All Property Week articles in 7 May 1999
View all stories from this issue.
-
News
Smaller stocks in the spotlight
With precious little excitement among the major stocks for the second week in a row, buying was focused at the smaller end of the market last week. Small drops in the prices of Land Securities , Hammerson and Great Portland offset rises at Slough (+3%) and Canary Wharf ...
-
Markets
Room service
If the Government allows those who live in blocks of flats to change managing agents at will, the spotlight will fall on how well managing agents perform. This report suggests that service should be the block manager s priority
-
Markets
Planning
Cranes adorn the City skyline once more and the workload of the City Planning Department has increased significantly. City Planning Officer Peter Rees made a brave announcement at MIPIM that skyscrapers will again be allowed on selective sites in the City to meet the demand for new office space. ...
-
News
St Michaels starts in Luton
Peter Archer, former Lend Lease director, and John Holt, former managing director of Grosvenor Square Properties, have teamed up to form a development company. St Michaels Capital will spring into action with a joint venture agreement with Jarvis Commercial to build a speculative £12m industrial and warehouse ...
-
News
New watchdogs want London offices
Two new central London government office requirements emerged this week, driven by the expansion of two industry watchdogs. As part of the consolidation of the Financial Services Authority, the group has amalgamated nine financial ombudsman committees into a one-stop shop and has a requirement of 4,650-6,500 sq ...
-
Markets
Sometimes the little things matter
It is a sign of how things have changed that, in a City and Docklands feature, the flagship feature focuses on Docklands, rather then the City. It is saying even more when that feature considers not Canary Wharf , but the area across South Dock. A year ago this would ...
-
News
Fosse Park pays high premium
Fosse Park has paid two record-breaking premiums to outgoing tenants to bring Gap on to the retail park and to allow Marks & Spencer to extend its store. Landlords Pillar , Schroder Exempt Property Unit Trust and SITQ have paid Dixons £4.75m for its lease so that Gap ...
-
News
Pillar goes shopping for five more retail parks
Pillar Property has splashed out more than £77m to add five new retail parks to its portfolio. It has bought a 50% stake in hermes Birstall Retail Park in Leeds for £13m, reflecting an equivalent yield of 5.5%. Wilkinson Williams acted for Pillar and CB Hillier ...
-
Professional
Fighting fire: new laws and liabilities
Fire safety measures This summer new legislation is expected to come into force requiring fire risk assessments to be undertaken at all buildings New regulations will shift the onus of controlling and assessing the fire risk from fire authorities to building owners and managers
-
News
Virgin gets temporary facelift
Throughout this week, the facias of 82 Virgin megastores were temporarily re-branded Head Music, as part of the chain s promotion of Suede s first album for two years. A spokeswoman for Virgin refused to say how much the temporary branding cost, or whether it caused any confusion in malls ...
-
News
PRIME example for PFI scheme
The proposed Inland Revenue PFI project, which will see the transfer of 750 properties to the private sector for 20 years, will be modelled on the structure of the PRIME project. This was the message drummed home at a closed government seminar last Friday, which was attended by around 200 ...
-
News
West End office space rises by a fifth
Supply in London s West End has increased by almost 20% in the first quarter of 1999, despite a marginal increase in take-up over the period, according to central London office research carried out by DTZ Debenham Thorpe. In the first quarter of 1999, availability rose ...
-
News
Easy move to West End unit
easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has paid a six-figure premium for the last six years of the Book Shed s lease in Victoria for the first easyEverything internet store, which opens next month. Work is now being carried out on the 929 sq m (10,000 sq ft) shop so that ...
-
Markets
Full of Eastern promise?
Richard Rogers' 88 Wood Street is nothing if not well-built. But is it the right building for a reviving market?
-
Markets
Docklands
Over the past three years, the Docklands market outside Canary Wharf has gone from strength to strength. There is evidence of headline rents and net effective rents being achieved above the quoting rent for some buildings. In some cases reverse premiums have been paid by assignees for leases agreed ...
-
Markets
Fringe development
A wind of change is blowing through Hackney, Southwark and Tower Hamlets. The change is a greater realisation of the regeneration benefits that can come from the promotion of high-density development. We all heard at MIPIM, and afterwards, that the City is looking for tall building proposals to be put ...
-
News
Keegan strikes merger deal with Orb Estates
Two of the smallest quoted property companies, Albemarle Property Investments and Orb Estates, are planning to merge. The deal is being negotiated by the two chairmen, Mark Keegan at Albemarle and Peter Catto at Orb, who are old friends. It is expected to be an all-share offer by Orb for ...
-
Professional
Cutting an equitable slice of the profits pie
Partner remuneration systems There are no right or wrong reward systems. A firm should adopt a system that reflects its culture and supports its business strategies The better systems avoid complicate profit-sharing formulae, even though systems based on mathematical calculations are assumed to ...
-
News
Cutbacks and falling morale cripple VOA
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has been hit hard by severe cutbacks and poor staff morale, according to evidence given at a government inquiry into the agency s performance. Witnesses told a Treasury sub-committee last week that the agency s five-year cost-cutting Next Steps review had a severe impact ...
-
News
PCP creates inventive method of financing
Palmer Capital Partners (PCP), the property venture capital specialist, has created an innovative development funding scheme for institutions. The scheme, devised by Ray Palmer and Christopher Digby-Bell, allows funds to share in the profits of a development, which otherwise they might have sold, without any responsibility for the financing. They ...
