Apache Capital Partners, the private London and Middle East based fully integrated real estate investment management firm, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mervyn Howard as Chairman who succeeds Paul Orchard-Lisle, who decided to retire from the Company after seven years. Paul retains his investment in Apache Capital.
Acquisition of 33,396 sq ft development at St James’ House, Newcastle for a total development value of approximately £15.5 million Crosslane Student Developments, part of the Crosslane Group, has successfully acquired a 1980’s office on St James’ Street, Newcastle to convert into purpose-built student accommodation, from Lambert Smith Hampton, for
Lighting specialist Lite-House has provided an innovative solution to the task of refurbishing the lighting and seating in the Main Auditorium at The Cavendish Conference Centre in Duchess Mews, London. Located alongside Oxford Circus and Cavendish Square, the venue has a long established reputation for customer service, hospitality and superb facilities.
Big six supplier EDF faces further industrial action following a five-day strike last week unless it returns to the negotiating table. Around 70 smart meter installers, members of trade union Unite, downed tools across Bexley Heath, Kent, and Canning Town last week in protest at altered working hours and the
Expanding contractor J Tomlinson has appointed Antony Newton as special projects leader. An experienced commercial manager and quantity surveyor, Antony has been appointed to support J Tomlinson’s commercial activity initially in two departments – Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and Facilities Management. His position is a newly created post and he
China’s largest building firm has agreed a £1.1bn deal with a UK energy firm to build thousands of zero-carbon affordable homes across the UK. The deal will see China National Building Materials and WElink Energy initially commit £800m as part of a strategic framework that will see 8,000 affordable homes
Apache Capital Partners, the private London and Middle East based fully integrated real estate investment management firm, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mervyn Howard as Chairman who succeeds Paul Orchard-Lisle, who decided to retire from the Company after seven years. Paul retains his investment in Apache Capital. Mervyn will support co-founders John Dunkerley and Richard Jackson as they take Apache Capital through the next phase of its development and continue to successfully deliver further strong growth across its institutional-grade investment platforms that span the private rented residential, student accommodation, healthcare and commercial sectors. Mervyn brings 24 years of global real estate and investment industry expertise with experience in institutional capital raising, acquisitons, structuring, financing and operations. Mervyn will be based at Apache’s London office. Until 2013, Mervyn spent 12 years at Grosvenor, the international development, investment and fund management company. He held various senior roles in Grosvenor Fund Management, including Board Director and Managing Director of the UK business. During his time at Grosvenor Fund Management, Mervyn successfully managed and led the UK business, growing assets under management from £435 million to £1.9 billion, oversaw seven institutional funds and mandates, £2.2 billion of acquisitions, £700 million of disposals and £1.4 billion of equity capital raising. Grosvenor Fund Management won the IPD award for best UK investment house of the year in 2009 and 2011 (highest total return of investment houses managing more than £500 million of assets in three funds). Prior to Grosvenor, Mervyn held senior management roles at TrizecHahn Europe and GE Capital Real Estate. In 2013, Mervyn founded Perora, a real estate investment and advisory boutique and, since 2014, has been a Senior Consultant at Arcadis, a leading global design and consultancy firm for natural and built assets. Mervyn is a member of IPD’s UK and Ireland Investors Service Consultative Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Melbourne, is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Member of the Investment Property Forum. John Dunkerley, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Apache Capital Partners, said: “Paul has made a major contribution to Apache Capital Partners over the past seven years, and on behalf of Apache Capital, I would like to thank Paul for his invaluable advice and support to the Company in shaping and executing on our business growth and investment strategies. Apache Capital has recently completed a number of major transactions and has a significant number of new and exciting developments in the pipeline, including continuing the completion of its £1 billion premium PRS development pipeline across prime regional UK cities, secured through the Company’s JV with Moda Living. We are delighted to welcome Mervyn as Chairman of Apache Capital at such an exciting time when we see many opportunities across the UK. I am confident that the strength and versatility of his sector knowledge and networks with his extensive investment, transactional, debt and equity finance and asset management expertise will prove invaluable as we continue to grow Apache Capital’s institutional-grade investment platforms across the UK.” Mervyn Howard said: “Apache Capital is extremely well placed to build on the successes it has achieved to date. Its investment strategies in the residential and social infrastructure sectors are based on strong long term fundamentals. Apache has proved it can source attractive opportunities and has a strong pipeline of high quality investment opportunties. I am very pleased to be joining Apache Capital at this time with the dual focus of growing the business and continuing to provide excellent performance and service to its investor clients.” FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Newgate (PR adviser to Apache Capital) James Benjamin / Alex Shilov / Lydia Thompson Tel: +44 207 680 6550 Email: apachecapital@newgatecomms.com
Acquisition of 33,396 sq ft development at St James’ House, Newcastle for a total development value of approximately £15.5 million Crosslane Student Developments, part of the Crosslane Group, has successfully acquired a 1980’s office on St James’ Street, Newcastle to convert into purpose-built student accommodation, from Lambert Smith Hampton, for a total development value expected to be £15.5 million. Upon practical completion of the development, scheduled for September 2016, in time for the 2016/17 academic year, St. James’ House will be operated by Prime Student Living, the student accommodation operational management arm of Crosslane Group. Crosslane has acquired the freehold to the site which is located in the North West of Newcastle City Centre, adjacent to St James’ Park and within a three minute walk to Newcastle University campus. The University of Northumbria main campus, St James’ Metro station and Haymarket and Monument metro stations are also all a short walk away. Work on site commenced in January 2016 to develop the property into a modern, premium, 140 bed studio scheme with high quality communal facilities including common room, gym, private kitchen and dining room for group entertaining, study room and cinema room. Newcastle is an exciting student city with two