Rebuilding Bromley

Bromley has joined nearby Croydon in ambitious plans for town centre regeneration.

The Bromley master plan names 12 opportunity areas for offices, hotels, housing and, in particular, shops, in a £1 billion plan that will need private developer involvement. Among the sites is one west of the High Street that could have 19,974 sq.metres (215,000 sq.ft.) of shopping and 1,180 residential units. Included in the proposals is a major extension of the Glades Shopping Centre.

Two sites have already gone to developers; Land Group will turn the town hall into a 150 bedroom hotel and Cathedral Group will embark on a £300 million scheme in Westmoreland Road.

In the case of Croydon, the master plan for the key site between George Street to the north and the High Street to the west, in the heart of the metropolitan centre, has been up for public consultation in September and October.

The area has some impressive buildings, such as the art deco Gas Board property and also the headquarters of Nestle UK, but it suffers from a poor quality public realm and the legacy of the 1960s St George’s Walk Shopping Precinct.

Bromley based Jeff East of Acorn has already put together a deal for a Travelodge in the town, one of four in the immediate area, the others being in Sidcup, Bexleyheath, and East Grinstead (which will have a Wilkinson store as part of the scheme).

"Generally speaking the lettings we have transacted have been small. The investment activity has been from private buyers, such as the portfolio of 11 freeholds we sold, three of them let to Swintons," East said. He noted that business had become harder in the past two months "but we have had a good year and double that of 2010."

Showing the way

As politicians struggle with the closure of the massive Pfizer research base at Sandwich, now renamed Discovery Park, they will surely take a long look at the examples of Kent Science Park (KSP) and Kings Hill.

Each of these is a model of intensive and focused management together with the benefits of long term investors, La Salle Investment Management at KSP and Liberty Property Trust at Kings Hill. The problem at Sandwich is the sheer scale of the site with 278,700 sq.m. of laboratory, storage and office space. Enterprise Zone status will help but CBRE still faces a mammoth task.

In the case of KSP, the former Shell facility has been turned into a science park with a range of high technology companies in 55 acres of landscaped grounds serviced by a range of amenities such as a café and shop, gym and swimming pool together with meeting rooms and a lecture theatre. There is planning permission to expand on an adjoining site which will allow for future growth. That is the focus of Site Director, James Speck, and his experienced staff. "The expansion of Sheerness and the location of the Vestas wind turbine factory there will put pressure on the infrastructure, as will the regeneration of Sittingbourne town centre."

That will lead to upgrading of the transport and power supplies, he says, including the vital link to the M2 motorway which will become more important as Sheerness and KSP grow. That link could come from the northern relief road for Sittingbourne. Speck says simply: "The future is bright. Never forget that we have some big businesses in this area and we are a jumping off point for continental Europe."

Another important pointer to the future is that Speck has fostered relationships with universities, including Greenwich, Imperial, University College London (UCL) and Kent. Another peg for the future plans is closer ties with France to foster cross channel business activity.

Given the nature of the occupiers, such as the recently arrived Toximet, a product of the University of Greenwich, it is not surprising that KSP has an advanced broadband network. "We are looking at the idea of clustering that would link small operators and we have the facilities to foster that, including speculatively built laboratories to suit individual needs," said Speck. His success shows with the steady rise of the occupancy rate which is 77% now and will reach 82% by the year’s end.

New JV Buys in Tonbridge

One financial organisation that has been taking advantage of the decline of the property market is Palmer Capital.

It continues to follow its route into joint ventures in different parts of the UK, mainly through funding successful developers who understand their local market. The new £25 million joint venture is, however, with a financial organisation.

Fleming Financial Services is a UK financial adviser with a high net worth international client base, with a particular focus on Africa and the Far East. The fund has completed its first deal in acquiring a Sainsbury store in Tonbridge, Kent where the deal was struck at a yield of 5.25%. The JV will concentrate on properties in the price range of £1 million to £10 million.