A Midlands city is seeing its biggest retail sell-off in more than three decades after a landmark department store was put on the market with a reported price tag of £2.5m. The Heart of England Co-operative Society — one of the country’s oldest surviving co-operative societies — has confirmed it is disposing of its store in... Read More
Union Hanover Securities (UHS) has submitted plans for a £100m duel hotel scheme at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London. The hospitality focused property investment and development company’s Penny Brook scheme will be located in Stratford City’s East Village and will include a futuristic 25-storey tower housing a... Read More
Britain’s “Big Six” office markets outside London are showing no sign of slowing down after last year’s record take-up, a new survey claims. But, warns Jones Lang LaSalle’s (JLL) latest quarterly office market research, the number of non-residential construction starts for 2014 as a whole — at £23.8bn — was just 0.5 per cent... Read More
The High Court has dismissed the challenge made against the Secretary of State's decision to approve the redevelopment of the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank. The action was launched last July by local activist and writer George Turner, who questioned whether the decision was legally sound. Along with Secretary of State Eric... Read More
The international healthcare group, Bupa, has confirmed a three-year rolling plan to transfer its entire UK operation to new Salford Quays headquarters. It has signed a 15-year agreement with Peel Land & Property to lease a yet-to-be-built office block at MediaCityUK. Described as one of Manchester’s biggest commercial property... Read More
During the recession bookmakers were one of the few high street success stories, preventing shop occupancy levels falling even further. Subsequently local authorities have sought to use planning regulations to halt their proliferation amid fears over gambling and their “monopolisation” of prime units. In addition, tougher... Read More
The Crown Estate has announced that Uno de 50 will open its first UK store at 143 Regent Street in April. The Spanish jeweller has taken the 1,250 sq ft unit on a ten year lease. Asset manager for The Crown Estate’s Regent Street Portfolio Katerina Mercury, believes the arrival of Uno de 50 will further raise the prestige of... Read More
Financial services experts from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been hired to sell-off the world’s third largest property services firm Cushman & Wakefield which is currently under the control of a single Italian family. Exor SpA — the investment vehicle of the Agnelli family — has made it clear it would prefer a... Read More
The construction industry continues to benefit from growth in both the residential and commercial property sectors, with the boom expected to continue until the end of the current decade. However, the issue of skills shortages is becoming more prominent day by day, threatening to limit company growth due to a lack of skilled workers able to... Read More
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced that two new hotels are to be built in Manchester. Both situated on Oxford Road, The Crowne Plaza Manchester and Staybridge Suites Manchester, are part of The University of Manchester's £1 billion campus development and Bruntwood's wider redevelopment of Manchester Business School. The... Read More
The Whitbread Group has become a dominant force in the UK’s retail and leisure markets, with its Costa Coffee and Premier Inn chains managing to grow their customer bases at a strong pace. This has allowed the group to express a confidence that full year profits will be at the top end of analysts’ expectations when results are released in... Read More
The high street has been one of the main focal points of the retail industry since the beginning of the recession, with its various ups and downs becoming something of a barometer to measure the overall health of the industry as a whole. However, this year will present a whole new set of challenges for town and city centres throughout the... Read More
Codenamed Project Orange — and containing one-million square feet of retail space — two of Britain’s biggest property companies have put a £300m portfolio on the market. Part of the Hercules Unit Trust (HUT), British Land and Schroder Real Estate are selling around a fifth of the £1.5bn jointly held portfolio. All the... Read More
A converted Yorkshire mill complex — which featured in the television soaps Emmerdale and Heartbeat — is now fully let following a near £3m upgrade. During the past two years Sunny Bank Mills, between Leeds and Bradford, has undergone a £2m programme to turn it into a modern office complex, attracting more than 250 workers to the... Read More
Shopping centre acquisitions remain a key strategy for commercial property firms and funds, with the generous returns and growing rental value proving to be a powerful incentive for investors both at home and overseas. This has seen InfraRed Capital Partners Limited, on behalf of its Active Fund III, snap up the St George’s Shopping Centre... Read More
Resorts World Birmingham, which is scheduled to open later this year, has announced that it is now almost 80 per cent let following a trio of new signings. Restaurant chains TGI Fridays and Pizza Express and fashion brand Next have all pre-let significant units within the development, which will cost around £150 million to complete.... Read More
A Glasgow office building — that was once Scotland’s biggest tobacco factory — has landed two of the city’s biggest letting deals of the year. The largest of the twin signings involves American computer and technology company, Dell. It already has 550 business-to-business contact centre staff at the CityPark building and was... Read More
The number of retail and leisure redevelopments continues to gather pace with developers constantly seeking profitable opportunities following several years of recession. This week, British Land has confirmed it will seek planning permission for a large scale revamp of The New Mersey Shopping Park in Speke, Merseyside, which, if approved,... Read More
According to Net Stock Absorption (NSA) research carried out by Colliers International, Grade A office space within Manchester's city centre will reach £35 per sq ft by 2018. It is expected that by the end of this year Grade A office space will hit £33.50 per sq ft. This increase is mainly due to the ongoing shortage of available space... Read More
As the supermarket price war rages on and the Big Four continue to lose market share to discounters, most are choosing to rein back new openings in favour of closing unprofitable stores. However, Asda has this week announced that it will buck this trend by investing £600 million in a new programme of store openings after it managed to... Read More
Planners have approved the latest hotel development scheme by footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. This time the former Manchester United pair want to transform the city’s historic stock exchange into a boutique hotel. The partnership — which is next month opening Hotel Football next door to the club’s Old Trafford stadium... Read More
Over one third of land held by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is in the Midlands, according to CBRE’s newly published Regional Land Report. The Agency has over 130 sites earmarked for residential or mixed-use development throughout the country, totalling around 1,500 acres. Twenty seven of these sites (596 acres) are in the... Read More
