North Lincolnshire’s economy is to receive a £4.3m boost thanks to the £25.8million awarded to Lincolnshire as part of the Government’s Getting Building Fund. The fund supports the delivery of shovel-ready infrastructure projects to boost economic growth, fuel local recovery and create jobs. The money will be used for drainage
NATIONAL framework provider Pagabo has announced that developers are now able to download the tender documentation for the organisation’s brand-new £47bn developer-led framework. The framework will run for four years, with the option to extend to a further 16 months to April 2026, and will be open to all public
The £54 million Littlewoods Film and TV Studios project has landed one of the North West’s largest commercial deals of the year. Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been confirmed as the education partner at the much-anticipated scheme, which is being developed by CAPITAL&CENTRIC with Liverpool City Council. The establishment
Birmingham-based, PRS-specialist developer Blackswan Property Limited has been acquired by Cordia International. The European residential real estate developer, with interests across Hungary, Poland, Spain, Germany and Romania is the residential development platform of Futureal Group. With more than 500 real estate professionals and 7 million sq.ft of properties under construction
OakNorth Bank – the UK bank powered by the OakNorth platform – has completed an additional £20m loan-on-loan facility to Hilltop Credit Partners, a West-End based specialist funding partner. Led by CEO Paul Oberschneider who has more than 25 years of experience in property development, asset management and financial structuring,
What makes a business great? Is it the products and services it offers? Is it the employees that carry out their duties with aplomb and bring the company’s mission statement to life every day? Is it the branding that resonates with the target market. It goes without saying that all
Your business is one of the most essential things in your life, and you need to do everything you can to keep it moving forward. There are some super simple things that you can to propel your business forward without causing much of a hassle, it’s just a case of
North Lincolnshire’s economy is to receive a £4.3m boost thanks to the £25.8million awarded to Lincolnshire as part of the Government’s Getting Building Fund. The fund supports the delivery of shovel-ready infrastructure projects to boost economic growth, fuel local recovery and create jobs. The money will be used for drainage and flood defences on the South Humber Bank, unlocking a large area of land enabling the development of the Able Marine Energy Park. It will also protect current businesses in the area. The Government have announced £100bn of offshore wind projects and the new Able Marine Energy Park aims to be a major player in the massive growth sector. The development will see thousands of jobs created that will transform the area’s economy creating a world-class engineering industry on which the area’s long-term prosperity can be based. “A vital part of the jigsaw and great example of local support, the comment used by ABLE UK Executive Chairman, Peter Stephenson, to describe the grant support for the pumping station as a means of progressing the development of the Able Marine Energy Park (AMEP). He explains, “The offshore wind sector is potentially on the cusp of something very special. We have clear and unambiguous policy from Whitehall – through the Sector Deal, and the increasingly demanding targets for both power generation and the extent of UK context – there is an unparalleled level of market visibility. Combine this with the sectors extraordinary efforts in terms of developing new products and significantly reducing costs and the sector is set to become a dominant factor in a post Covid 19 UK economy. “Confirmation of this Government funding is very much a step in the right direction. We believe that the Able Marine Energy Park can and will play a vital role in this process to, first and foremost, provide purpose-built heavy-duty deep-water quays and, just as crucially, a large expanse of adjacent supporting hinterland. Without those key building blocks in place the status quo will prevail and the aspirations to maximise UK activity will be further diminished”. The pumping station, which is also being funded with £2.4 million from ABLE and other beneficiaries, will deliver extensive surface drainage across a large area of the South Humber Bank with a wide range of benefitting businesses and landowners. It will replace temporary arrangements and provide a permanent solution that will be adopted by the North Easy Lindsey Drainage Board. Cllr Rob Waltham. Leader of North Lincolnshire Council, added: “This is a significant commitment from the Government towards delivering a new port facility in North Lincolnshire.” “We have been working closely with ABLE over the last few months, to understand the new market opportunities that are opening up in this sector in order to secure the prospective development of a new marine energy park. This is hopefully just the beginning, we, and the Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership are fully committed to supporting the process of economic development and, potential that could come from a off-shore marine energy park in our area. This project delivers business investment on a significant site that could unlock skills, jobs and investment here in the North’. Helping to transform the local economy, whilst also bringing jobs to local residents from the Scunthorpe and Grimsby area. “ “The Able Marine Energy Park has the potential to unlock the renewables sector in North Lincolnshire, supporting the Governments ambitions