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LIVERPOOL CITY REGION CHESTER MANCHESTER
May-June 2012
MOVE COMMERCIAL The north-west’s guide to property and business
Central Village takes shape
MAYORAL POWER What the change in leadership means CANNES DO Record-breaking year
Issue 27
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at
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Junction 31, M6, Preston
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Issue twenty-seven Move Commercial
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Contents News 06 Princes Trust building for Hanover Street 07 New plans for Chinatown 08 Kier announced as Siemens partner 09 Port Sunlight attraction gets funding go-ahead 10 Venmore rebrands commercial division 13 Amenity building for Mere Business Park 15 Science Park named enterprise zone 16 Castle St refurbishment complete 17 West Tower on the market
Features
Welcome to Move Commercial Before the market took a turn for the worse several regeneration projects begun across the region. Since the downturn, many of them have come to a grinding halt. In this issue we take a look at some of the biggest development projects in the North West and update you on their progress. We also turn the spotlight on the mayoral elections taking place across the region in our Focus on elections and our
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candidates’ Dinner Debate. We have interviews with Keppie Massie’s Andrew Byrne and MediaCityUK’s Stephen Wild. SwimFin founder Kevin Mosely tell us how he got started and David Swaffield of Hill Dickinson fills us in on the firm’s history. As always we’ve also got all the biggest news from the North West business and property sectors.
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move publishing ltd Advertising Director Fiona Barnet. Tel 0151 709 3871 Account Manager Jo Tait. Tel 0151 709 3871 Editorial Team Christine Toner. Email: christine@movepublishing.co.uk Tel: 0151 709 3871 Kate Hanratty. Email: kate@movepublishing.co.uk Tel: 0151 709 3871 Jenna White. Email: jenna@movepublishing.co.uk Tel: 0151 709 3871
Designer Rob Whyte. Email: rob@movepublishing.co.uk Published by Move Publishing Ltd Directors David O’Brien, Kim O’Brien, Fiona Barnet Printed by Precision Colour Printers Ltd Distribution Liaison Manager Barbara Troughton Tel: 0151 733 5492 Mobile: 077148 14662 Credits Katy Mutch - Key Event
18 Mayoral election focus What does having a mayor mean for a city? 20 Appointments Who’s moving where? 21 Bitesize Thinking Food for thought 22 Rising Star Move Commercial meets Keppie Massie’s Andrew Byrne 24 Mover & Shaker MediaCityUK managing director Stephen Wild on his international vision 28 Key Event Professional Liverpool’s seventh annual Cannes Do 31 Regional Update A look at how some of the biggest projects in the region are progressing 36 Entrepreneur SwimFin founder Kevin Moseley talks to Move Commercial 38 Founding business David Swaffield discusses Hill Dickinson’s history 41 Dinner debate A group of Liverpool mayoral candidates discuss their plans for the city 46 Ask the Panel Are you more confident about business this year?
Copyright Move Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced copied or transmitted in any form or by any means or stored in any information storage or retrieval system without the publishers written permission. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of material published, Move Publishing can accept no responsibility for the veracity of the claims made by advertisers.
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News Latest
Santander confirms St Paul’s move St Pauls Square
SANTANDER has confirmed that it will let the entire top floor of No.4 St Paul’s Square Liverpool as a corporate banking facility. Sue Douthwaite, divisional managing director of Santander Corporate Banking said: “We have spent the past three years growing our corporate banking business in the region and this move signifies the strength of our businesses within the Merseyside region.” Taking a ten-year lease, Santander has secured the 14,155 sq ft seventh floor which totals 109,000 sq ft at a headline rent of £20 per sq ft. Darran Lawless, director of English Cities Fund, said: “The £34 million development with its striking architecture is the final phase of St Paul’s Square and has already established itself as a world class business location for Liverpool. We believe that this seal of approval from a major corporate will attract other leading businesses to locate at No.4. “The Liverpool office market is poised for some significant activity with a number of very high profile large requirements in the market. These include Barclays, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Direct Line. With competitive rents we can offer a great location and a fantastic landmark building, there is a real opportunity to build upon what is already a strong location. St Paul’s Square will continue to grow as one of the region’s leading financial and professional centres.” Santander is currently based across the square in Bruntwood’s plaza. ECF, a joint venture between Legal & General, Muse Developments and the Homes & Communities Agency completed the letting. GVA advised ECF Santander was advised by CRBE. 6
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Bruntwood sees Liverpool Portfolio expand FAMILY-OWNED property company Bruntwood is continuing to expand its Liverpool portfolio after securing five lettings at three of its Liverpool buildings; Cotton Exchange, Exchange Court and Queens Insurance Building. Law firm John Pickering & Partners has relocated to Exchange Court on
Dale Street, expanding its occupation to 2,500 sq ft from another of Bruntwood’s buildings, 19 Castle Street. Promotional specialist Access Point has signed a lease on a 1,980 sq ft suite in the Grade II listed Cotton Exchange, its first office in the city centre, with a view to growing their
Cotton Exchange, Bruntwood
staff base. Catherine Higgins Solicitors has also expanded its offices to 1,300 sq ft in the building. Paintbox Art Media has expanded their offices to 1,400 sq ft in Queens Insurance Building after initially taking the space on a ‘try before you buy’ basis. In the same building, internet marketing agency PH Creative has extended its space by 200 sq ft. David Seddon, head of sales for Bruntwood, said: “We have seen a growing trend in existing customers looking for additional office space but not wanting to move offices completely. Given our flexible approach we have been able to accommodate the needs of our customers by expanding their existing offices without needing to relocate. Securing a new customer, such as Access Point, is a fantastic letting for the building and testament to the recently refurbished reception and common parts.”
NEW PRINCE’S TRUST BUILDING FOR RENSHAW STREET MORE THAN 25 companies and organisations have joined forces to build a new state of the art youth centre for The Prince’s Trust charity. The keys to the new premises have been handed over to the Prince’s Trust following an extensive £350,000 refurbishment project. The refurbishment saw companies work either pro bono or at cost to transform a section of the former Rapid hardware store on Renshaw Street. The new centre will allow The Prince’s Trust’s ‘Fairbridge’ programme to work with a greater number of disadvantaged young people to help them achieve their potential. Jayne, Wilson manager of The Prince’s Trust Liverpool Centre, praised the ‘incredible generosity’ of the companies. “No praise is high enough for the companies who have ploughed so much time, effort, energy and money into the project to help us make this dream a reality,” she said. Liverpool One Estates Director Chris Bliss, who led the project, said:
“Everyone involved deserves huge credit. However, it is very important to thank the team who undertook the larger parts of the project. LandAid must be commended for contributing £71,000 in cash and for involving Liverpool One and Grosvenor Estates, which provided the premises and funding. Aztec Interiors did a magnificent job as the main contractor.
The Prince’s Trust charity
“K2 acted as the architect, Todd and Ledson acted as the quantity surveyors, Innov8 Safety Solutions undertook the health and safety work and Curtins Consulting acted as consulting engineers. The international property company Gardiner & Theobald acted as project managers and contract administrator.”
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Latest News
GEC in Liverpool an overwhelming success THE MAIN summit day of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress held in Liverpool this month generated more than £560k for the city’s economy, initial figures revealed. It was the first time that the GEC was held in Europe and around 3,000 international delegates from 125 countries attended the summit at the ACC Liverpool to hear from a high profile cast of speakers including Sir Richard Branson, Lord Michael Heseltine, Martha Lane Fox and Sir Terry Leahy. The GEC was part of a wider weeklong Festival of Entrepreneurship, that featured 80 events across the city attracting many more visitors to the city, An online survey with delegates since GEC has revealed that the main day was regarded as “inspirational” and Liverpool is seen as an “entrepreneurial” city. Max Steinberg, chief executive of Liverpool Vision, who hosted the GEC with the Kauffman Foundation, said: “Liverpool’s GEC proved to be the largest event of its kind ever to be held anywhere in the world and it has been a resounding success. We have created a real legacy for the city while raising the bar for future GEC host cities.” The figures are based on initial economic impact figures from Liverpool Vision.
New vision for Chinatown unveiled AMBITIOUS plans for the regeneration of Liverpool’s Chinatown have been unveiled. There are plans for a trade centre, new restaurants, an Asian Pacific food court, leisure facilities and specialist accommodation for Chinese students. A 250,000 sq ft trade centre would provide a shop window for up to 100 Chinese electronics businesses looking to showcase their goods in the UK. The development would create up to 500 new jobs and would create a commercial and leisure destination on a currently derelict site on Great George St close to the city’s magnificent Chinese Arch. The scheme is being led by developers Shanghai Square Ltd and is fully funded. The company have consulted Chinese business and community groups and now intend to hold a local public consultation event to stimulate wider debate about the future of Chinatown. Dr Lee Kai Hung of
Shanghai Square Ltd, said: “We have been working on these plans for 18 months and we have a scheme we believe is right for Chinatown and which is absolutely deliverable. There are still issues to be resolved about the future of this site, but we think the time is right to engage the public and share with them a vision to regenerate Europe’s oldest Chinatown.” The Great George St site is
currently part of a development agreement between Liverpool City Council and Urban Splash, but with Splash unable to fund or deliver their original project. Dr Lee Kai Hung added: “ In addition to the proposed public exhibition in May Shanghai Square Ltd will be continuing to work with Liverpool City Council and Urban Splash to find an agreed way forward.”
Chinatown CGI
advert strip. not sure the size yet?
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News Developments
Firm re-buys former premises Sandhills warehouse
A LOCAL holdings company has re-bought and refurbished a property which was originally in its family business in the 1970’s. The Robert Smith Group (RSG), a Liverpool based family company, regained control of the 265,000* square feet warehouse situated between Sandhills Lane and Derby Road in Liverpool. Christopher Smith, director at RSG, said: “21 Sandhills Lane has been in the business since my Father oversaw its construction as a steel stocking warehouse in the 1970’s. To revitalise the premises and offer it back to the market is an exciting prospect and to see a property be transformed into a modern useable space is pivotal for our business going forward.” The firm has also opened the premises up to roadside trade to take full advantage of its prominent position just a mile outside Liverpool City Centre. Roy Backhouse, letting agent from Roy Backhouse & Company said: “The prime location of the building and being situated in a hub of national brands makes this a very exciting space to bring to the market.”
