Commercial Property News

The on-going and successful regeneration of Sheffield is set to take another major step forward with the announcement that Sheffield City Council has appointed Castlemore Securities Limited, one of the UK's largest private property developers, as its preferred partner for the £315 million development of a dynamic new riverside quarter in Sheffield city centre to provide over 1 million sqft (93,000 sqm) of new mixed use space.


The proposals are the latest in a series of high profile regeneration projects in Sheffield and will regenerate a significant and prominent part of the city centre known as West Bar. The scheme will include 500,000 sqft (46,500 sqm) of new grade A office space, 90,000 sqft (8,400 sqm) of new retail and leisure space, including a new foodstore, bars, restaurants and shops, a 240 bed 4 or 5 star hotel and 550 new apartments of which an element will be affordable. The proposals also intend to include new facilities for the University's School of Architecture that will also be open to the public.


Adjacent to a new section of the northern relief road currently being built, the site is triangular in shape and bounded by West Bar, Corporation Street and Bridge Street on the northern edge of the city centre, the site is 7.51 acres (3.04 hectares) in size and currently comprises a number of vacant and derelict employment sites and surface level car parking.

With some land prices rising by a massive 700% in just one year, the eyes of smart investors are now turning quickly to Romania which is set to become one of the biggest new boom areas for major overseas property and land investment.

Chindia Estates is a key player in the Romanian property investment business linking potential investors with some remarkable property and land investments. The Romanian based company is leading the way with an unrivalled portfolio of property and land options.

The investment 'hot spots' and where the greatest opportunities lie for investors are Bucharest, Constanta, Brasov, Cluj, Timisoara, Oradea, Ploiesti and Targoviste. Property prices in the year 2003 - 2004 showing an incredible 40% increase.

Chindia Estates website

Premier Travel Inn, part of Whitbread Plc, plans to open an 80-room hotel at Nottingham East Midlands Airport in summer 2006. Contracts have been exchanged with East Midlands International Airport Ltd and planning permission is being sought for the £2m investment, which will also feature an integral restaurant.

Deborah Parker, property director at Premier Travel Inn, says: "This is a great opportunity for Whitbread and Premier Travel Inn, as it complements our existing network of hotels and ensures that we have good quality representation at key transport hubs around the country."

Open weekend, 24-25th September 2005

The simple, accessible and affordable route to classic car motoring, The Classic Car Club provides the easiest way to enjoy your favourite cars at any time of the year, without any of the ownership constraints and expenses associated with owning your own.

From a '60s Mercedes and modern-day Lotus to the '70s Ferrari, the time-warp
E-Type, a petrifying AC Cobra and a huge selection of other mouth-watering motors, the Club gives you the chance to live life in the fast lane.

This weekend provides an ideal opportunity to see all the cars in the same place at the same time, allowing you to inspect them in detail and discuss their finer points with the club's managers and current members. Plus there'll be special offers to take advantage of too.

Anyone with a driving licence can join and once you become a member you are allocated a certain amount of "points" which can then be redeemed against any of the cars in the Club's growing stable.


Head down to 6c Tower St, Edinburgh, call 0131 553 2000 or visit the Classic Car Club website for details.

Cars available:

Ferrari 308GTB
Aston Martin V8
Lotus Elise
Jaguar Mk II 3.8
68 Ford Mustang Convertible
Porsche 911 3.0SC
Honda NSX-T
Jaguar E-Type s1 Roadster
Honda S2000
Mercedes 280SL (Pagoda)
AC Cobra
Bentley Turbo R
Mitsubishi EVO8, FQ300
AMG Mercedes C36
Lotus Esprit S2
Triumph TR8
Rover 3500S (P6B)
Morgan 4/4

South Leeds is set for a major jobs and investment boost, as De Vere Group plc revealed plans to build a new Village Hotel & Leisure Club at Capitol Park by Junction 28 of the M62.


A planning application has been lodged with Leeds City Council for the 109-bedroom hotel and leisure club at the front of Capitol Park West by the A650. It is estimated that the new hotel will create up to 250 full and part time jobs providing state-of-the-art leisure facilities, café bar, pub, restaurant conferencing and banqueting facilities for the Morley community.

CB Richard Ellis has become one of the first commercial real estate services companies to launch a loan servicing business in Europe, targeting portfolio lenders as well as the fast-growing European commercial mortgage backed securities (CBMS) market.

CB Richard Ellis is a major player in the U.S. loan servicing market via its subsidiary, L.J. Melody & Co. Melody's joint venture with GE Commercial Finance Real Estate, GEMSA Loan Services LP, serviced a commercial mortgage loan portfolio of approximately $60 billion as of December 31, 2004, one of the largest in the U.S. GEMSA serves more than 90 portfolio lenders and 150 securitized pools, and has top ratings from Fitch and Standard & Poors.

