MWB Business Exchange has signed an 11-year operating and management agreement (OMA) on a Liverpool Street building, spread over 32,000 feet. 133 Houndsditch, EC3,will undergo an extensive £3 million renovation plan by the building’s owners, that will result in 350 workstations.
The work should be completed by September of this year and will mean that MWB’s portfolio of centres rises to 58. Many of these are in the capital itself. MWB has been growing it’s presence in central 
London, and many of their new centre’s incorporate these operating and management schemes. This means MWB are not exposed to falling capital values or restricted by long lease agreements.
A major development plan at 8-10 Moorgate, in the City of London, had been stalled, due to several objections from historical and heritage societies. Recently the City of London Corporation viewed the plan and decided that it to be a huge contemporary design.
The plan incorporates the demolition of 3 of the 5 existing buildings in the region. In return the place would be provided with a single structure consisting 164,442 sq ft of office space. The total area covered by the development project would be around 200,000 sq ft in all.
A grade A -Listed building, which was formerly the General Post Office of Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, has been mostly vacant over the past five years and had very few tenants.
However, with the recent redevelopment plans of the St. James Shopping Centre, it is thought that new tenancies can be found for the redeveloped Waterloo Place.
Blackpool’s entrepreneurial neighbourhood is set to be remodeled by Forsyth, the specialist property company. They are seeking to open a new business centre in the middle of the town, which would provide office space.
Furthermore, the Scarborough Group International is also looking forward to developing office space for the various smaller firms in the area. Their 11,000 sq ft of office space in the city will aim to attract new businesses to the area.
Companies from abroad can now take part in a scheme which will offer them free serviced office space. The scheme is being run by UK provider Avanta. The deal is part of the Touchdown Office scheme which is designed to boost the economy of the capital by enticing overseas businesses to settle in London, creating jobs and prosperity.
David Alberto, Avanta’s managing director, told Choregus News – “We believe that Think London provides invaluable assistance to international businesses looking to establish a base in London and we support their activities wholeheartedly,â€. This is the second phase of the original scheme.
Since the last quarter of 2008 the commercial property market in UK has been going through tumultuous times. News went from bad to worst for landlords in the West Midlands, as the availability of office space has been increasing steadily in the first quarter of 2009.
In the recent surveys, it has been observed that the office space vacancies have risen by 17% from the previous quarter. If this was not enough, further surveys involved reports of over 80% of surveyors considering the rental charges per sq ft to drop further this year.
Igal Ahouvi is to purchase a scheme in Solent Business Park (Hampshire) for ₤55.5 million, from an institutional investor affiliated with Prudential plc. 50% of the deal is being done via his own private company, Blenheim Properties Group Ltd.
The Solent Business Park is close to the M27 motorway. It encompasses five separate buildings which equates to 24,000 square metre’s of office space. It will be leased to the National Air Traffic Services plc (NATS), who will pay £17 per sq metre on a 14-year lease through. This will be a gross income from the location of over £30 million.
The Spires have come up with an innovative idea of providing office space, within their suites, to their guests. The concept of providing proper laid out office space in suites has already been implemented in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The office space environment includes a full-sized office desk, along with high speed broadband service and printing equipments. Their latest suites, incorporating office space, are designed especially for the oil executives during their visits to the UK.
Commercial development in and around Scotland seems to have dropped down considerably in the last few months. If the economic conditions were to lift any time soon, Scotland would have a serious shortage of A Grade office space availability.
The city of Glasgow has no major office space development projects to be completed between 2010-11. This certainly puts them in the back seat, along with Edinburgh, which seems to be suffering from uncertain projects at hand. To lift the cities out of this distress, the Scottish Government has proposed to fund some major projects to speed up office space development.
The City of London Corporation have confirmed that the office scheme on Tottenham Court Road is now complete. The scheme which is set over 60,000 square feet, has cost an estimated £24 million. The building at 10 South Cresecent was originally granted planning permission in the Autumn of 2004. Property company Gardiner & Theobald have agreed to let all of the office space at the scheme.
The cost per square foot is £55, which is about the average for an office in such a prime location, very close to centrepoint. As well as the office space, there is also 32,000 sq ft of retail space.
Tottenham Court Road will also be part of the £16 billion CrossRail scheme.
Once finished, trains will run from Maidenhead to Essex, via central London.
