011. Clare Hartnell of Grant Thornton said: “The days of pre-recession growth may now be in the past, but the rise in confidence points to the sector taking assertive steps to a more prosperous era.”

These general findings are broadly experienced in Scotland where Aberdeen continues to perform strongly while both Edinburgh and Glasgow are coming up against a shortage of Grade A office space which is limiting choice and will act on take up. The shortage also extends to industrial property, notably at the smaller end where there remains an appetite for buying freeholds.

But there are plenty of positive events throughout the country, such as the refinancing of Maxim Office Park, a major Canadian investment in Edinburgh and new schemes in Inverness.

According to Knight Frank, high oil prices drove the Aberdeen office market in 2010 with an increase of a third to 32,329 sq.metres (348,400 sq.ft.) take up. This trend has continued into 2011 with take up already matching the whole of last year. Rents are the highest of any UK regional city at £333.56 a sq.metre (£31 a sq.ft.) paid by Centrica at IQ and incentives are also considerably below those prevailing in the rest of the country.

Knight Frank’s Katherine Monro said: “With oil prices well in excess of $100 a barrel, activity is expected to remain healthy in 2011.” achieved before then because Pace is apparently negotiating for floor by floor lettings. In any case there are potential occupiers seeking new space, such as the law firm Mills & Reeve.

Mastering the motorway

Looking ahead beyond the tough economic conditions, East Renfrewshire Council, Scottish Enterprise and Patterton SPV (in Administration) has appointed Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) to prepare a master plan and economic assessment for development sites along the M77 corridor. JLL said it is designed to challenge future land use assumptions and identify options that will help long term sustainable economic growth in East Renfrewshire and the city region. Craig Wallace of JLL said: “The study will seek to identify short, medium and long term actions, as well as considering deliverability from a planning, technical and market perspective.”

Miller Developments is certainly taking the long view and is backing this up by buying sites. It has bought the 120 acre former home of the Hillman Imp car at Linwood from the Receivers of Mountgrange. The site has planning permission for a mixed use scheme but Miller is now discussing prospective schemes with the local authority.

One long term problem increasingly rearing its head is the shortage of Grade A office space throughout the UK. Mike Buchan of JLL said: “In contrast, Grade B office space carries significantly more downside risk for landlords and, while we have seen many significant releases of this type of office space by occupiers, we expect its level to remain inflated. “

Clearly the logic of the market is that more Grade B space will be refurbished or converted, some to residential use. Interestingly, some commercial values are being cut in central Glasgow, as witness two potential restaurant/retail sites in Mitchell Street, close to the top shopping venues of Buchanan and Argyle Streets.

Mark Broderick of James Barr said: “The market has quietened down compared with 2010 and is subdued with deals taking longer to complete. This is a good time for potential occupiers, but they are putting off moving.” One property that has come onto the market is the 4,162 sq.metres (44,800 sq.ft.) former Virgin Media call centre at 60 Maxwell Street, a stand alone property on a landscaped site. It can be leased or purchased through JLL.

Northern M25 lags

In a steadily improving office market in the three areas of the M25, there was a rise in the vacancy rate in the northern section in the first quarter of the year. Indeed there was a near 25% increase in the availability in size of 4,645 to 9,290 sq.m. while the smaller spaces had only small increases, reports Colliers International.

The vacancy rate in the area is now a record 20%. Broadly speaking, rents in the northern section are lower than in the Thames Valley with, for example, Milton Keynes and St Albans at around £226 a sq.m. Colliers’ Philip Papenfus said of the M25 market:”It is a positive sign that we are now seeing some resurgence in speculative office development and funding. The technology and media sectors continue to see healthy growth.”

Major scheme for Weybridge

One of the largest office developments in Surrey is planned by Rockspring and Exton Estates with a 9,596 sq.metres (103,296 sq.ft.) scheme at the Arrows, Weybridge. The Grade A project named Velocity is on a site which Rockspring UK Value Fund bought from Mercedes for £4.25 million in January. It will have 370 car parking spaces. Rockspring’s Richard Bains commented: “We are confident that, in selected locations, now is the right time to bring newproducts to the market, putting us ahead of anticipated competition.”

