Tag Archives: Invest in Nottingham

Nov 15 2010

A great time to Invest in Nottingham?

I was on Andy Whittaker’s breakfast show on Radio Nottingham earlier this morning (far too early!) – I was asked to comment on the HS2 Rail link I blogged about last week. In essence my contribution was to discuss the effect such a link might have on Nottingham.

I am aware that there are some anti-rail protesters – and I can understand their view. But we may miss out as I have said previously…

Ultimately such a line – and critically a station – will improve Nottingham’s position in the UK. It will help us attract investment. It puts us on the map.

So now is a good time to Invest in Nottingham?

I mentioned in another blog last week that we had got a fairly bad press after the Secret Millionaire programme. I thought it was an unfair portrayal of the City. We have our fair share of problems – but I don’t accept that we are in any way worse than any big Cities. Sadly drugs and alcohol feature highly in the problems.

Investment in the City will create jobs and wealth. We need investment. The HS2 would help in this area.

My friends at Invest in Nottingham, in conjunction with Antenna ,have produced a new Nottingham DVD explaining why now more than ever is a great time to invest.

The DVD contains exclusive footage and general information about Nottingham’s key growth areas. Business professionals including Glenn Crocker – CEO of BioCity, Alex Farquarson – Director of Nottingham Contemporary, Karl Hilton – Managing Director of Crytek and Brent Liu – Vice General Manager of Changan Automobile UK give their views on why they chose Nottingham as their business location.

I did post it before, but in case you missed it – you’ll find it on the Invest in Nottingham site here.

We need to be optimistic about the future – even in these troubled financial times. We need to give ourselves the best chances!

And Investment in Nottingham is a theme I expect to return to later in the week – with news about MIPIM 2011…

Nov 3 2010

MIPIM 2011 – the plans have changed

It seems that our plans for Nottingham at MIPIM 2011 will be very different from previous years. For the last six years, or so, we have been a sponsor of Nottingham City Council’s Invest in Nottingham team. And 2011 was expected to be no different.

A heavily branded Yacht for Nottingham at MIPIM this year

But the Comprehensive Spending Review has put a stop to all that – and the City have advised us this week that they will no longer be the main driver for this property show. To that end they have cancelled the Yacht that has been chartered for the last 6 years.

The Council have come in for lots of criticism over the years for the so called ‘jolly’ in the South of France. And some people will just not understand how the show works – there’s little point explaining to them. But the show is a hugely influential world stage – in which towns and cities across the globe compete for inward investment.

I have always argued that if we knew which 5% of our marketing hit home – we would abandon the other 95%. But we don’t know. What we do know is that there are a lot of the 5% people and companies in the South of France.

I do understand the sensitivities around a spend on a yacht when jobs are being threatened; but the marketing of the City needs to go on. In times of recession it could be argued that we should be prepared to market harder – one day the market will return and the City needs to be ready to take those opportunities that present themselves.

The team at Invest in Nottingham work tirelessly during the week long show. Sure I would rather be in Cannes than at the Birmingham NEC – I have never denied this. The atmosphere is conducive to business. And business gets done.

We need to make sure the world doesn’t think we are closed for business. That would be a disaster.

It looks like my firm and some of the other private sector firms will form some sort of club and promote the City from a ‘private sector’ viewpoint. But it won’t be the same….

The Nottingham Evening Post carried the story tonight here.

Jun 22 2010

Nottingham – the first six months of 2010

I guess we were all concerned about 2010 when we looked at budgets and the economical outlook last year. With an election looming and little sign of liquidity in the lending market it was always going to be an ‘interesting’ first six months.

One of the new University of Nottingham buildings

So I was really interested to see some facts from my friends at Invest in Nottingham about some of the good news stories from the first six months of the year – and it’s not all bad! For a quick rundown…

12th January – a £5 million Energy Centre is announced for The University of Nottingham Innovation Park. The 2,100 sq m facility will provide research and development space for collaborative projects between the University and industry.

