contractor halfway through the fit-out. resolved, and it has been worth it.
Thankfully all was
faced with rates liabilities based on the build costs, we could never have opened the doors!
● Service charges – being an integral part of a major retail- led scheme means that the Council has to bear a fair proportion of service charges. While there are advantages in economies of scale, suddenly finding myself involved in analysing big management and running costs had to be a rapid learning curve. The Apex manager finds himself having to face real operating costs over which he has no control.
● New owners – Centros (in my view) prematurely sold the investment. Having worked with us through some hefty issues and an extremely difficult market (viability appraisals commonly showing well below the agreed developer’s profit levels), our partner sold the scheme in 2010. We are still in the period of getting used to a new owner who comes without the history and without that developed “love” of the town. We’ll get there though.
Here are a couple of quotes about the hall….
“There have been so many multi-purpose halls built in the last few decades which are acoustic disasters which makes it all the more difficult to enjoy classical music in them. The Apex is 100 percent excellent acoustically, especially for an orchestra such as EUCO, and ideal for chamber music. I can say absolutely it is one of the best halls in which we have played anywhere in Europe.”
Ambrose Miller Director-General European Union Chamber Orchestra
“Instead of the customary trail of excuses and missed opportunities, planning restrictions, cost-cutting, procurement problems and compromises demanded by the retailers, leading to the path of least resistance and general mediocrity, here we have a new town centre that all its citizens can be proud of. It has 25,000 square metres of retail, 62 flats and a new civic auditorium which have all been delivered through a simple masterplan based around a new public square.”
Royal Institute of British Architects Arc & Apex - RIBA East Award Winner
Continuing “challenges”
We still have to deal with issues which had certainly been outside my previous “comfort zone”:
● NNDR – we had some nervous moments awaiting the advice of the specialist rating officer at the VOA. Helped by Iain Dewar at Wilks, Head & Eve, we called in the VOA during the construction phase, to discuss that the venue should be treated as a theatre type operation and rated on the basis of turnover, not based on the contractor’s test.
acknowledged the dilemma. THE TERRIER - Autumn 2011
Thankfully discussions went well and the VOA If the Council had been
49
● Public square – this remains an area of discussion with the new owners. We have differences about how the square should be used to increase footfall, and the 400 pages of legal documents I mentioned do not give a clear way forward.
I’m relieved to say that I think St Edmundsbury has now completed all its big projects. Asset management continues to draw out some knotty issues, but now that my Council has spent most of its reserves on this public venue – where I regularly revisit my youth (the Animals, Steve Harley, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span to name but a few) – and on West Suffolk House shared offices with the County Council, I can hope for a somewhat easier life in the property world. Oh yeah?
Betty Albon
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