Also in Weybridge, Verint Systems has leased a 1,918 sq.metres (20,648 sq.ft.) office from the Merseyside Pension Fund through agent Hurst Warne. There is a long rent free period and the rent is £247.48 a sq.metre (£23 a sq.ft.).

Persistence brings reward

Peter Symons of Locate in Kent, the inward investment agency, has been unwavering in his efforts to get a major wind turbine manufacturing facility in the county.

His arguments have always been that the Kent coast is a logical place to manufacture wind turbines for the growing number of turbine farms in the North Sea and around the coast of the UK.

This has paid off handsomely with the world leader in this technology, the Danish company Vestas, choosing Sheerness for its manufacturing plant. This follows the German company Siemens locating an £80 million turbine manufacturing factory in Hull.

Symons said: “The Vestas plant will build on the county’s already excellent credentials, its two existing wind farms and another under construction, (London Array) which, once complete, will be the world’s largest.”

He views the wind energy industry as a key growth sector for the UK and has been aware for some time that Kent has a particularly important role to play. This long term commitment meant Locate in Kent starting talking to London Array six years ago and Vestas in 2010. “The Kent coastline has several ports and harbours with excellent facilities to support both construction and operations and maintenance activities,“Symons said.

“Sheerness Port is part of the Medway Superhub, which offers more than 200 hectares of development land.” Other factors that help the arguments for Kent are its position between the English Channel and the North Sea and the good links to London, the rest of the UK and the continent. As part of this initiative, the Swale Skill Centre is being aligned to the offshore wind industry and DONG, which has a 50% stake in the London Array, is supporting 8 apprenticeships. Symons’ aim now is to attract other wind turbine manufacturers to the county as well as ancillary suppliers. The Vestas plant should be in full production by 2015.

Chatham Waterfront

Chatham has proved to be a highly successful regeneration and is now entering a new phase. Chatham historic wharf has obtained planning permission for a £25 million mixed use scheme as the first stage of awider development of the Chatham Waterfront. It will be developed by a combination of Medway Council, A2 Dominion Housing and Watts Charity and will have an 80 bedroom hotel, leisure and commercial space in an area which has been attracting an increasing flow of tourists.

Art leads the way

Roger de Haan, the former boss of the Saga holiday business, will see the next stage of the crusade to transform Folkestone into a vibrant economy this month with the Triennial Festival. This is a series of events in the town to attract visitors and instil confidence in the local population. At the heart of the programme is art, including sculpture in the streets, together with tours and exhibitions.

The first festival was three years ago and has already made an impact on the town. Now Margate, with its run down entertainment area, has joined Folkestone in the arts led marketing stakes with its Turner Contemporary Gallery. As part of this, there have been improvements to the old town of Margate to add better facilities. This process is in the early stages so it is hard to judge what will be the long term impact although experience in other parts of the UK, such as in Newcastle with the Sage Music Centre and Baltic Gallery, indicate arts can play a vital role in regeneration.

The Turner is just one aspect of the effort to change Margate. Others include regeneration at the Theatre Royal, Winter Gardens, Walpole Hotel and, in particular, the Dreamland Amusement Park. This is now subject to a compulsory purchase order by Thanet Council as part of the plans for revival of the art deco landmark.

The council wants to speed the process up because of the danger of losing the grants which have been made available for Dreamland. But the landowner, the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company, will fight the CPO. Leader of Margate Council, Cllr. Bob Bayford, said: ”Significant funds are being invested in this project and we are not prepared to jeopardise the investment in the town. We also know how important the regeneration of Dreamland is both to local people and to Margate’s economic future. It’s a key site for the town along with Turner Contemporary and we believe what’s being planned for Dreamland will help turn Margate’s fortunes round.”

Making things

The improvement in manufacturing which has helped the industrial property market throughout the UK has played a part in the three counties. The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) is solidly behind this change and has awarded ULTRaMo, which is based in Haywards Heath, a grant of £88,740 towards the cost of its work on a revolutionary internal combustion engine which is expected to bring greater fuel efficiency.

The money has allowed the company to design a proof-ofconcept demonstrator of its engine. It believes that it has the potential to halve the carbon output in mechanical power applications and achieve thermal efficiency of 60%, double that of current engines.

