Commercial property blog

By Tori Turner

You might like to think that the property industry hasn’t got a drug problem – but you’re wrong.
 
It cannot be denied that in today’s austere times, most of the heady excesses have gone out of the window, and anyone visibly under-performing at work will come under renewed scrutiny.

But when the investment market was approaching its peak, blizzards of cocaine were blowing through the nostrils of property types in Hanover Square.

And who were those most likely to be rolling up a crisp £20 note? Without question Continue reading »

By David Hatcher

I’ve never seen a Jaguar taxi before.

But then again, I hadn’t been to Aberdeen before either.

It looked quite strange, the sleek, dark blue S-Type with a bright light on top.

I could also barely believe the answer I got to that age old back seat question – ‘How’s business then?’.

Credit crunch or no credit crunch, the chance of a cabbie anywhere in the world responding: ‘Just fine thanks. Plenty going round’ is pretty remote.

But as I said, I’d never been to Aberdeen before.

My first visit had been prompted by the opportunity to visit Hammerson’s Union Square shopping centre http://www.unionsquareaberdeen.com/ that is due to complete in October.
Sure, it was a long way to go just to visit a shopping centre but it could be the last opportunity of its sort that I was going to get in a while.

A new £250m, 700,000 sq ft centre, with a 10 screen digital cinema, a 200 bed hotel and a 1700 space car park.
I can’t see that popping up again in many press releases going forward.

Delivering a new centre in to the worst market in living memory is a daunting prospect but if you had to be opening up anywhere, it’d be Aberdeen.

Oil Continue reading »

By Richard Crook

Thanks for all the comments on the accurate predictions!

I wish I had put some money on winning by lunch and a Freddie 5 wicket haul!

Great game, Strauss was proved right in not enforcing the follow on – maybe the press will leave him alone for a while now.

Pleased Freddie was man of the match but personally I would have gone for Strauss, 160 runs leading from the front.

The game was won in the first 2 days despie a little wobble! But Fred showed great heart, and as always led the bowling attack.

Swann also did well, and Anderson in the first innings, the others look weak at the moment.

Edgbaston next – probably a flat track so could be a draw, but I suspect along with others KP won’t be fot, so expect a recall for Bell, and personally I would drop Onions for Harmison.

10 days with no cricket, what am I going to do?! Yes that’s it – catch up on work……especially if our Managing Partner  is reading this!

By Nigel Thompson

Early start today as off to Gatwick to catch a flight to Scotland.

Looking at a couple more sites there but probably for the second group of openings.

I just feel that the first store needs to be a bit closer to home so we can keep an eye on it and be ready to react to any problems, which there will inevitably be in the first few months.

Starting to give much more thought to shopfit, branding and logos etc – an area of the business I am woefully under qualified to handle!! Never really had to deal with these topics being a retail agent!

I do have a couple of good contacts who are helping out on this so I am confident that the final shopfit and branding will appear like a lot of effort has been spent getting it right and that it will look like it belongs in a modern day UK Shopping Centre – which of course are the best in the world.

By Richard Crook

Another day, another week, however this Monday morning has a different feel to it doesn’t it?

Whatever happens history will be made at Lords today, will England get there first Lords ashes win for over 70 years, or will the Aussies chase down the mammoth 525 to win?
 
Well the history of test cricket has to say England will down them out.

Teams chasing 400 to win the history of test cricket you can count on one hand, let alone 500.

An early wicket and England should polish them off – but with this Ashes series you just know it won’t be that simple, there will be twists and turns all day.
 
The safest prediction is that it won’t be a draw!!
 
Anyway, who am I to argue with test history, I don’t think a team can get over 500 batting last in a test, so I am going for an England win with Freddie taking 5 wickets to finish his Lords career in style

By Richard Crook

Teams as predicted for Lords, we are getting quite good at this!

Australia were put to the sword for 3 hours at Lords yesterday as England finally found some batting form.

Cook and Strauss putting on 196, before Cook fell for 95.

He must have one of the worst conversion rates from 50 to 100!

Sadly at that point it all started to go wrong.

What is it with this England middle order tham they know no longer seem to be able to build a proper test innings.

They seem obsessed with boundaries from ball one and play one day innings in a test – and pay the price.

Captain Strauss the exception of course, what a great innings.

Hope he gets to 200 today – sadly I predict he’ll be out early today and England will struggle to get to 450, when we should have been looking at 500 to 600.

Credit those pesty aussies, they really don’t give up and they stuck to it yesterday – except Mitchell Johnson, as Boycott says, he couldn’t even get my mum out! He bowled like a drain – good news for England.

Prediction of rain, and lots of it today, well its currently lovely and sunny at Lords with 30 mins to go.

Let’s have your views on yesterday and where you think England will go today.

By Nigel Thompson

I was in Euston Station yesterday morning, catching an early train to Holyhead.

Nothing too strange about this but it was the first time I had been there since I started working for myself.

Previously, I used to catch trains from Euston to the North West almost fortnightly to attend various letting and management meetings.

It was a little strange to be standing there in jeans and a T shirt while all around me there was the usual bustle of suited executives rushing between platforms.

The biggest difference however was that I was not there in any work capacity (heading to see a friend for a couple of days) and I was certainly not sitting in first class!

I have been sitting at my desk writing business plans etc for the last 72 hours and a bit of sea air should help with the creative process. As I am heading to North Wales, I’ll probably leave the sun cream at home!

Nige

By Milena Margaritova

Three weeks ago Amsterdam-based INREV (European Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles) organized a two-day Young Professionals Seminar in Barcelona.
For me, some of the many takeaways from the event were the following:

1. The dark times are not as dark as they seem…but only for those with a low-leverage investment policy (which probably applies to about 1 in 100 investors and investment managers).

2. The real estate industry is more exciting than ever…the excitement stemming mainly from the nerve-wrecking uncertainty surrounding the return on investment from about any real estate related activity you can think of.

3. Gaudí’s  Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain is finally scheduled to be completed in 2026, 100 years after the architect’s death and 144 years after the start of construction.

4. Successful managers are by definition incompetent as shown by Continue reading »

By Richard Crook

Wow, what a great test match! We thought the 2005 series would take some beating, but this has to be as good as any of those games.

Very similar to the 2005 Old Trafford Test where the Aussies hung on for a draw, this time the boot was on the other foot!

Looks like maybe we got our batting order the wrong way around as well, heroic performance from the England tail to save the draw, particularly Anderson and Monty after the heroics of Colly to bat for 6 hours.
Questions have to be asked why Continue reading »

By Mark Shepherd

There is something a little poignant about visiting Longbridge in Birmingham.

It was once an industrial sprawl of 6,000 workers building famous cars such as the Austin Rover and the original Mini – the jewel in the crown of the British car industry.

Cars once rolled off the production lines in their thousands. All that is left now are the footprints of those vast halls scorched into the earth. Somehow, the spirits of those who worked there still appear to linger.

But a re-birth is under way. St Modwen invited a group of investors on Wednesday to tour the site and show just how it is going about decontaminating the land to make it fit for redevelopment.

The scale of what it is undertaking is hard to calculate until you actually see it. St Modwen has had to clear up decades of industrial waste and some particularly nasty hazards before it could even contemplate sketching out a future for the site. This, for me, is real property development.

This is because Longbridge had the potential to be Continue reading »