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Neptune submit plans for Baltic PLANS FOR a £45 million renovation of Liverpool’s Baltic/Cornhill area are being submitted to the city council later this month. The Baltic/Cornhill site is on Wapping, opposite the King’s Waterfront and near to Liverpool ONE. Under the proposed scheme apartments, a hotel and commercial space will be created. Plans by Windsor Developments to develop the site in 2006 were halted when the developer went into liquidation and the site has been mothballed ever since. Steve Parry, managing director of Neptune Developments, who put forward the planning application, said: “This is a key site in the heart of Liverpool and its proximity to the Liverpool Echo Arena and Conference Centre and Liverpool One make it a very attractive proposition. We are working closely with the city council and with local residents to ensure that
our proposals are absolutely right and we look forward to turning what is currently an eyesore into the final piece of the jigsaw for this vibrant area of Liverpool.” There are proposals for four buildings on the site. The first will contain 159 apartments and 200 square metres of leisure and retail space. The second will have 42 apartments. The third and The Baltic site fourth will be outline applications for a 170 bed hotel and a building with uses as health, leisure, offices or residential units. Balfour Beatty has been brought on board as the contractor for the scheme,which is being designed
by Liverpool architect’s Falconer Chester Hall. The plans also include the completion of the underground car park to create 330 spaces and the creation of a pavement café plus other planting and landscaping work. Subject to the planning process Neptune hopes to be on site as early as summer this year.
Kier announced as Siemens partner SIEMENS has selected Kier Property as its development partner for the future of its prime 20-acre Princess Road site in south Manchester. Siemens employs 800 staff on the site and has plans to increase this to 1,200 people in three years via the development of offshore wind power transmission technologies.
Siemens
Siemens and Manchester City Council, working with Kier, will now bring forward a mixed-use scheme primarily for commercial use. The investment and job creation is due to national and international investments in green infrastructure. The scheme will include a new
100,000sq ft office building for use by Siemens while the in situ Sir William Siemens House will be refurbished. The balance of the site will be developed in phases to provide new office, hotel and residential accommodation. Siemens and Manchester City Council have secured Regional Growth Fund support to aid delivery of the wider development and work will now proceed to agree arrangements to bring the scheme forward. Juergen Maier, managing director of Siemens Industry in the UK & Ireland, said: “We have selected Kier to support our plans to develop the site into a centre for sustainable technology and innovation to support the city's low carbon vision. The development will create a real focal point and also help in attracting new business and engineering skills to the north-west." The scheme is subject to the board approval of Siemens AG.
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Developments News
Go-ahead given for Royal Insurance building conversion A LANDMARK building in Liverpool is set to become a city centre hotel, as part of a £12m scheme. Planning permission has been granted to Ashall Property for the conversion of the Royal Insurance Building on North John Street. The scheme, designed by Liverpool architects Falconer Chester Hall, will see the Grade 2 listed property become a 116-bed hotel with a ground floor restaurant and bar. The property has been disused for some time and on the national Buildings at Risk register. Roger Williams of Ashall Property said: “To bring back to life this iconic Liverpool building will require careful and well co-ordinated construction works. FCH have designed a scheme fitting of the building’s history and
we are delighted to be the developer of this superb building which will provide a top quality niche hotel and meeting destination for the city.” Adam Hall, managing director of Falconer Chester Hall, said: “This is a project which we were extremely pleased to be asked to work on. “We were aware of the building and its history, and we knew that any proposals needed to satisfy the demands of its location within a conservation area. “Our aim has always been to produce a scheme that restores the building’s status as a property of which the city can be rightly proud.” Work on the conversion is expected to start in December 2012 with completion around December 2013.
Funding confirmed for Port Sunlight attraction WORKING on the new Port Sunlight River Park attraction is set to begin following a £2.2 million cash injection. Cllr Jeff The funding, Green from the Newlands programme, will help create a community woodland on the ex-Bromborough landfill site over the next three years. Lionel Bolland, Chief Executive of Port Sunlight Village Trust said: “This is a great boost to our visitor economy and should mean more people visiting the area and thus more jobs for the surrounding neighbourhood. It is most welcome news.” The 28-hectare site offers visitors direct access to the River Mersey with stunning views across the river to the Liverpool
waterfront and the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Plans include taking advantage of the site’s existing 37-metre mound to create a new green visitor attraction. Cllr Jeff Green, leader of Wirral Council said: “This is fantastic news for Wirral as we can turn an eyesore into a tourist attraction. This funding will enable us to really move this project forward and begin to open up the waterfront to the local community and visitors.” Euan Hall, chief executive of the Land Trust said: “The creation of this new park will benefit not only the local community through health, education and social cohesion but also the region through tourism, creating a catalyst for economic uplift. Credit needs to go to all the partners who have pushed to make this a reality.”
Royal Insurance Building CGI
Grosvenor adds some sparkle to its Bling GROSVENOR’S iconic Bling Building has benefited from a significant refurbishment and redesign of its entrance and communal areas. The refurbishment, which includes new signage, lighting, flooring and interior design, is set to attract interest from businesses looking for fashionable and well-presented commercial office space in a prime location. The building, located at 69 Hanover Street, comprises a mixture of retail and office accommodation over basement, ground and five upper floors. The remaining available space is located on the 3rd (2420sqft)
and 4th floors (2194sqft) and provides open plan office accommodation that benefits from LG3 lighting, raised access floors, gas central heating as well as private male and female WCs. The building’s basement, ground, first and second floors are already being used as a mix of retail, beauty salon, leisure, education and office uses. Herbert's Hairdressing Salon & School occupies the 1st, 2nd and 5th floors and the 1400 sq ft retail space on the ground floor is now also under offer. Lettings on the site are being managed by Paul Thorne of Mason Owen who can be contacted on 0151 242 3000.
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News Commercial
VENMORE RELAUNCHES COMMERCIAL DIVISION MERSEYSIDE estate agent, Venmore has enlisted North West commercial property specialist Malcolm Irving to head up its new commercial division, Venmore, Farnham & Lea. With over 35 years of experience in the sector, Malcolm Irving will join the expanding team as head of commercial, adding his professional expertise in dealing with investors, developers, landlords and tenants. Malcolm has a strong track record in providing full consulting services across all commercial sectors and will immediately introduce rent review, lease advisory and professional services skills to the team. Malcolm said: “I am looking forward for the opportunity to develop the commercial arm of the Venmore group. While it is a challenging time in the commercial market, it is also an important time for owner investors and occupiers to ensure that their property investments are producing optimal return.”
Paul Lea, Malcolm Irving and Rob Farnham
Regeneration Liverpool Encouraging signs from to develop five more sites Liverpool businesses
Joe Anderson
REGENERATION LIVERPOOL is to develop at least five new sites across the city. The partnership between Liverpool City Council and regeneration specialist Stigma Inpartnership Limited has already delivered 115 new homes in Norris Green. The five new areas earmarked for the major regeneration project are the Stonebridge Cross development, Gateacre former comprehensive school site, Lime 10 MOVE COMMERCIAL
Street/Renshaw Street/Knowledge Quarter, Edge Hill District Centre and Lodge Lane baths site. Stonebridge Cross will comprise 60 acres of land and will provide a new secondary school, a health centre, 600 new homes and retail facilities with a major food store. Gateacre former comprehensive school site will be developed to accommodate around 200 new family homes. Liverpool City Council Leader, Councillor Joe Anderson, said: “In such difficult economic times, we have to find imaginative ways of working with partners. Regeneration Liverpool is a really effective way of doing this, bringing together the best of the public and private sector and creating really exciting opportunities for our city. “The development of these five key sites is fantastic news for Liverpool, and proof that by strengthening this innovative partnership, we are leaving ourselves better equipped to deliver vital regeneration schemes, attract investment and create thousands of jobs.”
MERSEYSIDE businesses have come through any concerns over a double dip recession according to the latest Chamber of Commerce survey. Brian McCann, a board member at Liverpool Chamber and partner in MC Vanguard Corporate Finance said: "The survey for the first quarter of 2012 shows a significant improvement in orders and in export sales in both the service and manufacturing sectors." Over 300 businesses responded to the survey, which found more companies are recruiting than are reducing staff. There has also been a positive impact on business confidence with the majority of companies now expecting growth in both sales and profits in the coming quarter. Brian continued: "However, cash flow remains a major concern for most businesses with little sign of any significant improvement. The Chamber will continue to lobby both the government and the banks to turn the steady stream of policy announcements on business finance into real action quickly so as to ensure that lack of access to finance does not
derail the recovery.” "In responding to the survey, a number of members highlighted increases in business rates, employers NIC and uncertainty over levels of environmental subsidies as potential barriers to the recovery. "That underlines the need to support and foster growth and investment by companies to ensure that the increases we have seen in the first quarter continue."
Brian McCann
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Commercial News
Amenity building for Mere Business Park PLANNING CONSENT has been given for an onsite amenity building at Lingley Mere Business Park in Warrington. The new facility, a joint venture between Muse Developments and United Utilities will be situated in the centre of the development between the park’s two lakes covering 7,500 sq ft. The amenity building will offer hot and cold food, a Costa coffee shop, an ATM and meeting space with WiFi. Wes Erlam, senior development surveyor at Muse Developments, said: “Lingley Mere has a wellestablished business community, which has grown significantly in recent years. As part of a comprehensive master plan, we intend to develop the park further by enhancing the excellent range of amenities that already exist at Lingley Mere.” Muse Developments and United Utilities are currently in positive discussions with a potential
occupier for the amenity building and hope to start on site in the autumn of 2012. Wes added: “Achieving the green light on the amenity building marks another positive step forward in the latest phase of development. In the next 12 months, the joint venture partnership – which has been in place since 2004 – is focused on attracting high quality businesses to the park by delivering bespoke office accommodation to meet the needs of a range of occupiers.”
Wes Erlam
Convenience store for Bootle Glass completes Princes Dock Florrie work RESTORATION at The Florence Institute in Toxteth has been completed after two years of painstaking work. Bootle Glass, Bankhall Street, has been working closely with building and restoration contractors William Anelay to complete all of the glazing on the project. The FENSA registered glazing firm fitted leaded lights, fire glass and etched glass designs within the building. The Grade ll listed building, known as The Florrie, was the first building in Great Britain to be constructed specifically as a boys youth club. It is now home to a variety of facilities including
exhibitions, an auditorium and a library. Bootle glass has been established for over 25 years and in 2009 moved to its larger premises allowing it to move into the manufacturing side of the industry. Sharon Clarke, director of Bootle Glass, said: “We feel very privileged to be involved in the restoration of such a beautiful building with so much history. The building is such an integral part of the community, bringing together all generations. It has been restored back to its former glory and is an excellent example of restoration work at its best.”
A NEW convenience store has opened at Peel’s Princes Dock development in Liverpool. The new store, which will be called ‘Princes Dock Newsagent and Convenience Store’, will occupy 1,163 sq.ft. The store, located on the ground floor of the multi-storey car park, opened on March 26 and is the latest addition to a range of amenities already based at Princes Dock, which include bars, restaurants, a children’s nursery, coffee shop/deli, gym and hotels. At Princes Dock Newsagent and Convenience Store customers will be able to purchase newspapers, essential groceries, fresh and frozen produce and play the National lottery on site. Mohamed Abdo, owner of the store,
said: “Princes Dock is an excellent location for us to open a convenience store, the number of people based on site as well as the number of visitors to the development each year presents us with an excellent opportunity to do business here”.