for clean growth, providing a much needed, more resilient sustainable economic future for North Lincolnshire. “The pumping station and drainage works are vital for the scheme’s success and the wider development and sustainability of businesses on the South Humber Bank too. The plans were ready to go and I am delighted that the Government has recognised the ability to deliver on this transformational development will have a major impact local, regionally and nationally. “This project provides a significant opportunity towards attracting and retaining highly skilled jobs to the area and will be a key driver for economic growth and prosperity for decades to come.” Pat Doody, Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP, said: “Today’s announcement is very welcome and is reflective of the excellent collaborative working between the LEP and its partners. “As we reshape our Local Industrial Strategy and recovery plans to reflect the impact of the pandemic, it is important that we help build an economy that it is more resilient in the long term and which responds to the needs of our businesses and communities. “We will continue to work with the Government on future funding for investments to support our ambitions and look forward to delivering this transformative programme for Greater Lincolnshire.”
NATIONAL framework provider Pagabo has announced that developers are now able to download the tender documentation for the organisation’s brand-new £47bn developer-led framework. The framework will run for four years, with the option to extend to a further 16 months to April 2026, and will be open to all public sector bodies including schools, universities, local authorities, police and emergency services, NHS organisations, health and social care providers, housing associations and central government departments. Jason Stapley, managing director at Pagabo, said: “We are really pleased to be bringing the first developer-led framework to the market at this time to help public sector bodies procure work with developers that is critical to building a better future. “It’s of course been a worrying time for the sector with construction output dropping, but despite the exceptional circumstances we have seen a tremendous amount of access agreements coming through from clients wanting to access our existing frameworks.” The framework features three lots: Property Development via Joint Venture (JV) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Long Income Lease and Lease Back, and Property Development Single Site by Development Agreement. These three lots will cover a huge variety of works including, but not limited to, social housing, commercial buildings, student accommodation, health, education and mixed-use schemes. Jason added: “In everything we do, we consider how it will create positive change for the industry as a whole. We are listening to clients and understanding which projects our public sector clients are looking to procure and when. We are sharing that information with our partners, where and when we can – to instil confidence and help them plan for the COVID recovery phase and beyond.” For more information about Pagabo’s new public-led framework or to download the tender documentation, visit https://www.pagabo.co.uk/news/find-out-more-about-our-new-l47bn-developer-led-framework.
The £54 million Littlewoods Film and TV Studios project has landed one of the North West’s largest commercial deals of the year. Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been confirmed as the education partner at the much-anticipated scheme, which is being developed by CAPITAL&CENTRIC with Liverpool City Council. The establishment will be co-located alongside Twickenham Studios and provide a direct link between academia and industry in what will be one of the most prominent facilities of its kind in the UK. “Our intention is to keep Liverpool ahead of the game, so the combination of training and talent pool are a key part of the recipe. Our renowned Screen School prepares professional film-makers, producers, digital artists, journalists and scriptwriters, and we will be working closely with our industry partners to ensure the talent pipeline supports this key sector in Liverpool’s economic future,” said vice-chancellor professor Ian Campbell. It has signed up to take more than 75,000 sq ft of space for an Entertainment Technology Centre, in conjunction with Hugh Baird College, focused on professional training for TV and film. LJMU will offer a full range of further and higher education courses, all designed to equip locals for a job in the region’s rapidly growing film and TV sector. “Getting an education partner on board has been what we’ve been waiting for and it will ensure that local people have the right skills to take advantage of the huge opportunities on offer. Clustering film and TV with education is something pretty unique and Littlewoods Studios will be the biggest facility of its kind in the UK,” added Adam Higgins, co-founder of CAPITAL&CENTRIC. A £17 million funding commitment from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Strategic Investment Fund was announced last month, with the project identified as a key component of the city region’s £8.8 billion Building Back Better recovery plan. “The university has a fantastic screen school and their involvement will add a unique educational element to the project. This partnership will provide invaluable career making experiences for students. It’s a great development, one which will further strengthen the city’s reputation in this key creative sector and develop a solid platform to support more productions and jobs in the future,” said Mayor Joe Anderson. The ten-acre Littlewoods Studios will be operational by 2023.