Kings Hill success

The secret of the success of Kings Hill is that its owners, Liberty International, maintain a central policy of expansion and adding new facilities. It is the long view, with the aim of creating a major investment.

The latest move is for the planning of the central area to bring in a large Waitrose and other retailing. Another aspect of this is that Liberty will invest £2 million in refurbishing the control tower that played such a vital role in this former RAF Fighter Command base. Clearly, Liberty is producing the goods because Kings Hill has achieved a high score in a CB Richard Ellis Placemaking analysis. This assesses ten elements in an area including the vision, commercial and community provision and infrastructure as well as the architecture.

Kings Hill received the highest overall score and as the citation said: “Although each element is essential, Kings Hill succeeded in arguably the most important way, reacting to local and potential demand and matching the product accurately and phasing delivery accordingly.” What has resulted is, according to the report, a clear sense of community and one of the most expensive post codes in the county.

Other components in the success of Kings Hill were the provision of public open space, with playgrounds, a golf course and cricket pitch together with access to a vast woodland area. This has helped both the

residential and commercial aspects of Kings Hill and set the bar for other business parks.

Coming back in Crawley

Totting up the recent transactions, and those in the pipeline, reveals a healthier market in Crawley and Gatwick.

The main beneficiary is the industrial sector although there have been a number of office deals, such as Amey OWR Limited taking Explorer II which comprised 2,052 sq.metres (22,805 sq.ft.), through GVA and FTDJOHNS. Low Cost Holidays has also taken 1,394 sq.metres (15,000 sq.ft.) in Spectrum House, City Place. KBA were joint agents with FTDJOHNS. Tilgate 4, comprising 24,000 sq.ft. has been sold by Stiles Harold Williams and Knight Frank to OCS Group, which has resulted in OCS Group’s Gatwick site of 2 acres being released to the market.

“The notable change this year has been the number of transactions which have been completed on quality buildings, both in the office and industrial markets. The wave of interest in the industrial sector is starting to fall away due to lack of quality stock,” said Michael Deacon- Jackson of FTDJOHNS He noted that a shortage of suitable buildings was looming because some of those on the market had, for example, small yards or relatively low eaves. “Essentially occupiers want the exact building for their requirements,” Deacon-Jackson said. He also listed a wide range of deals that show that the market had broadened out, such as 3 new occupiers in Gatwick International. Another significant transaction was Tesco agreeing to lease 11,148 sq.metres (120,000 sq.ft.) distribution unit from Lynton. Eskimo Ice has completed its purchase of 1 Whitworth Road and the 4,181 sq.metres (45,000 sq.ft.) Axial is under offer in its entirety.

Spreading a little joy

Whether it is the dynamic of London spreading out to the counties or just enhanced confidence, the fact is that sentiment in the region has improved, even if tentatively. Backing this view there have been a number of significant events, including plans for a new wind turbine plant in Sheerness and a number of new development plans, such as at Kings Hill. The opening of the Turner Gallery in Margate, adding to the cultural facilities on the south coast, follows the big push by Folkestone to use arts as a platform for regeneration. This will clearly also be the theme in Margate which has been hit as hard as any UK resort by the departure of people to holidays abroad.

Promoting the arts as a vehicle for regeneration is now well established in Brighton with its annual festival but this is a city with a broad range of facilities including thriving theatres and a substantial art gallery/museum. The rise in confidence is well illustrated by Jeff East of Acorn who said: “There are genuine signs of recovery in the market and an increase in the volume of enquiries which brought strong results in our offices in the first quarter.”

He believes the professional side of the business has now become accustomed to the parameters of the current market and this has brought the rise in enquiries “across a wide variety of instructions.” Another aspect of this is that competition for properties has increased from well funded occupiers and from cash rich investors. In the case of Acorn, it has meant a good first quarter and the prospect of a stronger year than in 2010, which in itself experienced a reasonable level of business. So far, the agency has been busy with the sale of a part built development in Beckenham and a 3.75 acre industrial site in Abbey Wood for PwC as well as two Kingdom Halls for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In Sussex at East Grinstead, Acorn has handled the acquisition of a former Caffyns Vauxhall dealership for a private investor.