Princes Dock
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Offices To Let 3RD FLOOR
includes viewing ‘Pod’
2,420sqft (225sqm) 4TH FLOOR includes Terrace
2,194sqft (204sqm) 14 MOVE COMMERCIAL
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Commercial News
Wilcocks advises on £15m scheme LIVERPOOL wealth management firm Wilcocks & Associates is helping property and land investors capatalise on credit-crunch opportunities. Brothers Martin and Robert Wilcocks have provided corporate advice to an offshore client in securing an option on a plot of land in the North East. The plot, which was recently granted planning for a retail use, has an estimated gross domestic value of £15 million depending on the tenants that are secured. Prospective tenant discussions are ongoing, whilst several property funds have expressed an interest in purchasing the development outright and joint ventures to develop out. The planning permission will allow the construction of a two-storey building set in landscaped grounds. There will also be 186 parking spaces and it is estimated work on the site may begin as early as August 2012. What’s unique about the arrangement is that, through the use of niche financial products, profits from both planning and development gains are free from capital gains tax, which is currently 28%. Robert Wilcocks, partner, says: “This is relevant for any property or land investor. What we have is a unique range of products that are of enormous interest to those who are actively involved in property and land development, and where significant gains can be expected. Furthermore, profits are able to be extracted tax efficiently over the short term.”
Enterprise zone launches A SCIENCE PARK, which could create up to 1,000 new jobs in the Merseyside and Cheshire area by 2015, has officially been named an enterprise zone.
Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus (DSIC) has been granted the status by the government following a pledge in the 2011 Budget to revive a
Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus
flagship policy of Margaret Thatcher's tenure in the 1980s. Enterprise zones were originally focused on rejuvenating run down areas. Its new incarnation provides a remit to reuse finance and pay reduced business rates. Businesses currently based at DSIC, or moving to it before April 2015, could be eligible for 100 per cent business rates relief for up to five years. John Leake, DSIC business development manager, said: “We are delighted to be embarking on this new period. EZ status will have widespread benefits for the companies based at the campus and will no doubt be a catalyst for further growth and investment. “The new status will accelerate the progression of the campus significantly and allow us to pursue our vision to develop a technology village which will provide specialist science and technology roles for more than 15,000 people.”
Cruise season to generate £6m LIVERPOOL’S cruise season, which is expected to generate more than £6 million for the city’s economy, set sail on April 12 with the arrival of Fred Olsen’s largest and newest cruise ship Balmoral. The arrival of the vessel, carrying around 1,300 tourists, heralds the start of one of Liverpool’s biggest ever cruise seasons. A total of 19 liners and a potential 30,000 passengers will pass through the city over the next five months. Councillor Wendy Simon, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for culture and tourism, said: “Liverpool’s cruise offer continues to go from strength to strength, with our fantastic cruise facility enabling us to welcome some of the world’s most impressive liners to our city. “This year’s cruise season is set
to be one of the best yet, with vessels from all over the world bringing tens of thousands of visitors to enjoy our many visitor attractions, bars and restaurants. “It’s bringing a huge boost to our economy, and helping cement our position as a first-class tourist destination.” Sailing into Liverpool for the rest of the 2012 cruise season are: 17 May: Vision of the Seas, 30 May: Caribbean Princess, 11 June: Caribbean Princess, 16 June: Aida Cara, 22 June: Arcadia, 3 July: Saga Sapphire, 12 July: Caribbean Princess, 20 July: Prisendam, 28 July: Quest for Adventure, 3 August: Queen Elizabeth, 8 August: Astor, 9 August Caribbean Princess, 10 August Adonia, 17 August Prisendam, 20 August Aida Cara, 14 September Albatross.
Cllr Wendy Simon
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News Sales & Lettings
Castle St refurbishment complete A £500,000 project to refurbish a Grade II listed Liverpool city centre building has been completed. Kilpatrick Property Group has finished an extensive rolling programme of works at 10-18 Castle Street after acquiring the property in 2008. Alasdair Irvine, acquisitions director at the Kilpatrick Property Group, said: “We have been delighted by the work carried out by Wirral based interiors specialists Crave ID on the common areas and atrium that really set the building apart.” FRD Risk Solutions has already taken a suite and the property group believe their approach in offering `virtual’ freeholds has worked well. “Where we have been successful is in selling units on long leases of 250 years which is something that isn’t common in the Liverpool office
Castle Street
market.” “The unit sizes have also proved attractive and we believe that will continue to be the case with the accommodation we are currently marketing in what is an exceptional location at the heart of the city’s business district.” added Alasdair Irvine. The office accommodation currently available includes a ground floor rear suite of 1,900 sq ft, and a second floor refurbished suite of 1,750 sq ft and a third floor suite of 1,000 sq ft. This work has involved infrastructure improvements on the stonework and windows to maintain the building’s historic integrity, improvements to the buildings facilities, and also adding a nod towards modern trends in common areas.
Hitchcock Wright to market Walton Hospital Walton CGI
COMMERCIAL property agency will market new homes at the former Walton Hospital site. Hitchcock Wright & Partners have been appointed to sell the almost 12 acres of land near the former Walton Hospital with planning consent for 137 new homes. 16 MOVE COMMERCIAL
Nick Harrop, Partner at Hitchcock Wright & Partners said: “This is a fantastic residential opportunity in a very popular location. As well as the site being close to a wide range of shopping and leisure facilities, there are a number of excellent primary and
secondary schools in the area. The site’s disposal has coincided with the demolition of the last element of the former Walton Hospital, which wasn’t an attractive building. With the NHS due to start construction of a new attractive low rise building this
summer the timing couldn’t be better and we have had a good level of interest from developers.” Phase one of the development was completed in 2004 and included the conversation of the former nurses’ buildings and the construction of 18 new homes including new build semidetached houses and converted character buildings. The site is split into two distinct areas which are separated by the site where work is due to start on the construction of a new NHS facility, which will serve Walton and the surrounding areas. The smaller area of the site measures around 5 acres and the larger 6 acres. Detailed planning permission was granted for the residential site in March 2002.
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Sales & Lettings News
West Tower on the market LIVERPOOL’S tallest building, West Tower, has been formally placed up for sale with an asking price of £12.5million. The administrators, Les Ross and Martin Ellis of UK accountancy firm Grant Thornton have appointed the real estate specialists Jones Lang LaSalle to oversee the disposal of the 40-floor waterfront building. West Tower Liverpool Limited and Mapfield Properties Limited, the two companies that together controlled the building were placed into administration on 31 January 2011. They were part of the Beetham organisation. There had been a delay in bringing West Tower to market as an issue with Liverpool City Council concerning land underneath an overhang of the tower needed to be resolved. An agreement has now been reached in respect of this oversail issue but the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. West Tower has 123 apartments, 106 of which are unsold, and mainly let to tenants. The remaining 17 properties are owner-occupied. The unsold apartments consist of 104 two-
bedroom apartments, plus two three-bedroomed penthouses. West Tower also includes 12,500sqft of commercial space on the lower four floors and the prestigious Panoramic restaurant, on the 34th floor, which was not affected by the administration as it is run by a separate company. It has continued to trade normally throughout. Martyn Green, director of Jones Lang LaSalle in Liverpool said: “West Tower is a landmark building and has attracted a great deal of interest from private investors and institutions. We already have firm enquiries, no doubt driven by the quality of the building, its unrivalled location and that fact it is almost fully occupied.” Joint administrator Les Ross said: “West Tower was hit by the fall in property prices since the building was completed in 2008, and that the companies behind it struggled to meet their bank borrowing requirements. We’re pleased to have reached the point where it’s available for sale and believe its quality and location will make it an attractive proposition for the market.”
West Tower
New lettings at Burlington House OFFICES in north Liverpool continue to prove popular for family-owned commercial property company Bruntwood after it secured two new lettings in Burlington House. Oakdale Insolvency and Voice
Engineer Dot Com have taken space in the building pushing occupancy to over 75%. Insolvency service providers Oakdale Insolvency has signed a three-year lease for a 700 sq ft office space in the building located
on Crosby Road. Unified communications specialists Voice Engineer Dot Com has also taken a 650 sq ft suite on a five-year lease following a company expansion. David Seddon, head of sales at Bruntwood, said: “Our Burlington House north Liverpool offices continue to be popular with companies looking for high quality, well connected office space at competitive rates. We have invested solidly in the building since acquiring
it over 20 years ago including a recent refurbishment of the reception and various offices. “This, coupled with rent free incentives and lease flexibility, is producing a surge in companies interested in the north Liverpool offices we have available.” Alen Roberts, managing director at Voice Engineer Dot Com, said: “We knew we would require a larger office when we took on new staff earlier this year. As we have to travel to reach our clients, we felt Burlington House is ideally located close to both Liverpool city centre and the rest of the North West. “Our new office is perfect as it provides excellent value you expect from space outside of a city centre whilst being of a high specification.” MOVE COMMERCIAL 17
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By Christine Toner christine@movepublishing.co.uk
With just days left before the people of Liverpool and Salford take to the polling stations to vote for their first ever elected mayors we take a look at how the new rule will work, who else has it and what it means for cities.
Mayoral power On May 3rd voters in Liverpool and Salford will elect a mayor for the first time in history.
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hink city mayor and what comes to mind? Boris? Ken? Understandably most people associate directly elected mayors with London. That’s because while the capital has had a directly elected mayor since 2000, most other cities operate on a ‘leader and cabinet’ model whereby the leader of the council – and subsequently the city – is elected by other councillors. However, since 2000 – and the introduction of the Local Government Act 2000 – all cities have had the option of having a directly elected mayor. As a result there are currently 14 elected mayors across the UK, situated in Bedford, Doncaster, Hackney, Hartlepool, Leicester, Lewisham, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newham, North Tyneside, Torbay, Tower Hamlets, Watford and, of course, London. In May 2010, the coalition government claimed it was committed to creating elected mayors in 12 of the biggest cities outside London. As such it was announced that referendums would be held in Liverpool, Salford, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield
T
in order for the people to decide if they wanted an elected mayor or not. Salford held a referendum on January 27 this year and the people voted in favour of a mayoral system. In Liverpool however, in an extraordinary council meeting it was decided that on May 3, as voters in ten other UK cities take part in a referendum to decide whether they want a city mayor, the people of Liverpool will be instead be choosing who they want to fill the position. Council members voted 63 to three in favour of skipping a referendum and head straight into a mayoral system. Should the referendums in the other ten cities result in a move to a mayoral system, elections will take place from 15 November THE ROLE OF THE MAYOR Elected mayors are responsible for the day-to-day running of local services. According to the government their duty is “to provide political leadership to the council and the community, and carry out the local authority's policies. ”The mayor will be elected for a period of four years. He or she will appoint a Cabinet (also called the “Executive”) of two or more councillors. There will still be councillors and
leaders of each of the political groups however the role of leader of the council would no longer exist. Councillors will still carry out their community roles, representing their constituents and undertaking casework. Councillors will also be responsible for scrutinising the decisions of the mayor in a similar way to the current Leader and Cabinet system. The role of the Lord Mayor remains ceremonial. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE CITY? According to cities minister Greg Clark the move will allow cities to retain their individuality. “It is self evident that each of our cities is distinct and unique. Bristol and Newcastle, Manchester and Leicester, they all have different ambitions, different assets,” he says. “No team of ministers or officials in London - no matter how bright or well-intentioned - can devise one set of solutions that fit these very different circumstances. To achieve their ambitions, to fulfill their potential, cities need to take charge of their own destinies. The drive must come from within, not without.” As such Clark and the coalition promised that where it could see
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Directly elected mayors Focus
strong leadership, complemented by clear accountability to local people, central Government was “ready to help cities do things their way”. “Our great cities should not be run as branch offices of central Government,” said Clark. “This may turn the established order on its head, but it's time that Whitehall knew its place.” Cities that opt for an elected mayor may be offered city deals including new funding powers to commission transport and infrastructure, or for apprenticeships and skills According to Liverpool City council the vote followed the negotiation of a new “city deal” with central government that will see new powers devolved to the city and the creation of a single investment fund of new and existing public and private money, initially worth £130 million but with the potential to grow to £500m - £1 billion. The initial fund will include £75 million of new money from central government.