Birmingham-based, PRS-specialist developer Blackswan Property Limited has been acquired by Cordia International. The European residential real estate developer, with interests across Hungary, Poland, Spain, Germany and Romania is the residential development platform of Futureal Group. With more than 500 real estate professionals and 7 million sq.ft of properties under construction across 43 ongoing projects, Futureal Group is one of the leading real estate development and investment groups in Central and Eastern Europe. The Blackswan acquisition marks Cordia’s first investment in the UK market. This follows Cordia’s recent 93% acquisition of Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed, Polish residential developer Polnord S.A., and 20% stake in German residential rental and large-scale urban renewal project company Argo Properties NV, increasing Cordia’s development land bank to over 14,000 apartments. Cordia has recently issued a €135 million 7-year bond and a €105 million 10-year bond to fund its international expansion and foray into the private rental sector (PRS). UK’s Blackswan under the Cordia Blackswan brand will continue to be led by the current management team. The company will also be growing the team with a recruitment drive in the next few months to support the scale of their existing planned projects. The deal was brokered by Tony Haran, Midlands Head of Residential Investment and Build to Rent expert in CBRE’s residential team. He advised Cordia on their first UK residential acquisition, following an initial fact-finding trip to the city. Marcus Hawley, Managing Director and Founder of Blackswan said, “Blackswan’s vision has always been to create sustainable places that enable people to live happier, richer and more fulfilling lives. Being part of Cordia will allow us to fulfil that vision by delivering a £550 million pipeline of projects across the West Midlands. We are excited to join the Cordia family as they share our vision of creating new, well-designed places where people want to live, work, play and learn.” Tibor Földi, Chairman of the Board of Cordia, said: “Our goal is to become one of the leading and most diversified residential development groups in Europe. The acquisition and recapitalization of Blackswan is not only our debut in the UK, but the latest milestone of our international expansion strategy.” Gábor Futó, founder and majority owner of Futureal Group said: “The Blackswan team shares the same values Futureal Group was built on: integrity, creativity, perseverance and team spirit. We also share a common desire to build lasting value for the communities we are working in by creating great new buildings, vibrant public spaces, respecting and building on heritage and having the imagination and commitment to pursue transformational urban renewal projects.” Tony Haran said: “This is a huge vote of confidence in Birmingham’s residential sector and could facilitate the delivery of up to 2,500 new homes in the city by an experienced and well-financed developer. “Cordia has big ambitions for the UK and it is a testament to Birmingham’s place on the international investment stage that it has been chosen first, as the stepping stone for their plans.” Blackswan focuses on residential-led mixed-use developments in the West Midlands region. Projects currently include The Lampworks, a 124-home build-to-rent apartment scheme and The Gothic, an ambitious reanimation of listed and heritage buildings which will create a new residential and leisure destination. Both developments are located on the edge of Birmingham City Centre, in the Jewellery Quarter. Blackswan Property was founded by Marcus Hawley in 2009 in order to develop well-designed homes in places where real people want to live their lives with a sense of community. The company sale seeks to ensure that this vision can be brought to life by combining Blackswan’s local market knowledge and expertise with Cordia’s experience in the delivery of large-scale residential projects across Europe for more than 15 years. “2020 has clearly been a challenging year for everyone, but we are very happy to bring some positive news to the region with this deal, especially in terms of the number of homes we will now be able to build and the number of jobs we will create both in our team at Blackswan, on our construction sites and eventually in our commercial spaces,” said Marcus Hawley.