19th April – Crytek announce their move the Southside Business District. One of Europe’s leading video gaming companies’s announced it is to move its UK headquarters to the Southreef office development on the edge of Nottingham City Centre. The move will see up to 90 jobs relocate to the new 17,500 sq ft office.

26th April – E.ON announce a new 105,000 sq ft office to be built on part of the city’s Guildhall side following pre-let for Miller Birch.

25th May – Jamie Oliver is set to open an Italian restaurant in the city centre. The Jamie’s Italian restaurant will be the first outside of the South-East.

27th May – the launch of The Portal – a 90,000 sq ft £40 million data centre that will provide the city with carrier neutral national and international high-speed fibre links. The Portal is set to put Nottingham firmly on the UK’s ICT map and could provide excellent data links for schemes in Nottingham including MediPark, Sneinton Market, Eastside, Southside amongst others.

27th May – Launch of Southside Business District at Invest in Nottingham Day. Southside Business District is an initiative to create a world class business environment in the heart of Nottingham. The District is centred around The Hub – Nottingham’s soon to be created transport hub where train, tram and bus will connect the city to national and international destinations.

1st June – Local business Sygnature Chemical Services is set to double in size over the next five years and is investing up to £500,000 in facilities in BioCity, Nottingham. The company now employs 36 people within its team and plans to increase up to 50 by the end of next year.

7th June – The University of Nottingham announce a major new building programme which will further enhance the campus facilities. Over £35 million will be invested in 4 new, state of the art, environmentally sustainable buildings across two campuses.

10th June – Changan Automotive announce a new Research and Development Centre in Nottingham which will create up to 200 jobs over the next three years.

Here’s to the next six months….

Jun 3 2010

Nottinghams Broad Marsh shopping centre – work in progress?

Last week I blogged about the Invest in Nottingham day – and I mentioned my walking tour of Nottingham with Nigel Turpin. We had stopped by the Broadmarsh Centre – which remains something of an enigma for Nottingham.

The proposals now on hold

In the heady days of the booming market, the prospect of a new £400m centre sounded fantastic – and the images splashed around were inspiring. But then we all know what happened and all of those tenants required to fund such a venture ran off!

Later in the “Invest Day” Steve Wood from Westfield gave the assembled audience an insight into their position. They have a global perspective – with 119 shopping centres managed around the world, they look after 20,000 tenants.

Broad Marsh attracts 17m visitors each year – helped by the student population of around 55,000. But more importantly the spending power in the catchment is around £3bn annually. There are lots of ‘young affluents’ – key to the success of a shopping centre.

So what of the future?

The market needs to improve before we see the original scheme reinstated – and I personally don’t see this happening in the short or medium term.

The present shopping centre is at a low ebb. It needs some intervention. Steve confirmed that they were going to enhance the management, reconfigure some of the centre (notably the former TKMaxx store), refurbish parts of the centre and re-position it generally in the marketplace.

As I walked back from Loxley House to collect my car (and pay the outrageous £11 for my 6 hour stay!) I walked into the south side of the centre. Someone on the tour had remarked that this was a gateway entrance and a key point into the City from the station – and it is through patio doors…

A bit harsh, but not far wrong – whatever the proposals this entrance into the City from the south needs some work – we were once a gated and walled City – with ‘statement’ gateways. Patio doors make all the wrong statements!

May 28 2010

Invest in Nottingham – part two!

Yesterday I went to the Invest in Nottingham day – this time actually back home! It makes a change from MIPIM and London.

The Market Square - part of the walking tour

My day started at the new NTU conference centre – where lunch was served! Then I wandered off into town with Nigel Turpin, one of the towns planners (and prolific cyclist!). The walk around the town was interesting – and I learned things about my home town! We took in NTU, Theatre Square, The Market Square, The Council House (with a tea stop with the Sheriff and the Mayor!), The Lace Market, Broad Marsh and finally back to Loxley House.