THE CANDIDATES LIVERPOOL CANDIDATES Joe Anderson - Labour Richard Kemp - Liberal Democrat Tony Caldeira - Conservative Adam Heatherington - UKIP John Coyne - Green Party Steve Radford - Liberal Party Tony Mulhearn - The Trade Union and Socialist Party Mike Whitby - British National Party Peter Tierney - National Front Liam Fogarty - Independent Jeff Berman - Independent
SALFORD CANDIDATES Michael Felse - English Democrats Karen Garrido - Conservative Party Bernard Gill - UKIP Paul Massey - Independent Michael Moulding Community Action Party Joe O’Neill - Green Party Eddy O’Sullivan British National Party Norman Owen - Liberal Democrats Ian Stewart - Labour Party Pat Ward - Independent
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Appointments Hitchcock Wright announce new partner by promotion
Matt Kerriga n
Liverpool commercial property agency, Hitchcock Wright & Partners has promoted retail specialist Matt Kerrigan from associate to salaried partner in the firm's Liverpool office. Kerrigan joined the firm in September 2004 as a graduate surveyor, progressing to Associate Partner in May 2010. Matt, said: “Having worked and contributed to many significant projects since I began at Hitchcock Wright & Partners, I am excited to put my hard work and skills to practice and continue my career in such a leading and well recognised firm in the North West.”
New Appointment at Kingsley Associates Kingsley Associates, the property, construction, legal and business support recruitment consultancy, has expanded their property and construction team with the appointment of Neil Massie.
Neil Massie
Neil, who has worked in recruitment since 2000, said: “When the opportunity arose to be working for Kingsley Associates, covering predominantly the North West Construction Market, it was not a difficult decision. “There is a strong synergy between all of the teams here, and the future is looking increasingly positive as we take the business forward.” 20 MOVE COMMERCIAL
DTZ announce Manchester promotion Real estate advisers DTZ have announced a number of promotions in the UK. In DTZ’s Manchester office, Richard Farrall has been promoted to associate director level in the human resources team and Howard Hill has been promoted to senior surveyor in the property management team. Mike Mitchell, regional managing director, said: “Our newly promoted associate directors and senior surveyors have demonstrated considerable professionalism and commitment to their role, and to the company.” DTZ is part of UGL Services a division of UGL limited.
Howar d.Hill
Hill Dickinson recruits Cobbetts partner to its Manchester Corporate team Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson LLP has bolstered its corporate team with the appointment of Ian Riggs as a partner in the Manchester office. Ian will be involved in both public and private corporate finance work, bringing his specialism in corporate transactional work and reorganisations to the firm. Ian, said: “Hill Dickinson’s corporate team is well respected in the North West and I am looking forward to working with Ian Gillis and the team to enhance Hill Dickinson’s corporate offering in Manchester and the wider region.”
Ian Riggs
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Move Commercial Bitesize thinking
ROB FARNHAM chief executive of Venmore In my crystal ball… Whilst it’s tarnished by the continuing slow economic recovery, I believe the market will continue to see yields become more polarised between primary and secondary locations. The local market viewed as an observer, occupier and an agent supports the polarization theory. As an observer, the prime retail location of Liverpool ONE goes from strength to strength irrespective of the annual “Nightmare on the High Street” news headlines. As an occupier of prime city centre accommodation, owning a successful well funded business enables a great financial deal to be done with varying incentives. And lastly, as an agent in secondary locations the widening availability of properties are forcing capital valuations down whilst rents remain static. The conclusion of this is that prime rates seem fixed at around 5 or 6% whist secondary locations can yield between 10 and 12%. I also believe we are reaching the bottom of the market.
If only I’d known…. When starting our business on day one, the key driver for setting up our high street chain of estate agents was on location and not the deal. We were so keen on location and so eager to grow, we undervalued ourselves as a tenant. The upside is that it has given us a valuable insight into spending more time qualifying would be tenant’s, fully understanding their business model, life experience and funding and presenting a very balanced view when advising our commercial landlords on suitability.
‘Going forward’ Buzzword Meaning: Remember the time when you could explain what your plans were without having to make sure people knew you were talking about the future, rather than planning retrospectively? It seems nowadays too many people are unsure about whether tasks and ideas are to be put in place from now on or whether they are somehow supposed to be implemented in the past. Thankfully to solve this little conundrum there is a handy little phrase – “going forward”.
Indeed, no presentation or business plan is complete without the speaker or writer assuring the listener or reader these are ideas are to be implemented “going forward”. In truth it’s a totally pointless phrase that doesn’t actually add anything to a sentence. For example, “We need to be more productive, going forward” would convey exactly the same message without those last two words. So, business people of the world, let’s try and drop the “going forward”ahem, going forward.
Vital statistics
£12m
Liverpool's Sea Odyssey is expected to generate a £12m boost to the city’s economy. At least 250,000 people attended the city’s biggest outdoor event and advance hotel bookings for April 20-22 increased by 12% compared to the same weekend last year. The cost of the event was around £1.5 million with £400,000 representing Liverpool’s last tranche of Capital of Culture legacy funding.
&
Home Away
FAVOURITE BUILDINGS Andrew Kingsley, director, Kingsley Associates Recruitment Consultancy HOME: I was privileged to work at Neptune Developments when our design, ‘The Cloud’, was chosen to be the ‘Fourth Grace’ at Mann Island on Liverpool Waterfront. Unfortunately, the
project never matured beyond the design stage for several reasons, which was a real shame. The subsequent black granite and glazed buildings however are equally as striking and are my current favourite ‘home’ buildings not only for Mann Island, Liverpool their aesthetics, functionality and architectural style but also for their contrast and setting within the surrounding area.
The Peak, Hong Kong
AWAY: Buildings provide many purposes and sometimes, breathtaking views. I was fortunate to visit ‘The Peak’ in Hong Kong several years ago - a stylish piece of architecture which provides restaurants shops and entertainment venues but for me, it is the panoramic 360° views of the vibrant city below from The Sky Terrace 428, (428m above sea level) which distinguishes the building from any other I know – especially at night. MOVE COMMERCIAL 21
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By Kate Hanratty kate@movepublishing.co.uk
To be considered upcoming in your field is quite an achievement. For Andrew Byrne, senior surveyor at Keppie Massie, this and being involved in the changing face of his hometown Liverpool is really something to be proud of.
The future is bright
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Grosvenor, Peel and St Modwen. I asked him what he enjoys the most about his role. “I like meeting new people all the time,” he says. “One minute you are meeting someone who runs a hedge fund or someone who runs a large corporation, next you are advising someone who needs a 1,000 sq ft industrial unit and owns their own business, and with them it’s about a person’s whole livelihood rather
wanted to be a surveyor. One of my fathers’ good friends was a surveyor and following a work placement at his firm I was hooked and decided surveying was for me,” says Andrew. Andrew completed a year’s placement as a surveyor at My Travel head office in Rochdale before joining the ranks at Keppie Massie, which has 40 staff across Liverpool and Manchester offices. To become a qualified surveyor he
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Keppie Massie’s headquarters at Rumford Court Complex are steeped in history. Originally built in the mid 19th Century, the Surveyors and Property Consultants office buildings have significant historical importance due to the role they played during the American Civil War. They were the unofficial offices of the American Confederate Embassy and attract many American visitors on the Liverpool Slavery Tour route. Andrew Byrne says that one of the most memorable moments of his career so far has been his involvement with the Liverpool ONE development, which has changed the face of Liverpool as a City. “I was lucky to be involved in the Liverpool ONE project which has linked our traditional retail offer to the waterfront, anchored by the Albert Dock complex and the fact I was a part of it is something I’m very proud of,” says Andrew. “I have visited lots of other great cities such as Sydney, Hong Kong, Auckland and New York but Liverpool is my home and has a great buzz about it.” Crosby born Andrew’s role involves advising tenants and landlords, whether acquiring property for investment or selling and leasing premises. He has worked on behalf of many big name clients including Langtree,
From an early age I knew I wanted to be a surveyor
than just figures. I really enjoy the diversity of people that I get to meet in my job.” Andrew started at Keppie Massie as a graduate back in 2008, after studying at Sheffield Hallam University and then completing his degree in Real Estate Management at Liverpool John Moore’s University. “From an early age I knew I
had to train for a further two years after university to pass the APC exam which enabled him to become a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). “When I look back, this is one of the things that I’m really proud of doing and I passed first time,” says Andrew. After those two years Andrew was given more responsibility at
Keppie Massie. “As well as maintaining longterm client relations within Keppie Massie and continuing weekly responsibilities. I am motivated to encourage new clients to use our services” he says. “It’s more about finding leads myself now, rather than waiting for someone else to provide them; it’s nice that as a company they trust me and with that trust comes greater responsibility.” Andrew was involved in putting together the Liverpool Commercial Office Market Review in 2011 alongside the two prestigious bodies of Professional Liverpool and Liverpool Vision. The review analysed commercial office space take up in the North West. “Since 2008 I have helped correlate figures for the annual review. Since then the review has become part and parcel of my remit,” says Andrew. “It’s a case of being in touch with the market, speaking to all the other agents, noting all the deals and then collating all the figures and being part of a team that put together the report.” I asked him from his findings what he could tell us about trends for commercial office take up in the City. “There has definitely been an improvement last year from the year before as we are seeing
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Andrew Byrne, senior surveyor at Keppie Massie Rising Star
Byrne File DOB: 10/12/1983 Education: Finished Real Estate Degree at Liverpool John Moores University (2007) Studied Real Estate at Sheffield Hallam University (2004) Merchant Taylors’ School in Crosby (2002) Career: Joined Keppie Massie as a graduate in 2008, now a senior surveyor. Passed APC and joined Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. (2010) Surveyor at My Travel (2004)
increased levels of enquiries across all sectors,” says Andrew. “We have already started to look back at all the figures again and compare them month by month. If you reflect the figures back, we’re already ahead this year. When I started in 2008 the recession was in full swing, but is now steadily moving in the right direction. We saw a blip in the figures in 2010, but it’s been slowly improving since then.” When looking at specific areas, Andrew says one area that has seen a notable improvement is Speke. “Last year Speke had one deal and now so far there has been six transactions, which percentage wise is the biggest growth area in the region, so you could say Speke is on the up!” says Andrew. “Last year the majority of commercial office space was taken up by professional sector tenants, such as solicitors. City centre office take up has improved in the first quarter of 2012, one reason for the improvement could be that in January of last year we experienced heavy snow.” “Everyone likes to do a deal in the better weather. People are happier going to work. It’s a simplistic way of looking at it, but it makes a difference.” Andrew’s focus at Keppie Massie at the moment is the out of town office and industrial market which currently includes sites such as Mere Grange in St Helen's, Meridian Business Village in Speke and Southport Business Park. He has also assisted on a number of city centre instructions such as Mercury Court, Princes Dock and Exchange Flags. As a rising star in the company what can we expect from him in the future? “In the future my ambition is to own my own business, doing what I do now,” says Andrew. “With regards to Keppie Massie the future is bright, we are very well diversified as a property consultant to cover all aspects of property, which puts us in a good position for when the market fully recovers.” Keppie Massie was established in 1999 and deals with all major aspects of commercial and residential property consultancy.