OakNorth Bank – the UK bank powered by the OakNorth platform – has completed an additional £20m loan-on-loan facility to Hilltop Credit Partners, a West-End based specialist funding partner. Led by CEO Paul Oberschneider who has more than 25 years of experience in property development, asset management and financial structuring, Hilltop Credit Partners is a specialist funding partner for small and mid-sized residential property developers and housebuilders across Britain. The newly increased £50m loan-on-loan facility will support Hilltop’s fast growing real estate development funding pipeline. Since its launch two years ago, Hilltop Credit Partners has been helping housing developers who know their local markets but need access to tailored financing solutions to fund their projects. Hilltop’s management team includes former developers and finance experts, and together they have successfully originated and managed value-add and opportunistic residential deals through challenging market cycles. The fund is backed by the global real estate investment firm Round Hill Capital. Mohith Sondhi, Senior Director, Debt Finance at OakNorth Bank, said: “Our deep knowledge of the property sector and the ability to provide an attractive financing package tailored to Hilltop’s requirements, helped us to distinguish ourselves throughout the competitive process. We look forward to building further on our partnership with Hilltop Credit Partners. Combined with Round Hill Capital’s commitment and expertise in this space, Hilltop understands what it’s like to be in the developer’s shoes and how important it is to react to the inevitable market changes that can occur during a project especially during these unprecedented times.” Tiger Craft, Partner and CIO at Hilltop Credit Partners said: “Demand from residential developers continues to be strong, and we are encouraged by the strength we have seen in the UK residential market over the past several months. We have a growing pipeline with great sponsors, while the structural imbalance between the demand for new housing and the availability of capital to fund it continues to grow. For SME developers, securing funding has been needlessly frustrating, time-consuming and expensive for far too long. At Hilltop, our entire process is focused on helping developers move quickly to acquire sites, build homes and sell them in a fast, cost-efficient manner. Paul Oberschneider, CEO at Hilltop Credit Partners, added: “We are delighted to have increased our facility with OakNorth Bank, which shows their confidence and commitment to our business. Like us, they have a demonstrable understanding of the needs of sophisticated investors, and with property comprising a significant portion of their own lending portfolio, they have a deep understanding of the underlying asset class. This sets OakNorth Bank apart from many of the other banks in the market.”
What makes a business great? Is it the products and services it offers? Is it the employees that carry out their duties with aplomb and bring the company’s mission statement to life every day? Is it the branding that resonates with the target market. It goes without saying that all of these elements play a part in how successful a business is (or isn’t). But a business lives or dies by its operational efficacy and expediency. And those in the realms of architecture and construction understand that the physical and data infrastructure that they build into the workspace can either hello nascent businesses to hit the ground running or hobble ambitious startups at the first hurdle. Office architecture has always been intrinsic to operational success. Indeed, we’ve seen a recent example where a “touch free” architecture can also help to keep employees safe and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases which can be communicable in the workplace. But there’s often a disparity between what’s trendy, chic and desirable in the startup world and what’s conducive to productivity and collaboration. So, when a client comes to you and says “we’re thinking open plan”, there are a few reasons why this should give you pause. While it might make for easy data cabling and offer some cool design opportunities, there are also some caveats. You should discuss these with the client… Open plan offices inhibit face to face interactions Ambitious startups invariably want to create an atmosphere of dynamic collaboration. But while it may seem like the openness and space of an open plan office are conducive to this, studies by the Harvard Business Review actually actually suggest that face to face interactions fall by as much as 70% in open plan offices. It’s hard to be truly collaborative in a wide open space. Not only does it make us feel smaller and more vulnerable, the acoustics make clear communication in groups challenging. Confidentiality is difficult in open plan offices If your client’s company deals in confidential or sensitive information which needs to be communicated verbally, this creates complications in open plan offices. As hard as everyone may try to exercise discretion, sound can travel far in open spaces. While it’s relatively easy to assign a separate space to confidential communications, this can disrupt the operational flow of the workplace. Employees have less autonomy over their space Every employee has their own personal sweet spot in terms of natural and artificial light and ambient temperature that’s most conducive for their productivity. But when the workspace is open plan, it’s virtually impossible for individual team members to make the space their own in this way. And while they may be able to decorate their desks with personal baubles and trinkets, this can still prevent team members from feeling truly comfortable at work. Sickness and infection can be more apt to spread Finally, while it may be easier to socially distance in an open plan office space, fewer physical barriers to infection mean that virus-laden droplets of moisture can be transmitted between employees. Especially if they have to raise their voices to be heard over the hum of background chatter. Something that’s particularly resonant in the post-COVID age.
