Agricultural centre bringing in the bacon

Published on Monday 19 October 2009 19:10

THE new Stirling Agricultural Centre, headquarters of United Auctions and the Highland Cattle Society, is making a name for itself as a base for service and retail businesses. New tenants are Sundolitt (1,412sq ft), Albamec (1,440), Stirling Equine and Pet Supplies (968) and Harts Mailing Ham. Steven McGarva of Elphinston, which built and owns the centre, says it is close to concluding a number of other leases. Letting agent is Ewan Mackay of SGM.

CHARITY Scottish Churches Housing Action is to move from Albany Street to new offices on Hanover Street, Edinburgh. In a deal put together by Jones Lang LaSalle, it has signed for ten years with landlord, Essel Securities for the first floor at Number 44 – 1,294sq ft at 15,204 a year.

GUNN Property Consultants has acquired two stores in Glasgow for outdoor retailer Mountain Warehouse – it has taken an assignation of 5,342sq ft at 97 Sauchiehall Street from Arcadia at a rent of 70,000 and 2,249sq ft from Glasgow Fort for an undisclosed rent. Arcadia was advised by EYCO and Glasgow Fort by Montagu Evans.

COSMOPOLITAN Investments has secured a 12-month lease of a 3,500sq ft warehouse at its Axwel Yards development in Broxburn, West Lothian. The tenant is AGR & Sons, a locally-owned, family-run business specialising in the repair of private and commercial vehicles. Cosmopolitan was represented by Lambert Smith Hampton, with AGR self-represented. The quoting rent was 3 per sq ft.

ON BEHALF of Hire Station, Ryden has wrapped up a new sub-lease of a 4,850sq ft unit at Rosebury Court, Ibrox Business Park, Glasgow, to Barnbury Enterprises for six years at 26,170 a year (5.50 a sq ft). The letting was concluded within three months of the property being placed on the market.

OAK Mall (Greenock) has agreed two new lettings at the Oak Mall Shopping Centre. The Metropolitan Watch Company has taken 3,485sq ft for ten years at an annual rental of 75,000 and Timpsons 317sq ft for ten years at 7,500 per annum. Metropolitan was represented by Whitelaw Baikie Figes and Oak Mall by Eric Young and Cushman & Wakefield.

ON BEHALF of The Grind House, GVA Grimley has completed the lease for new retail accommodation at 126 Nicholson Street, Edinburgh. The deal sees The Grind House signing up for ten years for 773 sq ft at 22,500 a year. The landlord, Earlswood Properties, was represented by Culverwell & Co.

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Good day at the office as Glasgow revives

GLASGOW has dominated the commercial property office statistics in the third quarter this year with a sparkling performance boosted by the 125,000sq ft letting to Tesco Personal Finance – and more high-profile deals are on the way.

Jones Lang LaSalle says office take-up in Glasgow city centre during the quarter increased by more than four times from quarter two of 2009. JLL statistics show that city centre office take-up has soared by 435 per cent to 285,210sq ft from 65,605sq ft in the previous quarter. Figures for the same period last year were 118,959sq ft and 165,700sq ft in Q3 2007. Total take-up for the first three quarters of 2009 is 411,366 sq ft.

Mike Buchan, director in the office agency team at JLL Glasgow, says: "This is very positive for Glasgow, as it continues to perform well in the difficult climate. Given the significant number of development completions set for the remainder of the year and into 2010, it is pleasing to see large amounts of stock being absorbed already. Glasgow has performed well against other regional cities, and has attracted a number of large corporate occupiers, further emphasising its strength as a business destination as well as creating a large number of jobs in the city."

Angela Pirie, JLL associate director, says there remains a number of other high-profile requirements active within the city centre market. She continues: "We would expect to see further Grade A deals in the coming months. The competition among landlords to secure these quality occupiers has led to an increase in incentives offered to tenants over the last 18 months. Occupiers have therefore been able to use the weaker market conditions to secure high-quality accommodation on favourable terms."

Prime quoting rents in Glasgow as of the end of quarter three 2009 were 27.50 – 28.50 per sq ft and are expected to remain at this rate for the remainder of the year.

GVA Grimley says the Glasgow Tesco deal puts Glasgow top of the table among the Big Six cities in the UK along with Birmingham, and Manchester, the three of them taking 75 per cent of the office deals in the past quarter – and Bristol and Edinburgh were the only two to show a decline. It puts Glasgow ahead of them all with 28.50 per sq ft, followed by Manchester and Edinburgh at 28.

But in its latest regional office survey Knight Frank includes Aberdeen in its findings – and puts it above them all at 30 per sq ft.

Its comment on market sentiment: "Earlier this year the property market asked the question, with trepidation, will the banks sell? Now the question is asked with an air of hope.

"There is a market out there, but pricing expectations are proving a brake on activity. Assets never got as cheap as many hoped and it is now looking doubtful they ever will."

Savills reports that last month there was the strongest increase for two years in commercial property development. In all, 29 per cent of developers have reported a rise in activity over the month compared with just over 17 per cent reporting a decline.

Mat Oakley, head of Savills commercial research, says: "This month's data points to a sharp increase in refurbishment and office fit-out activity. Both of these tend to be the first sectors to recover from the downturn and rely less on bankers' cautionary stance regarding development. The evolution of the development market over the next 12 months will depend heavily on both bankers' and politicians' decisions – not necessarily a comfortable place to be."