It was interesting to hear Nigel’s take on some of the Planning issues – and it was good to have some of the subtle design features pointed out. These included the de-cluttering of the City’s streets and the incorporation of the tram stops into the pavements. We also had a lively group who were questioning of some of the Planning decisions!

Then we went off to Loxley House – Nottingham City Council’s new home. Various talks were given – including by the new Director of Planning Simon Smales, Steve Wood from Westfield (owners of Broad Marsh) and Chris Deas from NET. I always have a chat with Chris – his dad was my first boss at Home Brewery in 1979!

I also had a look around Jane Todd‘s (CEO of the City) office … it’s open plan in the thick of it!

It was a busy day, very well attended and a positive look at Nottingham. It was good to see so many of Nottingham’s professional brethren out and ‘selling’ the City – alongside the dedicated team at Invest in Nottingham!

We once again proved that we are the friendliest people in the world – probably!

May 12 2010

Invest in Nottingham day 2010

Invest in Nottingham are preparing for the next PR assault on investors in the UK – as a follow up to MIPIM 2010 and the Invest in Nottingham Day – held in London last month.

Monaco - just like Nottingham


I went to the ‘arrangements’ meeting yesterday.

The object is simply to promote investment in the City. But this is not just in property; it is at all levels. The city are looking for the next end users. The growth of Nottingham companies is key.

It is suggested that investor confidence is re-emerging so the time is right to be starting an aggressive campaign. Nottingham is on the radar of many companies and in recent years the conversion rate has been good. Nottingham needs to keep ahead of the game.

News will be given about the future of Broad Marsh. This is an important development for Nottingham – we are slipping down the retail ranks

The meeting was held at Antennae, part of Confetti studios. This is a digital media hub and regarded as a huge success.

It has also emerged that the Boots site will start to come on stream- as they consolidate operations. An interesting fact – the Boots site in Beeston Nottingham is the same size Monaco!

Details of the days events in Nottingham can be found here. It will be held on 27th May.

The day should be good; sadly we can’t guarantee Cote D’Azur weather!

May 7 2010

A new market place

So the results of the election are in and pretty much as expected we look like we are going to have a hung parliament.

New York just got more expensive for us

Regular readers will know that i keenly follow the property market – and the next few months are going to be interesting. In fact this morning the effects on the other markets (bonds, shares and currency) are already showing signs of the jitters. It seems the lack of a clear majority to address the deficit problems

As a valuer it is said that I neither “make” or “take” the market; I just reflect what it is doing at the moment or in the recent past. I am always looking over my shoulder as we don’t predict the future (only crystal ball gazers do that!). So the regular Property Investors Bulletin from PropertyData is a key document each month.

The May 2010 one has just arrived and there are some key messages:

Compared to 2009 investment transactions are up by 36% for the same 4 month period.
But the 4 month period is still down by 31% compared to 2008 and by a massive 62% against 2007 – the peak of the market.
Overseas money outbid UK money by three times on a net basis over the 4 month period.
The biggest deal of the month was the sale of the O2 centre in Finchley to Land Securities for £125.9m
There has been a net investment by Institutions in the first four months of £1.547bn
Yields have continued to get compressed (i.e. values are going up):

Last 12 months – 7.01%
Last six months – 6.70%
Last 3 months – 6.49%

This looks like good news for the market overall, but it is still slow as you move from the primary product (which the above reflect) in to the secondary and tertiary markets.

Quite how this all shapes up in the next six months remains to be seen, but I won’t be making predictions – just looking back in November!

But in the meantime, it looks a bit scary. And my New York trips are looking a lot more expensive.

Apr 23 2010

MIPIM 2010 – post mortem

MIPIM 2010 seems a long way behind us now – and the sun seems to have arrived in the UK now. The sun of Cannes does help the wheels of the annual show go around easily!

Team Nottingham 2010 at MIPIM

So this week the sponsors and City Council all got together for a post-mortem. It was an interesting meeting with really positive feedback. I have said before that it is naive to think that you get ‘contracts signed’ whilst there. But you do meet many people who are like minded. My analogy was that if you knew which 5% of marketing actually worked – you wouldn’t bother with the other 95% MIPIM places a high proportion of the five-percenters in one place.