Your business is one of the most essential things in your life, and you need to do everything you can to keep it moving forward. There are some super simple things that you can to propel your business forward without causing much of a hassle, it’s just a case of knowing what they are. But, luckily for you, we know what they are, and we’re going to share them with you in this article. As such, if you want to know more about how to move your business forward easily, keep reading down below. Expand The first and arguably one of the best things that you can do is to expand your business. Depending on how much experience you have on the market, expanding your business doesn’t have to be a difficult thing. You can even hire someone to help you by planning the expansion if you don’t think that you’re going to get through it without the help. Don’t forget that when you expand your business you’re also going to need to hire more staff, so make sure that you are advertising this right as you start the expansion. Go through all of the departments and see what you’re going to need to cover all the new customers that you’re going to have. With more customers comes more staff, and you don’t want to forget about this, keeping your staff happy as they aren’t going to be overworked. Keep in mind that the financial side of the expansion has got to be managed as well. If you have no experience with finances, then you need someone who does and soon. Different Payment Options Another thing that you’ve got to think about is different payment options. People want to pay in a way that suits them, and you’ve got to make sure that you’re offering an array of solutions. For example, you need to look into the best international money transfer services and see what one is best. People want to be able to pay in their own currency, as this will help to entice them to buy. When you can buy in a way that suits your needs, you are more likely to buy from a business, which is what you want your customers to think. You don’t want to only offer the standard credit or debit card options because then you are limiting most people who can buy your product. If they don’t have a credit or debit card handy, you want to be able to pay with an app such as PayPal or something. When you add more options, you will find more people are willing to buy from your business. Invest In The Right Tech You’re also going to need to invest in the right tech. There is so much tech on the market right now that if you’re not investing in it, you’re doing something wrong. There is no business right now that is going to be able to survive without certain pieces of equipment. That’s right, we’re talking about baseline survival, not even propelling the business forward. You’re going to need the standard tech, such as up to date computers and tablets, depending on what your business does. Then on top of this, you’re going to need the more advanced and specific tech that relates to your industry. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you don’t need them, because you are never going to get your business high on the market this way. Go through what you think you’re going to need, and make the purchases when you’re ready to expand. You should make this list a couple of months before so you know how much you’re likely to spend on new tech, meaning you can budget it in. Keep in mind that if you don’t have the right tech, you’re going to make your employees slower than they should be. You can’t then blame them when they aren’t doing what you wanted of them, and your business will lack. Instead, if you want your business to move forward, then tech is going to be your best friend. Hotel management software is a prime example of how investing in the right technology can propel your business forward. By streamlining operations such as reservations, billing, and customer service, the software eliminates time-consuming manual processes and reduces the risk of human error. This kind of technology not only boosts productivity but also frees up valuable time for staff to focus on delivering exceptional service, ultimately driving business growth and profitability. It might seem like a lot of money to spend right now, but trust us when we say it’s going to be worth it when your business is running better than ever, providing you with more customers. We hope that you have found this article helpful and now understand some of the simple solutions that you need to propel your business forward. Good luck, and hopefully, you’re going to see results sooner rather than later when you implement these solutions.