GEMSA provides an innovative, web-based servicing platform that CB Richard Ellis will use to support its servicing business in the UK and Europe. This encompasses new loan set-up, borrower billing, collection and payment posting, cash management and investor reporting to meet Commercial Mortgage Securities Association standards. Services are frequently customised to a client's particular needs and data management and security are given highest priority.

The Property Executive Development Awards for Excellence 2005 were held at the Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh last night in front of 400 guests. Compere for the event was Deutsche Bank's Director John Dalby who is heavily involved in the funding of property in the UK and Europe.

The winners were:

Retail Award for Excellence (sponsored by McClure Naismith) - Pillar Properties for Glasgow Fort.

Investment Award for Excellence (sponsored by Watts & Partners) - Kenmore Property Group.

Mixed Use Award for Excellence (sponsored by Scottish Property Network) - LaSalle Investment Management for The Walk, Edinburgh.

Industrial Award for Excellence (sponsored by Tannson) - Silver Bank Developments for Moorpark Central, Govan, Glasgow.

Residential Award for Excellence (sponsored by Tour Atlantic) - Davis Duncan Architects for The Matrix, Glasgow.

Regeneration Award for Excellence (sponsored by WSP Group) - SecondSite for ForthQuarter, Granton, Edinburgh.

Office Award for Excellence (sponsored by 3D Architects) - Castlemore Securities for Waverly Gate, Edinburgh.

Property Personality Award for Excellence (sponsored by Maxwell Bruce) - Alasdair MacConnell, CALA Properties.

Editor Jane Ambrose commented that the event had doubled in size since the first one, which was held in Glasgow last year and said: "we are really very pleased with the way things have gone tonight - and more importantly perhaps, our guests have enjoyed themselves. We decided to give out the Awards during dinner courses and this seems to have gone over well."

Visit our 2005 Awards page for more information and photographs or look out in the November/December issue of Property Executive for full coverage of the event with photographs of all the winners.

Latest Retail Rents Research from Colliers CRE Ranks Scotland 10th

According to new research from property advisors Colliers CRE, between May 2004 and May 2005, prime retail rents in Scotland increased, on average, by 2.6% up from the 2% achieved in 2003/04. This places Scotland tenth in the regional rankings and below this year's UK average of 4%.

2004/5 figures show that the South West and Wales topped this years' regional rankings, recording rental growth of 5.4%. The next best performing regions were the East Midlands and the South East both up 4.9% and the West Midlands up 4.7%.

Colliers CRE's research points to a definite north-south divide with the Midlands, Wales and southern regions performing better than Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern regions.

RLF, one of the UK's leading construction and property consultancies, have opened a new office in Edinburgh as part of ambitious plans to double the size of its Scottish business during the next two years.

The new office, in Canning St in the West End, will be led by Philip Bell, who joins RLF as a partner from the Edinburgh office of PWP. RLF's new Edinburgh office will provide the full spectrum of property consultancy and project management services.

In order to support the growth strategy in Scotland, RLF is also launching a recruitment drive for Quantity Surveyors, Project Managers and Building Surveyors at all levels across the business.

In a move which will further strengthen its Scottish operation, international property advisers, GVA Grimley has appointed Simon Weston as a surveyor in its leading Edinburgh office agency team. Formerly a surveyor with Ryden, Weston was responsible for a significant number of instructions, varying from small premises to much larger developments.

Toby Withall, the partner responsible for office agency in the East of Scotland at GVA Grimley, says: "This appointment continues GVA Grimley's strategy to grow the business in Scotland and focus hard on the agency side. With Simon on board, we will be in a strong position to win more key instructions in Edinburgh city centre, while maintaining the highest levels of service for our existing core clients."

Auctions are becoming an increasingly popular way to buy and sell property, with the top 20 commercial and residential auctioneers seeing a 16 per cent increase in property sold at auction in 2004, at a total value of £3.38bn.

More people are turning to auctions to buy and sell property because of the simplicity and speed of the process, with deals agreed on the day. Auctions have become more open and transparent, and often an ideal place to find competitively priced properties.

To accommodate the growing popularity of property auctions The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have published 'Going once, going twice, sold to...' - a new guide to help owner occupiers, developers or investors.

It provides inside information on the auction process from both buyers' and sellers' points of view, from checking guide prices to proxy or internet bidding. 'Going once, going twice, sold to...' is available free at: RICS Property Auctions.

The show 'steading' is now open at Grassmiston Farm Steadings, situated near the village of Crail in the East Nuek of Fife, an area recently voted by Country Life magazine as 'one of the best places to live in Britain'.

Following the very successful sales launch, which saw nearly 50% of the properties sold, potential buyers can now visualise themselves living in a converted steading in a truly beautiful location.

The development has a total of seven converted farm steadings and four are currently available to buy now.