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By Christine Toner christine@movepublishing.co.uk
Wild words With MediaCityUK continuing to grab the headlines, managing director of the development Stephen Wild tells Move Commercial about the vision behind it.
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closely with Liverpool City Council on the delivery of Liverpool ONE, Liverpool Arena and a variety of other things. He joined The Peel Group six years ago and took responsibility for MediaCity three years ago. “As managing director of Media City I’m responsible for everything from its tenants, its leasing, its lettings, its operations, events, branding and marketing, everything on a day to day basis that relates to it,” explains Stephen. “The only distinction is in relation to the operation of the studios
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This isn’t about a one off opportunity, this is about a long term vision.
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For many people the name MediaCityUK is now synonymous with the BBC – not least because of the coverage in the press regarding the shift of staff from London to Salford. But, talking to the managing director of the Peel-owned development, Stephen Wild, it’s clear to see MediaCity is much more than just a new home for the Beeb. Indeed, whilst the broadcaster is amongst its most well known tenants, the vision of MediaCity goes much wider. “Our vision is to create a new city that is a hub of international standing in the creative and media sectors –this is not about building the BBC a new building,” says Stephen. “This is about building a complete new city, a new vision, where there is a whole explosion of creativity – that is what led to them coming to MediaCity as opposed to doing a simple property relocation. The major difference was our vision,” says Stephen. And Stephen is certainly a man with vision. A Reading university graduate, he trained at a GVA Grimley and became a partner in the development section for the North West before setting up his own consultancy where he worked
business, that’s done in joint venture with our partners SIS and that doesn’t fall into my remit.” The site is now home to eight large businesses including BBC, ITV, University of Salford, SIS, Holiday Inn and two residential companies along with a numbers of smaller firms. “We were very fortunate over the year to secure 60-65 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) up here, principally at the Pie Factory and the Greenhouse (more commonly referred to as the Media Village),” says Stephen. “We now have between 4000 and 5000 people on site at the moment, across all of those companies.” And there are still spaces on offer. “Media City offers something for everybody so we have space for SMEs, which might be one desk or two desks for, perhaps, a month or a week,” explains Stephen. “We have hot-desking available here as well and our spaces range all the way up to Grade A.” Grade A offices are up to 200,000 sq ft and are obviously let on a longer-term basis. “We’ve got retail and leisure opportunities still available,” says Stephen. “And, on the residential side, we offer apartments for
private rent and for sale and while they are doing well there are still a few on offer.” Opportunities also exist, of course for the surrounding communities. During the construction process Stephen claims £100 million was pumped back into the local community. Now the development works closely with local colleges to bring people through to employment. Addressing recent press reports that the BBC only employed a handful of people from the local area Stephen says part of the major drive is to ensure there are longterm benefits for the community by driving skilled jobs coupled with appropriate skills education into the area. “That’s where the likes of the University of Salford, Salford College and the council come in,” says Stephen. “This isn’t about a one off opportunity, this is about a long term vision.” That vision, says Stephen involves helping Salford to continue to benefit from the regeneration, which began as far back as 1985. “Salford has a range of assets whether that be the Lowry theatre or the Imperial War Museum,” says Stephen. “By the physical
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Stephen Wild, managing director, MediaCityUK Mover & Shaker
nature of our development we can tie all that together and create a real vibrant hub, a centre for Salford.” Hosting events such as Sports Personality of the Year and CBBC’s Playtime in the Piazza at MediaCityUK drive activity and footfall into the local area and into Salford Keys and Stephen says he will continue to roll that forward. “What this gives is an added dimension to what is on offer in the local vicinity for those people who live here and beyond,” he adds. However, Stephen does not want MediaCityUK to just be a regional offering but rather a national and international attraction. “The city region and the North West is already very strong in the creative media sector,” he says, “There has been an increase in creative media positions in the region from 750 to 2500. We now have BBC breakfast here, which is the first time a news programme has come outside of London. All these are massively enhancing the North West as a region and bringing opportunity for inward investment.” Stephen is equally as enthusiastic about his parent group’s plans. “Obviously Peel in its wider sense is massively involved in the entirety of the North West,” he says. “All the time it’s increasing assets here which allows the whole region to compete on an international basis.”
Wild File Born: November 1970 Education: Reading University Career: Trained at GVA Grimley and became a partner in the development section. Set up own consultancy before joining Peel Group six years ago.
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Brian Ricketts M: 07970 837454 E: brianricketts@hwandp.co.uk Andrew Owen M: 07798 576789 E: andrew.owen@masonowen.com
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26 MOVE COMMERCIAL
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LIVERPOOL’S WIDEST RANGE OF OFFICES TO LET OR FOR SALE
WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR THE FLEXIBILITY OF A SHORT TERM AGREEMENT WITH SERVICES INCLUDED, A LONGER TERM LEASE OR A FREEHOLD PURCHASE, FIND OUT WHY WE’RE BETTER. CONTACT OFFICES@DOWNING.COM
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Key events Cannes Do 2012
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Cannes Do hailed huge success
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The great and the good of the property world gathered at Peel’s No12 Princes Dock for Professional Liverpool’s seventh annual Cannes Do. A record-breaking 460 guests attended the event during which £6,250 was raised for children’s medical research charity, Sparks. Stuart Keppie, of Keppie Massie and chairman of the Property Group for Professional Liverpool, says: “The event is one of the main highlights in Liverpool’s property calendar and has become so popular that this year numbers had to be seriously restricted. The venue at Princes Dock was regarded as being one of the best for the event and was well received by attendees. It generated a good atmosphere, and we were delighted that chosen charity Sparks received such generous donations from guests.” 4
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1. Lyndsey Ashworth (Peel). 2. David Thomas (Seaford Finance), Helen Johnston (DWF) and Luke Hopkins (DWF). 3. Stella Shui (Sam Wa Group). 4. Ben Nicholas (Trident), Mike Hunkriss (CBI), Simon Millington (Space Invader), Ian Spencer (Trident) and Jonty Shaw (Trident Dental Associates). 5. Jo Tait, Christine Toner (Move Commercial), Tracy Thompson and John Mckenna (Paul Crowley and Co). 6. Eric Mahoney, David Mahoney (TJ Thomas Estates), Louis Anastasiou and Kim O’Brien (Move Commercial). 7. John Barker (Hitchcock Wright & Partners), Andrew Mills (Smith Nicholas), Andrew Bangs (James Hall & Company Ltd), Matt Kerrigan (Hitchcock Wright & Partners), Dennis Dwyer (Orbit Developments) and Nick Harrop – (Hitchcock Wright & Partners). 8. Mark Worthington, Nick Nelson, Kirsty Gilleford, Rob Woods, Mike Walker and Phillip Shopland-Reed (All CBRE). 9. David Nicholls (Mazars LLP), Maxine Desse (Additions), Dave Matthews (The co-operative Bank) and Ian Vicary (Weightmans LLP). 10. Angela Harrison (Mazars Accountants) Neil Kelly (Mazars Accountants) and Helen Johnston (DWF).
11. Michael Griffiths (Edward
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Cannes Do 2012 Key events
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Symmons LLP), Sheila Whitton (Weightmans LLP), Dave Griffiths (Cosmopolitan Housing Group) and Sian Evans (Weightmans LLP). 12. Andrew Kingsley (Kingsley Associates), David King (Edward Simmons LLP) and Paul Parker (Edward Symmons LLP). 13. Guests of Peel and Sam Wa Group. 14. Andrew Lovelady and Stuart Keppie. 15. Beth Gore (Hill Dickinson), Jan Green (RBS) and Liam Thomas (Hill Dickinson). 16. Mark Conner (Vermont Capital) Auden Clements (Lloyds Bank) and Les Ross (Grant Thornton). 17. Paul Jasper (Core Safe Consulting), David Morriss (DMPM Construction) and Matthew Giles (MgMa Studio Architecture). 18. Tony Reed (Keepie Massie) Andrew Byrne (Keepie Massie), Jonathan Lowe (GVA), David Guest (Bruntwood), Neil Kirkham (CBRE), Andrew Owen (Mason Owen), Colin Forshaw (Bruntwood), Chris Hennesey (Matthews & Goodman) and Graham Bowling (Fitton Estates). 19. Ann Hopper (Liverpool Vision), Patrick Doherty (Harcourt Developments), Jenny Douglas (Liverpool Vision), Max Steinberg (Liverpool Vision), Peter Grieve (Laing O’Rourke) and Mike Taylor (Liverpool Vision) and Andrew Wallace (Liverpool Vision).
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PAUL CROWLEY & CO S O L I C I TO R S
Need a Commercial Lawyer? Paul Crowley & Co Solicitors can offer you friendly, specialist advice in a wide range of Business Law services including;
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Liverpool’s Local Lawyers 30 MOVE COMMERCIAL
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Update Regional projects
By Kate Hanratty kate@movepublishing.co.uk
Projects Update The North-West’s building trade has been particularly hit by the recession. Projects which had originally been given the green light have been brought to a standstill by issues affecting property finance and the collapse of companies. We look at which projects in the region have stalled, which are biding their time and which are still going full steam ahead behind the scenes.
