Tag Archives: Nottingham

February 10, 2012

2012 starts well….I think

By Tim GARRATT

I got my monthly snapshot of the market from Property Data which showed a reasonable start for January. Not as good as 2011 as you will see, but better than 2010 and 2009.

Although yields (the return on capital) have come in very slightly they are still pretty flat. The fall has been by around 0.25% against the last three, six and twelve month figures. It’s a step in the right direction. The lower the yield the higher the price paid. The last month showed an average of 6.09% – previously we have been stuck at around 6.35%

The market is still being skewed by a couple of deals. A Tesco portfolio was sold last month to Trinity College Cambridge for £450m and a portfolio of 14 warehouses were sold for £314m. These two deals account for nearly 40% of all transactions.

So, as previously it is difficult to read the tea leaves at the moment. It seems busier, we are seeing more enquiries – and there seems to be a little bit more of a positive feel about the place. Deals are still hard to do, due diligence is the new delay. Dotting of i’s and crossing the t’s takes time – especially when you do it two or three times! But there are some deals going on. Bank borrowing remains difficult.

It may be early days, but it would be nice to think that there was something of a revival going on. We certainly need some good news – the back end of 2008 seems a long time ago. Thats when the crunch hit. We had hoped that it might be short recession, but alas that wasn’t to be. The new world is here – maybe we are just getting acclimatised?

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February 9, 2012

Shops – more bad news….

By Tim GARRATT

More than one in four shops in Nottingham are lying empty, according to research from the Local Data Company.

Magnolia Bakery - New York

So lets start by saying that this is not quite the whole story – if you walk around the town it is clear that there are vacant shops but not 29% Its gone up by nearly 6% in the past six months. Across the UK the figure is 14.3% – so we fare pretty badly.

The Local Data Campany also suggested in the report that, “Weak consumer confidence, rising unemployment, the growth in retail sales by supermarkets and the internet, a significant number of retail leases coming to an end and the uncertainty in the banking sector, all leads to the view that shop vacancy rates are set to rise in 2012.”

So we could get worse?

Well, I don’t think so. The figures were done last November just as Westfield had emptied the BroadMarsh Centre. Then there is the small issue of what the City Centre is – it includes whole swathes of retail frontage which I don”t think are part of the City – Sneinton, Derby Road, Canning Circus and the like.

This isn’t the sort of headline we need. It’s not really representative either.

I have had cause this week to re-read the Mary Portas Review (more on why at a later date!) – she offers a panacea for our woes – which are so misplaced as to be pretty meaningless. The point is that we have have too many shops for not enough shoppers. And we need to address that fact first. We need to work out how we are going to redress the balance. I don’t have a simple answer – but we need to refocus and get some incentives from Government (in the form of Rates rebates / relief) as a starting point – for areas which can be rescued.

I am always amazed at New York and its ability to reinvent itself. You find areas which have been abandoned and then re-occupied. Artists, fashion designers, creative types and the like. Nottingham has that talent – we need to tap into it?

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February 7, 2012

Squash – alive and kicking

By Tim GARRATT

You might know that I play a lot of squash – I have been a member of Nottingham Squash Rackets Club for about 13 years now.

Fours a crowd...

Squash was a big sport in the 1970′s but rather lost its way later – it isn’t a great spectator sport if you haven’t played. It’s difficult to appreciate the skills of the worlds best players. Some of them are as fit as any other professional players in other sports. I would venture to suggest that they are fitter.

Squash has been described as like playing chess with a ball. It requires a level of fitness to play, but you also have to be able to think too. You need to out-think your opponent (of course he or she is trying to do the same).

At the weekend NSRC held its annual open squash doubles tournament. I love doubles – you might think that it is less physical (in theory you are doing half of the work) but in reality is it harder – it is more physical – within the constraints of a non-contact sport. You have to think for four people. There is much less room. It can be fast and furious. It certainly keeps you awake!

There were 144 entrants in the tournament at the weekend – with competitors from wide and far. I spoke to players from Northampton, Manchester and Grantham. The atmosphere was fantastic – and the evening ended with a great live band. It was just a pity that the snow started to fall by evening (I walked the four miles home in a little under two hours – but that’s another story).

It was great to see so many people enjoying the event. The standard of play was incredibly high and the club put on a good show…

Perhaps the game is coming back into fashion. If you haven’t played – try it. Come down to the club – tell them I sent you!

PS In case you are wondering my partner and I didn’t win…

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February 5, 2012

Another blogger joins the Nottingham scene!

