28 commercial property Central Square close to full
A new retail development serving nearly 5,000 people on site at a thriving business park in Hampshire is close to calling full house.
In a deal through regional commercial property agency Hughes Ellard, 23.5 Degrees, a franchisee for Starbucks, has let Unit G at Central Square Retail Hub at Lakeside North Harbour, Portsmouth. With the letting, six out of the seven units are now occupied.
The arrival of the Starbucks store means Central Square is virtually fully occupied just months after the development, which adjoins Lakeside‘s glass-fronted anchor office, Building 1000, was completed.
Other occupiers are convenience store Co-op, a Co-op florist, dry cleaner Pressing Needs and hairdresser Hair Ott. Two further units are under offer to Subway sandwich bar and an independent beauty salon.
visitors. The potential for receptive footfall is tremendous.”
Lakeside, off junction 12 of the M27, is owned by commercial property development company Highcross, which has a 32 million sq ft portfolio of workspace and offices, business parks and industrial estates.
Added Nick Turner, asset management director at Highcross: ”We are delighted with the level of occupancy at Central Square. The business park, with 120 acres of mature landscaped gardens and a lake, also has planning consent for a further one million sq ft of office accommodation.
Exterior of Central Square Retail Hub
Tim Clark, the retail specialist with Hughes Ellard, the sole agent for Central Square and with offices in Southampton and Fareham, explained the development‘s popularity: ”Commercial interest in Central Square‘s units has been phenomenal and we expect to be able to call full house within
Pre-lets are main driver of large-scale deals
Acting jointly on behalf of Canmoor Developments and Cordea Savills, commercial property consultancies Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) and Dowley Turner Real Estate have agreed a major industrial pre-let deal in Southampton.
A 90,000 sq ft hub at Endeavour Park in Southampton – the former NXP site – has been signed for by parcel delivery business UPS. UPS has taken a 20-year lease paying around £7.95 per sq ft and will move to the site by the end of the year.
Canmoor, funded by Cordea Savills, bought the 15-acre site at Millbrook in Southampton at the end of 2011. Subsequently, it submitted plans for an industrial, storage and distribution development, to be renamed as Endeavour Park, and received planning consent in 2012. The former NXP site was previously occupied by Phillips Electronics.
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Jerry Vigus, director in LSH‘s south coast agency team, said: ”This is an important transaction for the south coast industrial and logistics sector. The arrival of UPS to Endeavour Park is a huge vote of confidence for the scheme and the wider market.
”The lack of large, quality units in the region remains a major problem for occupiers looking to relocate or expand their operations.
”We have said for some time now that pre-let agreements will therefore be the main driver of larger-scale deals, and this will remain the case throughout 2013.”
The UPS pre-let at Endeavour Park follows in the wake of international courier and logistics giant DPD (Dynamic Parcel Distribution) – a GeoPost brand – signing for 36,580 sq ft at Hargreaves‘ Hamilton Business Park, Hedge End.
months of this retail hub being completed.
”Occupiers have been drawn to the fact that there are nearly 5,000 people at the Lakeside campus, with 2,100 working on site and a further 2,750 members of staff at the IBM complex, let alone day
”The park is also home to a children‘s nursery and a Porsche dealership, while the De Vere Group has gained consent for a 124-bed business hotel.”
Joint agents for Lakeside, which has more than 100 companies on site, are Hughes Ellard and Vail Williams. Burns Property Consultants acted for 23.5 Degrees.
High percentage of construction companies at risk
The fall in construction output in January unfortunately does not come as a surprise, according to a committee of insolvency professionals in the South East.
Research by R3, the national trade body for insolvency professionals, shows over a quarter (29%) of construction firms across the South East are at risk of failure in the next 12 months. This figure compares to 22% of businesses at risk in the South East overall. R3 figures show that some 9,935 construction and civil engineering companies registered in the South East are at risk of collapse.
The percentage of these firms at risk in the South East is slightly higher than the national average of 27%.
James Stares (pictured), southern regional chairman of R3 and a director at Grant Thornton in Southampton, commented: ”Difficulties in raising funding for development, together with the cuts in public spending, are both key issues facing the industry. Due to public sector contracts
drying up, it is understandable the construction sector is struggling. The ‘crane count‘ in towns and cities clearly indicates the fall in activity and there is little relief in sight.
”In addition, commercial developers are finding it extremely difficult to raise funds and can often only do so on the back of an anchor tenant. However, there is some comfort for smaller builders as the ‘skip count‘ indicates that home owners are choosing to upgrade their properties rather than sell up and move in the current market.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – APRIL 2013
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