FESTIVAL GARDENS What: The tale of the £250 million site regeneration of Liverpool International Festival Gardens has many twists and turns like the site itself. If you pass the site you can see that the gardens look finished yet the gates remain closed and the site is empty. Where: A 90-acre-site next to the River Mersey in Otterspool. When: Originally opened in 1984 as the country’s first ever garden festival site, the site changed hands several times before eventually becoming derelict in 1997. Plans granted to developers Langtree in 2007 to build 1,374 new homes in a linked residential
scheme at Festival Gardens were initially put on hold when contractor David McLean collapsed in 2008. The next appointed contractor Mayfield Construction followed a similar path in July 2011. The latest blow in a catalogue of setbacks was Groundwork, the firm managing the site collapsing in February 2012. Update: The Land Trust said the planned re-opening in spring 2012 would not be affected by Groundwork’s demise. Land Trust chief executive Euan Hall said: “We must stress this will not affect the scheme in any way. We are committed to ensuring the Festival Gardens become the iconic site the people of Liverpool deserve.”
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By Kate Hanratty kate@movepublishing.co.uk
CENTRAL VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
What: £200 million project to transform Liverpool Central Station and the surrounding area by developers Merepark. There will be two new hotels, retail and leisure units, a cinema and offices combined with a public outdoor space which will be directly linked to Central Station. Where: The project will transform six acres of land behind Liverpool’s Central Station and will back onto Bold Street. The scheme includes the refurbishment of the iconic Grade II listed Lewis’s building as well as extensive works to Liverpool Central Station. When: The old Lewis’ building is currently being renovated and a Q Park building can be seen springing up from Cropper Street. The project is expected to be complete in 2013. Update: International hotel group Millennium & Copthorne Hotels will open two hotels on the site. Food chains including Frankie & Bennies have also announced that they have secured units on the development.
PROJECT JENNIFER
What: Project Jennifer is the £150 million regeneration of the area around Everton’s Great Homer Street. St Modwen Developments Ltd and Liverpool City Council plan to build Merseyside’s biggest Sainsbury’s superstore. There will also be retail space, an
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open market and a public transport interchange. Further phases include the building of apartments, business accommodation, extensive public realms works, a Primary Care Trust and a library. Where: A 45-acre-site in Everton.
When: Originally granted planning permission in 2007, the project stalled in 2011 when the Compulsory Purchase Order granted by the council left business owners in the area complaining that they were not being offered enough money for their properties. So far 37 businesses have objected to the ‘paltry’ sums
that they have been offered. A public inquiry will be held next summer. Update: Michelle Taylor, regional director for the scheme’s developer St Modwen, said if the project wins approval at a public inquiry this summer work could start on site early in 2013.
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Update Regional projects
LIVERPOOL WATERS What: Liverpool Waters is the biggest development ever considered for planning permission in the UK. The £5.5 billion vision involves regenerating a massive historic dockland site, creating 20,000 jobs, a cruise terminal and a 55-storey skyscraper. The project’s developer Peel promises 9,000 apartments, hundreds of offices, hotels and bars. Part of the development includes creating a new river terminal capable of accommodating some of the world’s largest container ships which could re-establish Liverpool as a powerhouse port. Where: 60-Hectares of land along the north of Liverpool’s Pier Head. When: Planning permission was granted by Liverpool City Council early in March 2012. Update: Objectors have issues with the project’s effect on Liverpool's waterfront and the fact it may lead to the city losing Unesco World Heritage Status. Because of these concerns the planning application must now be sent to communities’ secretary Eric Pickles MP. Developers and Liverpool City Council face a wait of three months to see if the development will be approved or go to public enquiry.
KIRKBY TOWN CENTRE REGENERATION What: Plans to build a superstore and new Everton stadium in Kirkby were first announced in 2006. The supermarket chain Tesco bought £65m of land but plans for a huge retail park and football stadium were rejected in 2009. The Government blocked the plans after a public inquiry heard that such a large shopping centre could pull consumers out of nearby towns. Under revised plans from Tesco backed by Knowsley Council more than £300m will be invested into Kirkby Town Centre for a radical
revamp which includes a new health centre and a new primary school. Where: Kirkby Town Centre. When: Work on the new plans will start in March 2012. Update: Knowsley council deputy chief executive Mike Harden said: “A number of high street retailers have expressed an interest in taking retail space in the development. We anticipate the store will open in the spring of 2014.”
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By Kate Hanratty kate@movepublishing.co.uk
Ormskirk born and bred Kevin Moseley inventor of SwimFin had his invention laughed at, called idiotic and dangerous by the dragons from BBC2’s Dragons Den. He didn’t listen. He now has a business valued at six figure sums and exports internationally to over 70 countries around the world. Who’s laughing now?
Swimming against the tide We look to the multi-millionaire investors on Dragons Den as pinnacles of their game, people who have the knowledge to know which business ideas will work and which won’t. Surprisingly even the experts aren’t always right. Kevin Moseley appeared on the show in 2006 with Olympic swimmer Mark Foster, who endorsed SwimFin as the ultimate swimming aid device. Theo Paphitis called the six-time world champion an 'idiot' for backing the product and Duncan Bannatyne laughed in Kevin’s face. In the face of such adversity I asked Kevin how it feels to have now proved the dragons wrong. “It’s great,” he says. “I don’t wallow in the facts. I’ve always been a grafter and I just get on with it. “The dragons have got egos as big as Simon Cowell. It’s a TV programme at the end of the day. Anyone in the business world knows you can’t take this seriously at all. My opinion is that they may actually try to frighten potential entrepreneurs in taking their product to market.” Kevin invented SwimFin, a buoyancy aid which is more effective than armbands or a float and which helps children to learn to swim on average three times quicker. SwimFin now employs four full 36 MOVE COMMERCIAL
time staff and 200,000 SwimFins were manufactured in China last year. Kevin’s eureka moment came when working as a swimming instructor at the swimming baths near Rice Lane flyover. “I used to get two bits of old kickboard and join them together to play with the kids at the end of lessons,” he adds. “We’d hype it up and call it sharky. I’d submerge under the water and they would shriek with delight.” “My eureka moment was when a little boy was reluctant to take the plunge into the water we put Sharky on his back and it picked him up and gave him confidence. The boy’s dad was a doctor and he said to me ‘that is brilliant, look what it’s done for my child. You should get that patented.’” “The idea is now over 20 years old I didn’t get it patented straightaway. I was quite young and I had a new mortgage, I just couldn’t afford it. SwimFin went back into the loft and I brought it out from time to time. “ Kevin’s crunch point came just before his appearance to pitch to the dragons. “I worked with local firm DWF Lawyers and Marks & Clerks Patent Attorneys. Patents by nature can get very expensive,” he explains. “At this point I had to ask myself am I in this or not and I went for
it on a gamble. We decided to remortgage the house. I spent that money on legal fees to patent all the countries in the major market. We have South Africa, India, China, Australia, Japan. I patented all the major markets while we were still trying to find a manufacturer.” How did he have the faith to know that his idea would be a success? “From a swimming instructor’s point of view I knew that SwimFin would improve my teaching and I knew it would make a difference to the children, there is nothing else like it on the market,” he says. “I say to the kids ‘I might not be able to make you an Olympic swimmer but I can make you waterproof. If you fall in the water you will make it back to the side.’ If you give the kids a choice they will go for SwimFin every time it turns a swimming lesson into a fun session.” In its first year of trading, SwimFin became an international sensation with orders flooding in from 47 countries and sales topping 70,000. Kevin gave up his job as a swimming instructor to concentrate all his efforts on the company and turnover topped £1million in 2010. SwimFin supplies authorities and organisations around the world and
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Kevin Moseley Entrepreneur
has just secured a deal with Walmart. Kevin has just got back from Brazil with a big order for the product and the company has a licensing company secured in the states and hopes to complete contracts with an American supplier who service 50,000 stores. “I work from a converted garage in Burscough, Ormskirk which is our business hub but I work internationally,” he says. “There’s a lot of hard work, a lot of long days and sleepless nights but we’ve won international awards for our work. We have a main office in Northampton from where we ship SwimFin all around
the world,”says Kevin. “I have learnt that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in business; four years ago I was still a swimming instructor. The UK Trade & Investment government organisation has been like a big brother to me. I’ve learnt so much about exporting, how to deal with the Japanese and other different markets.” Swimfin won the North West’s best export idea in 2010 through the UKTI, which works with UK businesses to ensure their success in international markets. “Part of my job now is to travel around the world and tell people
about the product,” says Kevin. “I’ve just got back from Brazil and we’re working with teachers from Swim North Africa.” Next year Kevin hopes to sell up to 500,000 SwimFins across the world. So from here what is next for SwimFin? “Every swimming pool in the world has some kind of buoyancy equipment to help people learn to swim,” he says. “My mission is to get at least one SwimFin in every swimming pool across the world. The markets that are most important to us in the next year are Brazil and the EU.”
Moseley file DOB: 22/07/1964 Education: Taunton Vale high school in Skelmersdale Career: Window Cleaner Mobile DJ Mechanic Swimming Instructor Inventor of SwimFin
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By Christine Toner christine@movepublishing.co.uk
Sitting in the stunning surroundings of Hill Dickinson's offices – at the grandly named No1 St Paul's square – it’s easy to be impressed. It's also clear to see why David Swaffield, a partner at the historic firm and head of the investment and development elements of the commercial property department, would be proud. Swaffield worked on the deal for the new premises when the firm decided to move its entire Liverpool staff to one office in 2008.
Liverpool’s law stalwart
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of the sinking of the Titanic. Following the shipping disaster, which saw 1500 lives, lost, the law firm represented the vessel’s owners, the White Star Line. “When the film came out I was wheeled out to speak – as the most likely to have been here at the time,” jokes David. It's not too surprising that Hill Dickinson would have been chosen to represent White Star Line when you consider the firms history. Created in 1810 or thereabout (“that's the date we think it begun”, says David) the law firm's initial primary function was serving the shipping market in Liverpool. “The Liverpool market was basically shipping companies and their activities,” says David. “This developed into things like small banks. Some merchant banks in London today had their origins in Liverpool. Cunard and White star were early clients along with other Liverpool names such as Harrisons and Bibbys. They were still very much clients when I arrived in the 1970s.” Hill Dickinson also performed general commercial and corporate work for its Liverpool based and
international shipping clients and on the property front developed a niche in acting for pension funds. This continued as the firm's main line of business until the late
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The real change for Liverpool has been in the last ten years.
