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."

Ripley in Halifax

Two transactions in Halifax add to the growing evidence of a more widespread recovery in the property market. Ripley Asset Management has paid a private investor £1.78 million for retail property at 26-30 Southgate let to Sports Direct and Banana Beach Tanning. Michael Hardman of Ripley said: “Halifax town centre is a popular retail destination with a high footfall.

There are now signs that both the residential and commercial property markets are beginning to recover, albeit slowly, and we are ready to seize attractive investment opportunities.” Also in Halifax St James Securities has completed the refurbishment of the Grade II listed 372 sq.metres (4,000 sq.ft.) Shaw Lodge House into 10 office suites. Oliver Quarmby of St James said: “We have restored the splendid Shaw Lodge House to its former glory. The refurbishment is the first major piece of work on the path to restoring the mill complex.”

Rewarding army town

Catterick is another town which is going ahead with regeneration in a deal between Lingfield Securities and Defence Estates. The £15 million project will create around 11,148 sq.metres (120,000 sq.ft.) of retailing and leisure as well as an 80 bedroom hotel and 285 car parking spaces. Advised by GVA, Defence Estates’ Geoff Dixon commented: “Our first priority is supporting our armed services and their families.

We look forward to working with Lingfield to ensure that a sustainable community for the soldiers, their families and the local population is delivered at no cost to the MOD budget.” Paul Brewer of GVA said: “We are already seeing major interest from large national retailers looking to gain representation within the scheme.” There has been a considerable amount of regeneration in Catterick, such as the leisure centre, and the plan is to link all the new sites.

Full steam ahead in Doncaster

While many cities and towns in Yorkshire cut back on regeneration, Doncaster appears determined to maintain its effort for improvement. It has started building the new civic and cultural centre with a ground breaking ceremony where the mayor, Peter Davies, said: “This has the potential to be a catalyst or stimulating growth in our economy. The intention is to create a destination that complements our quality shopping and market areas and encourages more visitors and businesses to Doncaster.” Michael Broadhead of Muse Developments, which is undertaking the scheme with the council, said: “The ivic Quarter will really set the standard for further new buildings in the town and region.”

The scheme is being partly financed by the European Union and later this year construction will commence on a performance centre, civic square and housing (bringing it back into the centre of Doncaster). In later hases there will be a library, swimming pool and leisure facility, further town centre housing, commercial offices and additional parking. Such is Doncaster’s confidence in the scheme that it has released a video to promote the town and its new facilities to a wide audience throughout the UK. Meanwhile, Doncaster will become part of the new local enterprise partnerships which replace the regional development authorities. In this case, in the Sheffield City Region which includes Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales and North-East Derbyshire.

This region has witnessed a considerable amount of new development and regeneration and has done particularly well in terms of distribution and warehouse schemes. In turn this has attracted new investment, such as HSBC buying the final phase of Valad and Shepherd Developments’ West Moor Park scheme in Doncaster for a £9.1 million, a yield of 7.3%. The 14,864 sq.metres (160,000 sq.ft.) Quattro warehouse is let to Scotts Miracle-Gro.Richard Squire of Shepherd said: “West Moor Park is now well established and a prime location in the Doncaster area and, indeed, in the whole of Yorkshire and Humber region and epitomises the renaissance of South Yorkshire to the past decade.”

New shops in Luton and Basildon

One sign that the pressure of the recession is easing is that two major towns are likely to get major new shopping facilities. Basildon Council is pushing ahead with the big mixed use scheme in the town centre now that the Barratt/Bowden Wilson joint venture has been appointed to carry it out. This will have 51,979 sq.metres (559,520 sq.ft.) of retailing and leisure and slightly more than that for offices. There will also be 1,900 residential units together with enhanced civic facilities and infrastructure improvements.

A spokesman for the developers said: “Basildon is a good place to invest, with great potential for growth.” In Luton, British Land is expected to take over the stalled £200 million PowerCourt retail development from Ballymore, which owns around 40% of the site, the rest being with the council and the Environment Agency. The plan is expected to have 46,450 sq.metres (500,000 sq.ft.) of retailing and 200 homes.

Up 65% in Western Corridor

The confidence is flowing back into the Thames Valley market as agents experience a rise in lettings and key towns perform again. The figures bear this out with Jones Lang LaSalle reporting a 65% rise in office take up for the Western Corridor in 2010 compared with the previous year to a total of 5,090 sq.metres (2.1 million sq.ft.). The impetus in the third quarter came from a number of large deals. What is gratifying is that the average deal size was up substantially on 2009 at 1,830 sq.metres (19,700 sq.ft.). JLL’s James Finnis commented: “Office take up in the Western Corridor was relatively silient in 2010.

The deals were generally driven by lease events and consolidation rather than expansion, with the focus of activity remaining in town centres, which accounted for more than two-thirds of last year’s expansion.” Bracknell is a good example of this trend with Simon Fryer of Fryer commercial reporting that “the office market fared well last year with close to 18,580 sq.metres (200,000 sq.ft.) let which is not far off the five year average.” In his opinion, companies view Bracknell as “offering the best value office accommodation in the region.” As in the rest of the UK, the market is dominated by short leases. Fryer believes that Bracknell suffers from a shortage of quality small office suites, which Fenchurch Estates is seeking to remedy through their 2, The Braccans, London Road scheme, which was previously occupied by Johnson & Johnson. Fryer Commercial has let one unit and has other potential occupiers lined up.

At One the Braccans, Brocade Communications, a US technology firm, has leased 2,276 sq.metres (24,500 sq.ft.) at £193.68 a sq.metre (£18 a sq.ft.) through Studley. James Page of Page Hardy said: “With prime rents at around £193.68 a sq.metre (£18 a sq.ft.) in Bracknell and substantial incentives on offer, it has become very inviting for occupiers which has brought a good deal of activity over the past year.” He added that there is also a degree of demand from other use classes demonstrated by the sale of Benedict House to Fisher for serviced apartments. Strutt & Parker and Fryer Commercial were joint agents. “There are encouraging signs for 2011 which has started with a number of active requirements touring the town. There are also signs of strong demand from residential uses for some of the vacant offices,” Page said.