£50 million Exeter project

Exeter is in line for a major development with Network Rail seeking a partner for a £50 million project adjacent to Exeter St David’s.

The 6 acre site could support more than 13,935 sq.metres (150,000 sq.ft.) of mixed use space together with a better transport interchange to mate in with Network Rail’s work on the station. There will also be a new public park.

The likelihood is that the scheme would have student accommodation, offices and a hotel. Network Rail’s plan is to fund the scheme by passing the freehold, or a long leasehold, onto the developer once two parts of the project are completed: the multi storey car park and the train crew accommodation.

Lightening up

The mood has lightened in Edinburgh as the office market experiences a stronger performance. As a result there is a growing appetite for new developments, as shown by Gladedale seeking a funding partner for the next stage of its £450 million Quartermile project at the 19acres of the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary site.

When completed, it will have 900 homes, two hotels, retailing, leisure, 7 acres of landscaped gardens and 35,515 sq.metres (350,000 sq.ft.) of offices. Another major site has come onto the market with Lloyds Bank putting the 13 acres of the former Scottish & Newcastle Brewery next to Edinburgh’s Exchange District on the market. It has planning permission for a mixed use scheme of residential, leisure, student accommodation and retailing.

Jasper Masters of CBRE, who is reviewing funding options, said: “A lot of investors will want a trophy site within the UK.” The difficulty of finding suitable investments in London means “it makes sense to look further to places that are still internationally recognised and doing well, such as Edinburgh.” Stewart Taylor, also of CBRE, said of the Edinburgh office market that “despite the largely unchanged levels of new build stock, the indicators are encouraging following a good first quarter in terms of take up and an increasingly tangible schedule of demand.”

“The availability of mid market large floor plates, good quality accommodation on flexible terms has proved attractive to occupiers such as Amazon.”

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Cambridge builds for student boom

As part of a mixed use scheme on 26 acres around Station Road, Cambridge, Powell Williams, the project management firm, is to manage the £40 million construction of student accommodation.

Student housing has been one of the growth sectors for the property industry in the current period of hard economic times. In the case of Cambridge, it will be 511 bedrooms in three buildings for Anglia Ruskin University. Andrew Marshall of Powell Williams commented: “The growing requirement for high quality student accommodation shows no sign of waning and demonstrates how this one area of the market is booming, while others are suffering. Such schemes are offering one of the only streams for new build investment opportunities in the current market.”

The key to this is that such schemes can raise private capital; in this case forward funding from LaSalle Investment. John Yeend of LaSalle said: “This project offers a unique opportunity to participate in the reinvigoration of this part of Cambridge through the development of new facilities for Anglia Ruskin University, alongside the wider development of new homes, hotels, shops, offices and public space.”

The scheme has been designed by TP Bennett Architects and is designed to meet the BREEAM excellent sustainability rating, which is an increasingly important requirement on new buildings. According to Mike Ayton of Juniper Estates, the Cambridge office market continues to be active and the first half take up, together with deals in the pipeline, indicates that the total for the year will be over 37,160 sq.metres. “Companies like Jagex and Arm are expanding and we are getting to the point when developers need to go for speculative schemes. The vacancy rate for good buildings is only 3.5%.”