The University of Reading has begun construction at Thames Valley Science Park at Shinfield in Berkshire which, once complete, will provide more than 800,000 sq ft (74,322 sq m) of new offices, labs and conferencing facilities. Savills is the appointed letting agent for the scheme. The University Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Bell, was joined by the board of directors, senior staff members from the university and the project team at a ceremony to mark the ground breaking of the Gateway Building, the first property to be built on the 50 acre (20 hectare) site by GRAHAM Construction. Due for completion in summer 2017, the 75,000 sq ft (6,967.7 sq m) landmark building is already attracting small and medium sized innovation led and technology based occupiers to the park. This follows the recent opening of the new six-lane bridge over the M4, which will provide access to the Science Park. Built by HOCHTIEF (UK) Construction and funded by a loan from the Homes & Communities Agency, the newly named University Bridge is now open to southbound traffic; remaining tie-in works to open the bridge to northbound traffic will be completed by late August. This is part of the key infrastructure works set to improve connectivity to the site. Jon Gardiner, Head of National Office Agency at Savills, comments: “This major investment into the Thames Valley Science Park will reinforce the already pre-eminent status of the Thames Valley as one of Europe’s strongest knowledge economies as a top location for innovation and technology companies. When complete, the park will provide a campus of flexible laboratory and office space, which will be able to accommodate up to 5,000 jobs, along with a wide selection of new housing around Shinfield for staff.” Dr David Gillham, Director of Thames Valley Science Park, adds: “Starting work on the Gateway Building is the first step in the University’s ambitious long term vision. “Thames Valley Science Park will generate jobs, promote innovation and stimulate growth while nurturing start-up business and helping small firms grow rapidly. We are proud to be investing in the region, a major powerhouse of the British economy.”   Source link

23 September 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Property, residential, construction and services group Kier has announced “significant revenue growth to £1.7 billion, up 34 per cent”, according to the firm’s full-year results. The company said the results for the year ending 30 June 2016 were underpinned by “a raft of strong facilities management contract wins, worth a total of around £100 million”. Underlying profit from operations of £150 million were up 44 per cent, according to the results, and this included a full year’s contribution from Mouchel, an increased share of post-tax results of joint ventures in the property division and margin recovery supported by cost efficiencies. Underlying earnings per share were up 11 per cent at 106.7p, it added. Kier’s FM and business services operations have been brought together under one division, Kier Workplace Services, which launched on 1 July 2016 and provides end-to-end workplace solutions for public and private sector clients, encompassing FM, property and asset management and business processing.  Steve Davies, managing director, Kier Workplace Service, said: “The provision of a broader FM offer provides enhanced opportunities with local authority clients, while the combined expertise and experience of our FM and business services teams means we can provide public and private sector clients with an end-to-end solution for their business processes, leaving them free to concentrate on their core business.” Yesterday, Kier announced two contract wins with Imperial War Museums and the Royal Shakespeare Company, worth a total of £13.2 million over the terms of the respective five- and three-year deals. Source link

Construction on an €8bn private project to redevelop a sprawling coastal site south of Athens as a tourism and leisure hub has been cleared to begin this year after Greece’s parliament gave its backing on Thursday. The leftwing Syriza-led government dropped its opposition to the scheme after the privatisation agency, Taiped, tightened the terms of a sale-and-lease agreement that the previous centre-right led administration had signed with an international investor consortium. Alecos Flambouraris, minister for co-ordination and a senior Syriza member, told parliament before Wednesday’s vote to ratify the project: “We are [still] against privatisation but we are in favour of the development of publicly owned real estate.” It would be the most ambitious development project ever undertaken in Greece. Few in Athens believed it would go ahead even with pressure from bailout creditors, given the snail-paced progress of privatisation under successive governments. The 620-hectare site of the disused former Athens international airport at Hellenikon — larger than the principality of Monaco — would be transformed into a luxury resort featuring six-star hotels, a marina, apartment blocks and shopping malls, surrounded by what would be Europe’s largest metropolitan park. The 200-hectare park would almost double green space in Athens, one of Europe’s most densely built capitals. Euclid Tsakalotos, finance minister, soothed fears expressed by Syriza officials that the developers would limit public access to the metropolitan park, telling parliament: “Even though the master plan as presented is not binding on the investors, the amended agreement says no restrictions will be imposed on the movement of citizens.” Syriza’s endorsement of the project has revived the Greek travel industry’s hopes of making Athens a high-end global tourist destination over the next decade. “Hopefully, this project will boost Greece’s image and help reignite investment in tourism, even though it’s not enough on its own to change the whole picture,” said Andreas Andreadis, president of the Greek tourism enterprises association SETE. Greece is on track to welcome a record 24.5m tourists this year, 1m more than in 2015. But income from tourism, which accounts for a quarter of national output, was expected to remain at last year’s level of €14bn, Mr Andreadis said. “[Visitor] numbers are rising because of last-minute bookings but this category of tourists on average spend less,” he said. The Hellenikon site was abandoned after staging a handful of sports events at the 2004 Athens summer Olympics. The rundown former terminal building this year became a temporary camp for several thousand refugees and migrants stranded in Greece after countries along the so-called Balkan route to central Europe closed their borders to asylum seekers. Greece’s Lamda Development, leading an investor group that includes the Chinese conglomerate Fosun and Al Maabar, a real estate company linked to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, said on Thursday that the amended agreement had “acquired the force of law” after the parliamentary vote. The ratification by parliament of the Hellenikon agreement was among 15 reforms demanded by creditors in order to unlock €2.8bn of funding from Greece’s €86bn third bailout. The investor consortium agreed to pay a total of €915m in instalments by 2022 for a 99-year lease on the site. It would invest another €7bn over a 12-year period to complete the development. This year’s budget foresees revenues of €365m from the project The development is expected to create about 70,000 jobs during the construction phase and 35,000 permanent positions. Sample the FT’s top stories for a week You select the topic, we deliver the news. Source link