By Tim GARRATT

Nottingham has a new blogger – have a read of Nick Rileys blog about Motorsport and Architecture, really interesting stuff…

welcome to the world of blogging Nick!

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February 5, 2012

Live music – one to miss?

By Tim GARRATT

I’m a big fan of live music – in fact I’m just a fan of music period. I listen to it most days – and you can tell from yesterdays blog, I can re-discover some amazing stuff! I listen to all manner of stuff.

Nottingham is apparently in for a musical treat, enticingly titled,”A celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert”. Not only will there be a playing of the Queens favourite tunes – Gershwin, Corro, Sir Cliff and Morcambe and Wise. Wow – edgy stuff indeed. Grungy it’s not. It’s unlikely theres going to be dancing in the aisle – more flag waving gently I figure. Mrs Windsor isn’t actually going I don’t think.

But the real treat is that this gig is going to be punctuated with anecdotes from that most regal of reporters, Jennie Bond. She is regarded as more royal than the royals. And she is going to be telling stories about her life and times with the royals.

It sounds like a fun night out – those groovy tunes and the prospect of Mrs Bond spilling the beans and dishing the dirt. Unfortunately, I can’t make this particular gig – I’m washing my hair. My loss – I know.

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January 30, 2012

Nottingham Contemporary – the new show

By Tim GARRATT

I was at Nottingham Contemporary last Friday night for too short a time. I had received my usual invite to have a launch tour of this latest exhibition – Thomas Demand and Decolonising Architecture. Sadly I was trying to get a number of reports out so had to do whistle-stop tour…

From what I have seen and heard this is going to be of my favourite exhibitions so far. There some great photographs in the galleries – taken by Demand of architectural models they are really quite clever. He shows the models in a fairly raw and basic state, which is rather at odds with the finished article (the buildings). The images are large scale – which I liked! Demand has worked with the architects who designed the Contemporary (Caruso St John) before – so this is an interesting connection. A mix of architecture and photography was always going to get my vote!

The second exhibition is some further, real, architectural models and some interpretations of the lawless line on the border of Israel and Palestine. I have often looks at maps and smiled at the thickness of drawn elements – Roads, for example, would be a mile wide if drawn to scale! But the alternative is that they would be so thin that you wouldn’t actually see them. The lawless line takes this scale issue rather literally – at less than 1mm thick drawn on a 1:20,000 plan, it scales up to nearly 5m wide in real life! And this line permeates buildings and people’s lives – drawn rather arbitrarily on a map, I’m not sure the cartographer realised the implications.

There is an amazing sculpture which includes a floating staircase through the Palestine Parliament – which you have to see to appreciate.

I need to go back to the gallery soon to have a better look. But I would encourage everyone to go to see this exhibition…this one is rather good!

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January 26, 2012

The internet – faster and faster … essential?

By Tim GARRATT

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Autumn Statement the creation of a new £100 million Urban Broadband Fund (UBF) that will create up to ten super-connected cities across the UK with 80-100Mbps (megabits per second) broadband connectivity. That’s fast!

Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London and up to six further cities are going to receive support from the fund over the next three years to deliver these speeds.

I think that the ability of super-fast broadband is going to become a critical feature of our cities of the future. It is incredible to think that the internet is just a few years old and that, back then, we survived on dial up lines. But today most businesses are 100% reliant on the internet; either to communicate with itself or its clients. Our ability to gain information is critical.

If Nottingham wants to remain competitive then it needs to be on this new backbone. We need to lobby Government that this is essential. We have a fantastic creative quarter, centred on Antenna. For that to continue to grow it needs, as we all do, to have the very fastest connections we can get. I do know that my friends at Invest in Nottingham are coordinating Nottingham’s efforts to secure this for us.

It is not difficult to see that this is the future. As the capacity increases, the use of file sharing / collaborative working and video conferencing will become more useful. There is not doubt that our world is getting faster, travel times and costs are getting worse, so that points to a newer method of communication.

We are starting to get enquiries from occupiers that now include broadband connectivity as part of their wish list. This super-fast connectivity would give us a competitive advantage…

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January 18, 2012

The East Midlands Market 2007-2011

By Tim GARRATT

Although the Title looks like an obituary, it’s not! Today my firm launch our annual review of the property market across the East Midlands. Today we hit Nottingham, tomorrow is Derby’s turn then we turn our attention to Leicester. We expect to meet around 750 of the regions property folk over the next few days.

We are uniquely placed, having an office in each of the regions major Cities (are you still allowed to say ‘regions’ I wonder). We trade in and report on commercial property across the golden triangle that is centred on Nottingham, Derby & Leicester. It’s my day job.