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“This was a major project for the firm”, he explains. “We had the aspiration to move into one place but we felt we needed around 100,000 square feet. When we started looking there weren’t many locations available.” Hill Dickinson wanted to help form a new Central Business District in Liverpool and, as such, discussions were had with Liverpool Vision. “We wanted to help Liverpool shift the CBD up in this direction, so you'd get a cluster of law firms and other professional service firms up here. The council wanted the same sort of thing.” The aspiration has been realised. St Paul's Square and the surrounding area is now also home to companies such as law firms DWF, Weightmans and surveyors Edward Symmons. Hill Dickinson's building, with its floor to ceiling windows (offering stunning views across the river) and slick finishes is a decidedly modern building for such an historic firm. Indeed, the firm’s history has been brought to public consciousness recently with the 100th anniversary
1970s. Starting in the 1930’s a large London office had developed, focusing on servicing American and Greek shipping clients as well as the London operations of English shipowners. Around 25 years ago the firm
went into growth mode with a series of mergers and acquisitions, but not before the London office had split from the Liverpool firm. Offices were opened in Manchester, Chester and (most recently) Sheffield the business was rebuilt in London (before eventually remerging with the old London firm). And the firm extended overseas with offices in Greece and Singapore being created. David joined the firm in 1976 following a career in finance, working as an investment analyst at a London merchant bank. “The career change came because of the stock market crash of the mid-seventies, the economy was in serious recession,” says David. “I decided I didn’t want to remain doing that for the rest of my life so I switched to law.” Interestingly, despite the aforementioned troubles in the economy at the time, David recalls Hill Dickinson as being somewhat protected from the problems when he joined. “We were peculiarly insulated from it because we were acting heavily for shipowners who were in international trade and the
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David Swaffield Founding Business property work we were doing was mainly outside Liverpool,” he says. “Liverpool itself hit its nadir in the 1970s and early 80s which ultimately led to Lord Heseltine coming in to try and kick start the regeneration process.. Since then the market has, understandably, changed a lot but I'm interested to know what David would pin point as the catalyst for change. Was it Lord Heseltine's intervention? “We had political difficulties in the city after that and the reputation of the city remained poor,” he says. “I think it was the establishment of a more stable political background in the city that helped to change things and the gradual change in perceptions which came about through the activities of organisations like Liverpool Vision and The Mersey Partnership. “I think the real change has been in the last ten years. Liverpool ONE led to huge change in the retail sector. Peel’s activity has also changed the feel of Liverpool. The turning point must have been about ten years ago when we began to see developers from outside the city becoming serious about Liverpool. There was more speculative development going on.” “This building was speculative on the part of English Cities Fund,” says David of the Hill Dickinson offices. “Peel also carried out speculative development in Princes Dock, so did Downing in acquiring and renovating the Capital and Bruntwood in acquiring the Plaza. All of those have really helped to change the office market. Then you had the council and others who pressed ahead and developed the infrastructure needed”. Bringing about change in Liverpool is something David has long been passionate about. Despite not being a native of the city (he was born in East Anglia and spent much of his childhood in Blackpool and London) he was part of Business Opportunities on Merseyside (BOOM) during the 1980s. “We were really the first attempt at trying and change what perception people outside of Liverpool had of the city,” he says. “We were bringing investment decision makers here and trying to show them Liverpool wasn’t what they thought it was. It was much better than that and had a lot more potential.” Potential that, thanks to the likes of David, is now being recognised.
Hill Dickinson mergers and acquisitions Halliwells LLP, Liverpool and Sheffield offices (2010) Middleton Potts (2009) Gamon Arden & Co. (2007) Hill Taylor Dickinson, remerger following demerger in 1989 (2006) Bullivant Jones & Co. (2004) Gorna & Co (2001) Davis Campbell (1997)
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• Direct access to the arterial M6 & M62 • The most car-friendly place in the UK* • Within 45 minutes of two international airports & the UK’s largest Freeport zone • Within an hour’s drive of 4.3 million prospective employees & 6.8 million potential customers • A relatively low cost & costeffective location in terms of premises, house prices, & labour * 2010 Virgin Money Survey
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Mayoral hopefuls Lunch debate
By Christine Toner christine@movepublishing.co.uk
Leading Liverpool With just days to go before the people of Liverpool take to the polling stations to elect a mayor for Liverpool for the first time, we brought together a selection of the candidates to discuss their plans for the city.
s
Cllr Richard Kemp Liberal Democrats
Cllr John Coyne Green Party
Cllr Paul Brant Labour Party (in place of Joe Anderson)
Tony Mulhearn Trade Union and Socialist Party
Tony Caldeira Conservative Party
Liam Fogarty Independent
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Liverpool ONE has been hugely successful in attracting businesses and tourism to the city, what plans do you have to build on this? How would you encourage private investment Liam Fogarty: I think that we have a tendency in the city to congratulate ourselves about architecture, old and new, about the landscapes that we enjoy and the amenities down on the river. But I am struck by how little attention is given to the 90-95% of the surface areas of Liverpool that don’t attract the tourists and the accolade of national awards. If I could get the opportunity to be mayor I would want to refocus on the ordinary neighborhoods of Liverpool, which are at risk and have been degraded over the decades.
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I want to see a greener Liverpool, more building in Liverpool and I want the design to be the best available. I’m not impressed by the bulk housebuilding which I think was a fundamentally misguided policy. The development has to be right for Liverpool’s needs not purely focused on what the developer wants. John Coyne: The Liverpool ONE development has got some good features about it. I think it had all party support as it arose. Unlike the typical shopping mall, it retains the open streets structure. While we’re going to have shopping as a major part of the city’s economy, it’s in the right place it’s the right kind of shopping development. But to answer the
question, what are we going to do to make sure there’s further potential for investment of this kind. I think the answer is to make the city a high quality urban environment people are going to want to live. That will pull in the wish to invest, the wish to create things I think that’s really the simplest thing. Tony Caldeira: As far as I’m concerned Liverpool ONE and the ACC are just the start. As a city we need to be more ambitious. We have made progress but we are still playing catch up. We have to be realistic about where we are but also optimistic and ambitious about where we’re going to be. I hope that we can build on recent successes and make our city world class. We have to make our city as visitor friendly as possible, as investor friendly, as business friendly as possible. If you take the ACC, I think we still have a long way to go even with that. We have the exhibition centre coming up and hopefully a four or five star hotel. I’ve actually been lobbying within my own party to bring the Conservative party conference to the city which would bring £25 million to our region. I think once the whole context - the arena, the convention centre and the exhibition centre we will have the opportunity to have the best events facilities of any city. It’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to the opportunity, should I be elected as mayor, of attracting inward investment and attracting property development from around the world. I believe my international experience will help attract players to Liverpool and hopefully I’ll have the chance to deliver some of those things. Paul Brant: Since we took over the city council Joe (Anderson, council leader) has lead the way in unblocking a lot of the regeneration activities There were problems with Edge Lane with the council locked in a legal dispute with the landowners up there. There was Mere Park central village land by central station, that needed some additional pressure to move forward. But we’re also very conscious that the council needs to play a bigger role than just unblocking the development. We have committed the council to making sure the new exhibition centre will be
progressed and developed. The current convention centre has been very successful, but it has to turn away international sizedconferences. Everyone who comes to the arena is blown away but the very large exhibitions in the UK at the moment predominantly have to go through Birmingham, London or Glasgow. The return of the cruise liner – as an embarkation and
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I am struck by how little attention is given to the 90-95% of the surface areas of Liverpool that don’t attract the tourists.
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disembarkation location - is key to the regeneration to the city. We estimated that we get a million pounds worth of investment in revenue from every cruise liner that uses the port. And, as people will know, we’ve taken on the government and other councils - Southampton in this argument and the debate. That will deliver not only additional people for hotels but we’ll also make sure that there are more shoppers to spend money in Liverpool ONE. The destination economy remains a major driver for economic growth. We’re sitting in a hotel, which is a symbol of the renaissance of Liverpool as a destination location. We’re going to go much further beyond that. We have negotiated with the government two new enterprise zones. We have negotiated carefully for a long time with Peel on the Liverpool Waters development. We’ll also have five mayoral zones, which the mayor will
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Mayoral hopefuls Lunch debate preside over to ensure development in those zones is prioritised. Tony Mulhearn: I think the term “successful” is a relative term. What do we mean by hugely successful? We had the city of culture, which was supposed to create thousands of jobs, the development of Liverpool ONE promised the same. I think the development on the waterfront is absolutely incredible; it’s a wonderful area. If you look, tourists come to Liverpool and walk around that area and think this is a wonderful city but Liverpool is now a tale of two cities. On the one hand there’s the wonderful development on the waterfront, the new apartments but on the underbelly we’ve got more households without a wage earner than any other city in the UK, with ten kids chasing every job - that’s the other side of Liverpool. What we’ve heard is all fine, but do we want Liverpool to be one huge doormat for visitors? Or do we want Liverpool to be a vibrant city, which offers people help here and now? Liverpool is a city looking for an identity, Liverpool wasn’t built on rock and roll, it was built on the maritime industry; shipbuilding and engineering. That was Liverpool’s role. That’s been lost. The manufacturers have closed, the sugar plant has closed, the printers, my own industry, is gone. All of these offered jobs and real apprenticeships. All of that is in the past. Liverpool, as a city, cannot resolve problem on its own. What we need is massive government intervention. This nonsense that we’ve got to abolish regulation to free up the entrepreneurs, it’s been tried for 35 years, what’s been the result? Absolute chaos. Richard Kemp: I’m glad you mentioned Liverpool ONE and the arena, because I was heavily involved in the Liverpool ONE development. Two things happened at the same time to make it possible. The first one was that Liverpool came up with a big idea, which caused an international surprise. There was Liverpool, this desolate city in the north, renowned for Boys from the Black Stuff, saying, “We can be the European city of culture.” The second thing was the council realised it couldn’t do everything itself. That was the
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Liverpool, as a city, cannot resolve problems on its own. What we need is massive government intervention.
” traditional Liverpool way, we see a site and we’ll do something with it. What we said with Liverpool ONE is we have an opportunity here, it’s clearly a retail opportunity and we, the council, don’t have the skills to know what needs doing with that site, so instead of coming up with a plan we came up with a competition. We said here’s all the information you need to know about Liverpool and here’s the site, you tell us what you can do with it? That’s what I believe we need to do now. And not just to develop commercial activity but also housing activity. Lets deal with the commercial activity first. We must not confuse the idea of
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The basis of people’s capacity to access new jobs is going to be their education.