Although sometimes the City are questioned about why they go (against the backdrop of cost cutting) it transpires that the private sector covered a significant amount of the cost. It paid for the yacht!

It was pointed out that the public sector effectively facilitate the show. whilst the City benefit from the long term investment – in the short term it is the consultants and developers who profit. But we can’t do without each other. In that sense it is a true partnership.

The general consensus is that this is still a critical event on the calendar. Someone remarked that if you stood in Nottingham Market Square for 20 years you were unlikely to meet the number of influencers you meet at MIPIM in 4 days!

It looks like MIPIM 2011 will happen – but the position of private and public sector is still to be determined.

Apr 15 2010

Nottingham in London

The reason I was headed off for London yesterday was to represent Nottingham – with others from the private and public sector at an Invest in Nottingham event.

Centre Point

Last night around 160 people gathered on the 31st floor of CentrePoint in London.

The location was stunning – with fantastic views of the City – both sides. Originally built by Harry Hyams, controversially it lay fallow for many years. It is ‘of its time’ but clever.

But the event was a real success in showcasing Nottingham. Jane Todd, CEO of the City, Derek Brewer from Nottingham County Cricket Club and Alex Gourlay CEO of Alliance Boots all spoke.

The success stories were shared – Boots employ 20,000 people in Nottingham and are older than Marks & Spencer and Sainsburys – 160 years this year! They have a reason for being in Nottingham – Science.

Jane spoke about the Science City and Core City status. But also about Nottingham’s ambitions for the future – The World Cup 2018 bid and Robin Hood. The new Southside business district featured too.

But there was a theme about ‘partnership working’ – and I think this really was at the heart of the evening. The partnerships between public and private sector, between public service, business and sport.

Derek rounded up with some news about how the sport offer in Nottingham was being promoted through all of the major players – the Cricket Club, Notts County, Nottingham Forest and a plethora of smaller sports too. The intention is to capitalise on sport – for the benefit of the City. More partnerships here!

As for me, I met up with some of my London based clients – and was able to introduce them to some of the key officers at the Council. This seems to be a new chapter for the Council – being much more accessible – which is to be applauded. It is also essential that we make Nottingham a place where it easy to do business.

Like most of these networking events, it is difficult to know how successful they are immediately – but my views about marketing to the 5% I have blogged about before was repeated last night.

Nottingham was punching above its weight and was able to showcase the City in front of a fairly influential and important audience!

There is another ‘Open Day’ on 27th May – back home (north of Watford) – which gives investors, developers and other interested parties the ability to see beyond Powerpoint – and come and touch and feel!

Mar 18 2010

MIPIM 2010 : Breakfast in Derby

It was an early start yesterday in search of breakfast yesterday at the Derby event.

Hosted by Adam Wilkinson and Hilary Jones (leader of the Council) the presentation was upbeat! They premiered a film about Derby – showcasing 1,000,000 sq ft of new schemes. Two I have blogged about before here.

The key message was that the Council were trying to change peoples perception of the City.

The Blueprint Sadler Square scheme - promoted at MIPIM


There was a heartfelt talk by Bert Pijls the CEO of Egg – he was passionate about the city and how it fits their strategy in the UK, where they handle 2m accounts. As part of Citibank now, Egg shares in the benefits of having a massive infrastructure – with over 200m accounts worldwide. What was also interesting was their tie-up with one of my key clients – The University of Derby.

Adam Wilkinson set out his vision for the future of Derby and launched a new £10m regeneration fund.

As I sat and listened to him talk about the big five employers (Egg, Rolls Royce, Bombadier, Toyota & Westfield) you do realise the importance of these significant inward investors to any City. And that is really what MIPIM is all about – attracting the next major employer.

The only tricky moment was when I realised that I was wearing my bright pink ‘Invest in Nottingham’ lanyard – oops.