For the 5 years we have been monitoring the markets – to see if we can spot trends…

Our general view was that 2011 started well but then slipped back during the summer months. It looked like the market was coming back, but the second half of the year was disappointing. We remain optimistic though for 2012 – interest rates are low and inflation looks like is it beginning to fall. We need confidence to come back. The Euro needs to stabilise.

The 2011 key messages from our three offices were…

Derby – a robust reaction to the Bombardier Thameslink fiasco was balanced by a successful £40m Regional Growth Fund bid. Office take up was at its lowest level for the last 5 years. Fortunately Hero TSC took 68,000 sq ft in the last few weeks of the year.

Leicester – keeps delivering positive take up figures across all sectors. The MIRA Technology Park being a notable addition. The Passiv Haus at Raynsway Properties Watermead development (I blogged about it here) was a high point. Office take up was at its highest for 5 years!In addition 2.2m sq ft of Industrial space was shifted – a 10 year high.

Nottingham – the office market take up was marginally ahead of the 10 year average for the third year running. It was down very slightly on last year, but 566,000 sq ft was let or sold. Industrial take up was slightly up on the 2010 figure – but lower than the 10 year average.

If you would like a copy of the report – let me know via the comments section – and leave me your email address, I’ll email you a copy in PDF format.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Business, Nottingham

January 16, 2012

Nottingham’s Creativity Industry!

By Tim GARRATT

I was at an amazing event last week, hosted by the Nottingham Contemporary. It was a showcase event of the Creative Class of 2012. This is an initiative started by the Invest in Nottingham Club.

We were treated to 9 presentations by some of Nottinghams creative talent. Each was running a business – of varying sizes. The event was compered by Sir John Peace – Chairman of Experian and High Sheriff of Nottingham. He was an excellent speaker and questioner-in-chief of the businesses!

The companies can all be found on the Invest in Nottingham web site here, but a couple stood out.

Firstly, Susi Henson and her Eternal Spirits corsetier business. She is regarded as a world class operator in a luxury brand market. The clothes are designed and made in Nottingham.

Carl Barratt the CEO of Monica Healthcare showed us his invented in Nottingham wearable foetal heart monitor. Previous tethered systems look rather old-fashioned compared to this ipod sized device. But he is on the move and was talking about embedding his clever technology into a sticky plaster!

I also ike the approach of Barnaby Kent and his Plumtree Group. This was a man who was deliberately trying to stay below the radar. Awards were not on his agenda. He builds software to be sold into the massive NHS machine. This is taliored and client led work.

There were some themes from the evening…

Universities, Universities and Universities. Followed by BioCity and Antenna. These institutions and organisations are critical to the well being of the creative sector in Nottingham.

We shouldn’t underestimate them, we sometimes do.

But there were some gems of comments too:

* stop looking down, look up
* look for repeatable revenue streams – keeping customers is key
* Awards and profile are not for everyone – there is a market for those who stay below the radar

It was a fascinating evening and showed that there is a pool of talent in this fair city, some of which is not very visible. But the efforts of the Club should address this.

I was inspired.

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January 10, 2012

Retail – where next in 2012?

By Tim GARRATT

I have touched upon the state of retail on the High Street before – notably just before Christmas when Portas issued her queen of shopping report. The blog was here.

As the retailers start t announce their Christmas trading stories, it looks like we are going to see some big changes in the next 12 months,. Some of the retailers we have become used to seeing as part of the street scene may be on the move – in some cases it may already be too late.

We may have to come to terms with a different feel to where we shop. In the next 12 months we could see a number of big names depart – La Sensa, Thorntons, Blacks, HMV, Argos, Mothercare, New Look, Peacocks and Superdrug are all under the cosh. Some of these guys have big box shops – the departure of which will make our Cities seem different places. And not in a good way!

The general view seems to be that felt sales will be good. Of course the retailers are facing an attack from the internet. Sales in some online stores have seen big increases – John Lewis shifted £600m of stock – with a 27% increase on sale in December. Their Christmas trading statement is here.

It only seems like yesterday when I was involved in the letting to Waterstones on Bridlesmith Gate in Nottingham – that was in 1998 – six years before Amazon even existed. It was a fantastic concept based around ‘dwell time’ – in other words if you keep people in your store – they will spend money. 20 minutes was the tipping point. I still like the store – but guess that I buy four books on Amazon (three of those on Kindle!) for every one I buy in Waterstones.

At the same time though the major supermarkets just seem to be growing – they are bidding for land considerably in excess of where residential ever were – even at the peak of the market.

It will be an interesting 12 months – I wonder what Nottingham will look like this time next year?

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