popular universities having a combined student population of 42,215 full time students, including 9,820 international students and 4,565 post-graduates. Newcastle University, a Russell Group university, is ranked 23rd in The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015 and Northumbria University is one of the largest universities in the UK and focused on research and business. Crosslane has planning consent for the site and has appointed for the scheme Day Architectural Ltd and Torsion Group as the main architects and contractors respectively. Commenting on the purchase, Andy Whatson, Director of Crosslane Student Developments, said: “This is the third commitment by Crosslane in Newcastle following the opening of its 216 bed studio apartments within the St James Point I student accommodation development in 2014 and its 204 bed St James Point II extension completed in September 2015. Once the St James’ Street development completes in September 2016, this will bring Crosslane’s total number of beds in Newcastle to 559. Newcastle remains an attractive city for Crosslane as it is a Russell Group university city with one of the largest universities in the UK, and continues to have a shortage of purpose-built student accommodation.” Neil Osbourne, Director, Lambert Smith Hampton, said: “We had been marketing the lease at St James’ House, but with that coming to an end and permitted development rights being granted for a change of use to studio apartments we negotiated an acquisition and surrender of the lease. The property is very well located for the student market being within a short distance of Newcastle University and in a central city location popular with students. We have worked with Crosslane Student Developments on several schemes in the city – both in respect of sales and acquisitions and have also obtained consent for the development of a further 20 studios for the purchaser.” Dan Spencer, Director, Torsion Group, said: “Following on from our successful work with Crosslane for the Athena Studios student accommodation development in Birmingham, which opened in September last year, we are delighted to have been appointed as the main contractor on this new scheme. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Crosslane in the exciting city of Newcastle.”
Lighting specialist Lite-House has provided an innovative solution to the task of refurbishing the lighting and seating in the Main Auditorium at The Cavendish Conference Centre in Duchess Mews, London. Located alongside Oxford Circus and Cavendish Square, the venue has a long established reputation for customer service, hospitality and superb facilities. It has been Voted Best Conference Venue on many occasions. Cavendish Representative said: “The lighting solution for our conference venue at Duchess Mews has totally changed the way we used the space, not only has this make-over given the venue a fresh and contemporary feel but it has revolutionised the way we use and sell the space. The lighting gives us the opportunity to brand the area for any client at the touch of a button, the video to light facility means that the desks change colour in sync with the projected screen creating a unique and captivating experience. This whole solution has been created by up-cycling the 1950’s handmade solid ash desks, giving us a retro/contemporary venue with truly unique lighting.” Lite-House designed the renovation project which included new ambient LED lighting and the refurbishment of the 94 twin seated desks which can accommodate up 188 delegates in the unique tiered amphitheatre. They replaced the old desk tops with their revolutionary FLATLITE® LED light panels protected by toughened glass and linked the colour wash lighting and the panels to a control panel system running amBX software. Lite-House Director Peter Sargent explained: This solution gives the organisers the ability to change the colour of the lighting and any individual or group of desks to match a company logo, a video presentation or to segregate sets of delegates as required. The use of amBX to control the lighting has revolutionised the way in which we can use our FlatLite panels in a commercial environment like a conference venue.” More information: www.lite-house.co.uk
Big six supplier EDF faces further industrial action following a five-day strike last week unless it returns to the negotiating table. Around 70 smart meter installers, members of trade union Unite, downed tools across Bexley Heath, Kent, and Canning Town last week in protest at altered working hours and the use of telematics which could affect nearly 500 staff. A Unite spokesman explained that unless the energy supplier returned to negotiations, they “might pull out other key areas of the business that will have a significant impact”. A spokesman for the largest union in the country said: “We will try and make contact this week with the employer because we want them to enter into negotiations with us. “The last we heard they were going ahead with their plans so our view is that we should go back to ACAS and we may have to strike again.” An EDF spokesman said: “We… reiterate that we have been in ongoing talks with Unite and we remain open, as always, to meeting employee representatives.”
Expanding contractor J Tomlinson has appointed Antony Newton as special projects leader. An experienced commercial manager and quantity surveyor, Antony has been appointed to support J Tomlinson’s commercial activity initially in two departments – Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and Facilities Management. His position is a newly created post and he joins the Nottingham-based company as it experiences unprecedented growth. “J Tomlinson is a company with an excellent reputation, working across the East Midlands, West Midlands and Yorkshire, and I am very pleased to be a part of an ambitious team that is taking the business forward,” said Antony. “I have good knowledge of the sectors and services that J Tomlinson works in and I hope to be building on this in my new role.” Antony, who has worked in the industry for 24 years, has held positions at a number of key organisations including Keepmoat, Bullock Construction (now United Living) and Willmott Dixon. J Tomlinson, with its headquarters at Beeston near Nottingham, offers services in construction, refurbishment, repairs and maintenance, mechanical and electrical engineering, and facilities management, and works across a range of sectors including social housing, emergency services, health and care, education, retail and commercial property.
China’s largest building firm has agreed a £1.1bn deal with a UK energy firm to build thousands of zero-carbon affordable homes across the UK. The deal will see China National Building Materials and WElink Energy initially commit £800m as part of a strategic framework that will see 8,000 affordable homes delivered in the next five years. The houses will be built under the Barcelona Housing System (BHS), a system of offsite manufacturing pioneered by architects Cesar Martinell & Associates that develops affordable homes with zero water usage and zero waste. The first 4,000 units are set to be delivered between 2016 and 2018; a further 4,000 units will follow, although a start date has not yet been given for the second tranche of work. It is expected that the planned locations for the projects will be announced next week.
