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I
s Johnnie Vincent about to do it again? Vincent, the man behind Pace
Investments and Cambridge’s only speculative office scheme since the recession, could be about to build speculatively again. Maybe.
Vincent has form. In September 2010,
at a time when the UK office market was all but dead, Pace began work on what was to become the 52,000 sq ft Botanic House development. The gamble paid off with the 2011 signing of law firm Mills & Reeve. Now Vincent’s team is at work on the 35,000 sq ft speculative refurbishment of
Francis House, Mills & Reeve’s’s former home just down Hills Road from Botanic. More intriguingly, Vincent has begun to
drop hints about the prospects of office redevelopment at adjoining Betjeman House. The site already has planning
permission for a mixed, predominantly residential, development. The application dates back to 2007, when Pace applied for consent to redevelop the 2-acre site of Betjeman House, along with Broadcasting House, Botanic House and the Flying Pig pub. Around 160 flats were proposed. There are discreet signs of developer
activity, and last November English Heritage agreed not to list the Flying Pig – a threat averted. Today, there is talk that the site could
lend itself to a 100,000 sq ft office scheme. With the refinancing of the Botanic
scheme just completed, and Francis House under way, Vincent is raring to go. “Cambridge is the only city in the UK I
would think of building speculative offices and, if I could, I would. To get something ready for 2015/6 would be good,” he muses. “I suppose some people were surprised when we started on Botanic House, but if you believe in a project, then it isn’t a risk.”
He adds: “Betjeman House could
accommodate substantial office development, if we went back for planning permission.” Clearly, something is brewing, but
Vincent is anxious not to cannibalise his own market – and for now giving Francis House a clear run is important. “There is a dramatic shortage of good- quality office space in Cambridge, and four or five requirements floating around, and I can already see us getting into a competitive situation over the letting of Francis House. “Cambridge is a small city, and one has
to tread very, very cautiously. There is a risk one could quickly find the requirements aren’t there.” Vincent also has other, smaller fish to
fry. He recently bought KPMG’s office at 37 Hills Road for £2.2m. KPMG has taken a sublet in Mills & Reeve’s Botanic House. “In the short term, we’ll relet that, but in the medium term, redevelopment would be nice, and we are very much on the acquisition trail,” he says. If Vincent is preparing a development
appraisal for the banks then his timing is good: rents are rising and supply is falling. Two years ago, agents and developers
talked aspirationally of £30 per sq ft – today they talk as if that would be a bargain for good new space at a desirable address. Market sentiment seems to be hovering a little below £34 per sq ft – an astonishing change in a city that only 36 months ago thought £25 per sq ft was hot. Take-up and supply figures will also help buttress any developer’s appraisal of the prospects for speculative new- build in Cambridge. Carter Jonas’s figures show just 60,735 sq ft of grade A floorspace available in the tight core market of the Hills Road/Station area. The pipeline looks equally slim: Carter Jonas points to 178,000 sq ft envisaged or under construction in the central core. Will
23 February 2013
www.estatesgazette.com
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