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creating property which will create space to employ people with the creation of jobs. I can remember the 80’s when there were so many new buildings created to provide places to work, 300 new jobs here, a thousand new jobs there, all that was actually created was space. What we need is a series of small developments. My big plan for Liverpool is to make it the European green capital. We need to invite partners to come in and challenge the council, because Liverpool ONE and the arena wouldn’t have happened if we’d had left it to the private sector. The private and public sector had to work together. I would challenge what Liam said about the quality of housing that’s been built in Liverpool. What I would say is there hasn’t been enough new building of new housing. I could certainly show you two sites is Liverpool 8 where the housing is good as anything that anyone would want to buy anywhere. Two of us here chair housing associations, we could take you to some of the best housing developments anyone would want to live in. Some housing associations are up for the challenge of finding new ways to provide finance, finding new ways of being in partnership with the council. Housing development associations are sitting on a billion pound of assets on their balance sheets that they’re not using for the benefit of developing associations. As much as we challenge the commercial sector to come in and be partners, we should challenge the housing association to build up houses not only for rent but houses for sale. We shouldn’t be leaving it to Barratts and Wimpy and people like that. According to new research from the GMB union, Liverpool has the highest proportion of homes without people working in the UK. 31 per cent of Liverpool’s 160,000 houses are effectively ‘jobless’, how will you work on this? Richard: 30 years ago I established a place on the south docks called the New Enterprise Workshops and I did it at a time when 2,500 people walked out of Tate and Lyle for the first time, when 2,500 walked out of BT for the first time. I helped a lot of people look at their career options and selfemployment with a range of MOVE COMMERCIAL 43
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routes to set up a business. Some were successful and that’s great. Many went into unemployment then and largely, apart from the odd training scheme, have been in unemployment since. The real tragedy is not only are they unemployed but their children are unemployed because they’ve never had the advantage of seeing their mum and dad going to work. There are some families in Liverpool that no longer aspire to work so we have to accept there are two types of people who are unemployed. There are those who can and want to work and those who have given up trying. The feeling with the second category it’s a very long term process. If you come from a family where no one aspires and you didn’t bother going to get a single GCSE because there was no point, it would be pointless to say we can have some quick solutions. One solution is to try and come back to traditional apprenticeships As far as creating jobs for those who want jobs there are two routes. One of them, we need to create private sector jobs, we’ve already talked about that but what we need to do is make people job ready now. I can give an example - Bulky Bob Resource Centre Group who go out and find people who are long-term unemployed and work with them on an individual basis to get them back into work so they know what it’s like to get up at 7 for an 8 o clock job, to understand the responsibilities of work, to understand there not as stupid as a lot of people have claimed they have been. John: One of the ideas which will create employment if I become mayor is my plans for an ambitious programme to retro fit old houses with new insulation. I've put forward a proposal for a multi skilled team involving people who are going to install windows, deal with the ingress of moisture and damp proofing, this can be paid for, this can be funded by savings on fuel costs that will be the long term gain and we’d be financed by credential borrowing from the city council. Another thing I’d like to do for unemployed and young people, that might be a surprise to hear from a green party person, is teach them to drive. I'm actually in favour of less driving but more 44 MOVE COMMERCIAL
drivers, more people having the skill to drive. I think it can be a bar to employment for some people and actually passing a driving test would give people who haven’t got a lot of achievements behind them, the belief they can do something. I think that would make them more employable. Other policies include moving the emphasis away from private transport, to public transport. When you drive your own private car, you don’t pay yourself a salary but when you’re running public transport including taxis that creates jobs for people. Tony Caldeira: First of all, they're very disappointing statistics and they emphasise more than anything what we’ve discussed tonight that we need to change the way that we operate. We
need to create opportunities and create businesses for these people. I started my business career on the markets in Liverpool 5 I had a very interesting upbringing in a council house but I wouldn’t be put off by my relative disadvantage. I believe that most people who aren’t working desperately want to and as mayor I want to give them the opportunity to do that. And I think to do that what we need to do is to create conditions for business to grow and prosper. It’s a very simple thing if you ask most entrepreneurs they want an environment were regulation is low, were their taxations is low so they can reinvest and create more jobs. Having built a manufacturing
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Mayoral hopefuls Lunch debate business on Merseyside, I really do want to rebuild manufacturing here. I think it’s important we support all businesses that create the jobs Liverpool needs. We’ve also got to look at how we support the people and how we make the people who are unemployed work ready; we need to look at how we do that. People are leaving school who are not going to go onto university and aren’t going into college, we need to train them how to sell themselves because some people can’t sell themselves very well. Some people sell themselves particularly well but are not good at the job, some people aren’t very good at selling themselves but are fantastic at the job. Ultimately it’s about making Liverpool Britain’s best business city. Tony Mulhearn: What we’ve got to examine is how we inject the work culture into families who are on their second generation that have never worked. Their parents haven’t worked and the kids accept the situation. How can we overrun that culture? It’s a problem, no question. Job centres have these armies of advisers. Every adviser will tell you, that the most demoralising thing is that the jobs are not there. And how do you resolve that? You can develop a kid, give him his typing skills, CV skills, interview skills, and then he ends up stacking shelves for six weeks on the basis that there may be a job at the end of it but no job transpires. He’s out on his ear, and he says “I’m wasting my time”. This is a major problem, how do we deal with that problem if there are no jobs? It comes back to the city, what can the city do about it? The government is saying to these kids, unless you get out there and find a job we’re going to cut your benefits - you drag people out of tax credits and benefits, and they will desperately seek work for more hours but those hours are not there. We’re coming back to this basic question, how do we create jobs? With all due respect, the tax cut didn’t produce accurate investment in manufacturing, and after the budget, after they eliminated the 50p tax that made absolutely no difference. There’s no backing away from the situation, what is required is an intervention by the
government in collaboration with the councils to develop the kind of infrastructure which is essential, otherwise were going to end up with kids who have never worked. Imagine a whole pool of kids ten years from now who have never worked, they’ll be in their twenties, that essentially is a time bomb in society. Paul: I want to say two things. Firstly, if you’re going to deal with long-term unemployment you need to first of all create the jobs, and secondly to make sure the people in the city can access those jobs. We spoke earlier on about the measures the council is taking to increase regeneration in the city and develop jobs, 17,000 will be created in Liverpool Waters scheme and other developments in the city. The basis of people’s capacity to access new jobs is going to be their education and attainment. I’m very proud to say as part of the City Deal we have, Joe who has negotiated an arrangement, which will allow us to rebuild 12 of our city schools. That means that we will be able to deliver quality education in properly refurbished buildings to city pupils. We are also committed to creating apprenticeships, we haven’t just talked about this we’ve gone out there and done it. We have produced the plans and are in the process of delivering 1300 new apprenticeships in the city working with other public sector organisations but also the construction sector and local housing associations. We’re building 5,000 homes up in Stonebridge cross and other areas in the city and the housing associations have pledged to use local labour. We also have a local labour agreement in the Liverpool Waters agreement. We are also in a position were we have said that every young person in the city aged 17 or 18 who is not in employment, education or training will be guaranteed an apprenticeship by the city council. That is an unprecedented pledge across all authorities as far as I'm aware, we’re the only one to have done it. Liam: As we have discovered there is no one simple solution, no one magic bullet. We have, as Richard pointed, out an immediate jobs crisis among young people. We don’t want to create another lost generation
like in the 1980’s and we should do whatever it takes – mentoring, work experience, work opportunities, micro-businesses, social enterprises, multinationals - whatever it takes. And I think there’s a commonality amongst most of the generation that in creating work for Liverpool people, the earlier we intervene the better. I think the mayor’s role in all this is trivial. I think Liverpool’s problem over many years is good things happening unbeknown to each other and people operating their own little furrows. There’s never a kind of integration. The opportunity of having an elected mayor is to have someone leading the way and getting out the way, sometimes councillors think they can do the job of the private sector for us and they can’t. The mayor’s job is to sell the city, persuade people to come and invest in the city but also to trust the home-grown enterprises creating entrepreneurs. Liverpool’s greatness was delivered by those sort of same people and we can do it again.
MARCO PIERRE WHITE STEAKHOUSE BAR & GRILL HOTEL INDIGO
Mayoral hopefuls were treated to a delicious three course meal courtesy of Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill at the uber-trendy boutique hotel Hotel Indigo. Starters included pea & mint soup or pan-fried grey mullet with asparagus and sauce vierge. Mains on offer included the extremely popular roast Goosnargh chicken breast with fondant potato, swede puree and a spinach & pancetta sauce and the delicious French trimmed pork chop with crushed potato, curly kale and a wholegrain mustard sauce. The lemon and brown sugar meringue went down particularly well amongst our guests for dessert. Special thanks go to general manager David Hughes for hosting the debate. Telephone 0151 559 0111. MOVE COMMERCIAL 45
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Expert views Ask the panel
Based on results from the Chamber of Commerce survey that shows we're past the risk of a double dip recession, we ask:
"Are you more confident about the future than you were this time last year?" “We are certainly feeling confident about business this year but we were confident this time last year too. We are continuing to the buck the trend in terms of our growth both currently and also throughout the recession which has gripped us over the last few years. The market as a whole seems to be improving now and we are optimistic that this will continue.”
“Business is now starting to turn a corner, we are seeing more guests staying for longer than before and the restaurant is attracting guests from far and wide. With great events like the Giant Spectacular and of course the Liverpool Biennial these continue to put tourism at the centre of the cultural world. The conference market with ACC Liverpool is continually delivering fantastic events like the Labour party conference and of course the GEC conference and this in turn results in return visitors. “Attracting new SME's to the area is key to continuing down the road of recovery and with the mayoral election coming up, I can only see Liverpool delivering this great opportunity through driving business entrepreneurship.”
“There is no doubt we are still operating within an uncertain property market, however, there does appear to be a greater optimism and confidence around the city than 12 months ago. In the retail rental market, we have seen a steady increase in the number of enquiries, which in turn leads to more transactions. “Together with national retailers, we are also seeing demand from entrepreneurs living and working within the city who are keen to open or expand their own businesses whilst taking advantage of lower rental values and rent-free periods. “Historically, some landlords were sceptical of new business ventures, proving a significant shift in opinion as they seek to avoid empty rates and rental voids which has contributed towards market activity. “By no means do I feel we are on the cusp of the good times again but rather making steady progress towards normality.”
David Hughes, general manager, Hotel Indigo
Matt Kerrigan, partner, Hitchcock Wright
Paul Crowley, senior partner, Paul Crowley & Co Solicitors
“The rest of 2012 will continue to be a challenging period for the property industry. The economic conditions are pushing landlords to work to keep buildings full, from negotiating on length and flexibility of leases to rent-free periods. “At Bruntwood we’re seeing an increasing trend in our existing customers looking for additional office space but not wanting to move offices completely. The big lettings are there to be had, but they’re hotly contested and landlords are working harder than ever before to secure them. “I believe we are well placed to both attract new occupiers and retain customers as we have a strong focus on offering real flexibility, particularly if a company’s circumstances change. We know from the last couple of years’ market experience that those landlords unable to accommodate up or downsizing will continue to struggle in a tough market.” Colin Forshaw, head of sales, Bruntwood
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“Yes, we are more confident about the future. We are now five years into the recession. If you work on a ten-year cycle then something good has to happen soon. There is strong demand for reasonably priced stock - we are witnessing this both on the high street and in the auction room. So far this year we have held two auctions and the results have been the best in Merseyside for over three years.
Auctions tend to be a good indicator of where the market is heading and based on the results being achieved in Merseyside and across the UK things are looking positive. Funding is becoming more readily available, albeit with fairly strict lending criteria, which is also helping market conditions to improve.” James Kersh, director, Sutton Kersh
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