Although shopping centres have become highly sought after assets it appears there are still some that fail to capture the imagination of private investors. This has seen the Weaver Square shopping centre in Northwich come under the ownership of the local council which hopes to turn around its recent run of poor fortune. Weaver... Read More
A city council has given a hotel group six weeks to start renovation work on a neglected former fire station before it takes legal action to acquire the listed landmark building. Manchester City Council served a compulsory purchase order (CPO) against Britannia Centres — which owns the 108-year-old London Road Fire Station — in... Read More
A seven-week-old property investment company has clinched its first deal with the £22m freehold purchase of Lancaster's Market Gate Shopping Centre. Launched in August by businessman Chris Beckerman, the Roubaix Group secured the purchase in an off-market transaction with Allied (Lancaster) Ltd. The Monaco-registered company received... Read More
Supermarkets have experienced a poor run in 2014 so far, with all of the Big Four reporting consistently falling sales as consumers turn to discount brands for their weekly shop. Unfortunately, it appears that this negative fortune is set to continue as Sainsbury’s has reported a third consecutive quarter of falling sales. According... Read More
Today’s announcement that Ardagh Glass has agreed terms on over 10,000 sq ft at 10 Portman Square increases the occupancy level across British Land’s West End office estate to almost 100 per cent. The global glass and metal packaging company has signed a ten year lease, with a five year break, on 10,250 sq ft on the first floor of... Read More
Less than seven days after it snapped up a six-acre parcel of land in West London the global logistics site owner Prologis has bought 30 acres next to Heathrow Airport. Late last month Prologis acquired the Venturis Park industrial estate, on Dawley Road at Hayes, from M3 Capital Partners on behalf of one of its investment funds. It... Read More
In the current economic climate, small businesses are often struggling to acquire growth capital from banks which can be used to fund expansion drives. However, this has not proved to be a problem for The Handmade Burger Company, which has secured £400,000 from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking to expand the brand throughout the UK. The... Read More
A United States services company has become the latest global business to safeguard vital Scottish jobs. According the country’s economic development agency a total of 5,833 jobs were created or safeguarded during the first six months of this year. The Scottish Enterprise figures were released this week by First Minister Alex Salmond... Read More
BAM Properties — which claims to be the first developer to return to Glasgow after the recession — has sold its CONNECT11ONS office block in the city for £70m. In a statement, issued from BAM’s Bunnik, Netherlands, headquarters, the company confirmed the sale of the commercial development in the heart of Glasgow’s business and... Read More
The National Indoor Arena is one of Birmingham’s major attractions for businesses and industry bodies to hold events and conferences, so the news that it will reopen in December following a £26 million facelift has been resoundingly welcomed. However, along with the arena’s new look will come a name change, with the venue to be known... Read More
The supermarket price war continues to escalate with even discounters such as Aldi pledging to lower prices as a means of winning consumers to their brand. However, three members of the Big Four have identified an area in which discounters cannot compete, and hope to gain an edge by utilising this fact. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda... Read More
A Cheshire high-tech campus is using a £3.5 Government grant to build almost a quarter-of-a-million square feet of new offices and laboratories and create hundreds of additional jobs. Sci-Tech Daresbury, a science and innovation park which already houses one of the UK’s most powerful super computers, recently purchased 12-acres of... Read More
Regeneration plans for a former water treatment site could create as many as 1,000 new jobs, the company behind the 57-acre scheme has claimed. Keyland Developments — the property trading arm of Kelda Group and a sister-company of Yorkshire Water — is about to submit a planning application to Kirklees Council to transform the... Read More
Although clothing retailer Next has managed to forge ahead of key rival Marks & Spencer for the first time in history, its most recent sales report has failed to live up to expectations. The unseasonably warm weather during September has seen consumers react indifferently to its autumn/winter collection, leaving executives at the... Read More
British Land has revealed details of an agreement with Plymouth City Council to complete a £40m leisure development adjacent to its Drake Circus Shopping Centre. The 100,000 sq ft scheme, on the site of the current coach station, will include a 12 screen cinema, 13 restaurants and a 450 space car park. The development is intended... Read More
As confidence in the Irish property market continues to grow the German insurance giant Allianz has confirmed it is investing €140m (£109m) in Irish investment vehicle IPUT. In the Munich-based firm’s first venture into the Irish commercial sector, Allianz chief investment officer, Charles Pridgeon, said there were now... Read More
Norwegian commercial real estate investors have joined the ranks of foreign U.S. commercial real estate buyers in the wake of its sovereign fund making acquisitions from New York to San Francisco. According to research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc. and statements from the wealth fund, the country has spent more than $3.2 billion on United... Read More
More than 3,000 property professionals hoping to corner or close deals will gather in London next month for the first MIPIM event to be held in the UK. The three-day inaugural exhibition — modelled on the international MIPIM conference held annually at Cannes in the south of France — is being staged at London’s Olympia opening on... Read More
In the aftermath of the recession, high street banks were widely criticised for failing to provide adequate levels of financing to SMEs, causing many to look elsewhere for business loans. However, under a new initiative launched by RBS and NatWest, start-ups and small firms are being offered opportunities over and above the ability to secure... Read More
When Hugh Osmond, along with entrepreneur Luke Johnson, purchased the Pizza Express chain in 1993 for £18 million, he ushered in an era which would see the Italian restaurant brand float on the stock market and expand its commercial property portfolio to 367 restaurants. Now it has emerged that another Italian chain is to benefit from his... Read More
A County Durham developer is setting its sights on expansion after seeing its profits rise from £600,000 to more than three-million pounds. The Esh Group — which employs 1,100 staff across its offices in Durham City, Carlisle, Kendal and Earlston in Scotland — also reported a 10 per cent increase in its turnover to £192.5m. Its... Read More
The supermarket price war has been underway for some time as the Big Four attempt to protect their share of the market. However, in an interesting turn of events, it seems that the discounters are now stepping up the challenge with Aldi revealing it will respond to price cuts elsewhere in the sector by introducing its own set of discounts –... Read More
