Dexter Moren Associates (DMA) is celebrating planning approval for a new 132-room hotel on Week Street in the centre of Maidstone. Alongside a welcoming reception, lobby, café area and restaurant, the 5779sq m (GIA) hotel will include the town’s first publicly accessible rooftop bar, with views overlooking the beautiful Kentish
Amazon is thought to be the main beneficiary of a recent planning approval at developer PLP’s Gateway 45 scheme in Leeds. The internet giant is believed to be the reason behind a reserved matters application proposing a single 2 million sq ft distribution warehouse at the scheme that recently scored
A new automated lettings platform is promising to ensure agents and buy to let investors stay compliant. PlanetRent has been created by residential property consultancy Ringley, which claims it gives landlords and their agents the same professionally-designed cloud platform used by major investors. The platform gives details of key documents
When you purchase a new home, or even as someone who’s been living in a home for a long time, there are always improvements or projects that need doing in an effort to make it your own. And when you’re not actively renovating or remodeling, there’s a need to clear
New 118,000 sq. ft development situated at a site in Huddersfield. GMI Construction Group has today announced the completion of a new 118,000 sq. ft purpose-built manufacturing plant in Huddersfield for Aflex Hose– a world leading manufacturer of PTFE-lined flexible hoses for the automotive, pharmaceutical, food and chemical and industries.
For the construction industry, COVID-19 poses a unique set of challenges. James Hymers, associate at Pick Everard, discusses the importance of health and safety protocol and how to keep construction workers safe on site. In a recent open letter, the Secretary of State set an expectation that the industry is
Specialist supplier AEI Cables has won support from a major industry body for its campaign highlighting the need for the highest quality of cabling for use in sprinkler systems. The Institution of Fire Prevention Officers (IFPO) is supporting the call for the need to ensure reliable continuous power for sprinkler
Leading independent construction, property and management consultancy, Rider Levett Bucknall UK (RLB UK) announces the appointment of Sarah Draper as the firm’s new Head of People & Culture with immediate effect. Sarah joins RLB UK’s Senior Leadership Board to head up the firm’s people strategy and the delivery of its
Tandem Property & Asset Management have been appointed by GMS Estates Limited on their commercial portfolio in central London. The portfolio consists of 18 properties with 113 occupiers, with a further 4 properties to follow post completion of refurbishment projects. The Estate is located in the City of London, Mayfair
In these extremely challenging times Savills London Development Land team are pleased to be able to report some positive news in the market. The Savills team have had an outstanding few weeks: since working remotely they have exchanged contracts on 9 land transactions with a combined value of £146 million.
Dexter Moren Associates (DMA) is celebrating planning approval for a new 132-room hotel on Week Street in the centre of Maidstone. Alongside a welcoming reception, lobby, café area and restaurant, the 5779sq m (GIA) hotel will include the town’s first publicly accessible rooftop bar, with views overlooking the beautiful Kentish hills. DMA’s design for client Assetrock Maidstone Limited gained unanimous support on the evening of the planning committee and has been very well received by local businesses and the general public who were keen to see the hotel play a key role in the revitalisation of the local high street. The landmark hotel will sit on the site of a former Mothercare building and will bring additional footfall and an estimated £650,000 in annual spending to the heart of Maidstone town centre. The scheme builds on Assetrock’s track record of developing challenging, often overlooked sites, seeing in them opportunities to create assets for communities, boosting local economies and acting as a catalyst for job creation. In keeping with the client’s aspirations, the Maidstone scheme presented for DMA another opportunity to demonstrate the practice’s strong reputation for creating deliverable hotel projects that can contribute to the revival of town centres and high streets. Explains Herbert Lui, Partner at DMA: “There were concerns about putting a new-build hotel onto such a sensitive site, fronting onto a key shopping street, surrounded by low-rise and historically important buildings and bordered by three conservation areas. However, we worked closely with planning officers, the design review panel, committee members and stakeholders to create a design that both fits in with its surroundings and brings a new energy to the high street area.” Taking into account the sensitive location, DMA has carefully sculpted the form of the building, squaring off some corners and using indents and setbacks to reduce the massing and minimising the visual impact from Week Street and other key views. The hotel stands at three storeys facing the main pedestrianised shopping area with the nine-storey element sitting modestly behind the taller Colman House office block. The long, narrow site also prevented the use of windows along the boundary, necessitating a creative use of lightwells and room planning to bring daylight into the hotel. The design has taken its materiality from the surrounding area, using multi-stock red brick, which has subtle variations in tone, to complement the character of the local buildings and settle the new build unobtrusively into the high street. The specification also includes locally sourced materials such as ragstone cladding, which will offer a muted background to the contrasting copper banding detail, giving the facade articulation. Herbert concludes: “The client’s brief was to explore the opportunity to re-develop the site with a landmark building to match the 11-storey office building next to it. We worked hard to reassure the authorities, through our designs and choices of materials, that this new hotel would be a respectful and quality piece of architecture and a positive contributor to the regeneration of the town centre -with elements such as the publicly accessible roof top bar likely to attract patrons from outside the hotel.”
Amazon is thought to be the main beneficiary of a recent planning approval at developer PLP’s Gateway 45 scheme in Leeds. The internet giant is believed to be the reason behind a reserved matters application proposing a single 2 million sq ft distribution warehouse at the scheme that recently scored approval from Leeds Council. The application was for a 2,001,543 sq ft facility with a footplate of some 464,809 sq ft with three further mezzanines on the 43.66 acre site owned by PLP. In the planning statement submitted as part of the application said: “The proposed development represents a major economic investment and will enable a significant number of jobs to come forward in a key site in the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone. A key aim of this Zone is to drive growth and investment in Leeds and the wider City Region.” PLP acquired the plot from Aire Valley Land, a joint venture between Harworth Group and Evans Property Group, earlier this year. At the time of the sale the plot had planning for up to 855,000 sq ft of industrial and distribution space. This is the second planning application for the site, previously PLP submitted plans for a scheme for four distribution units with sizes ranging from 59,000 sq ft to 400,000 sq ft to be developed on a speculative and pre-let basis. Joint letting agents are CBRE and Gent Visick. Gateway 45 is located next to Junction 45 of the M1 and extends to 166 acres, with outline planning consent for 2.64 million sq ft of commercial space. The PLP UKLV deal follows three previous separate disposals totalling 55.5 acres, generating a total consideration of £30.3m. Gent Visick advised on the sale of the plot. There has been no comment for the parties involved.
A new automated lettings platform is promising to ensure agents and buy to let investors stay compliant. PlanetRent has been created by residential property consultancy Ringley, which claims it gives landlords and their agents the same professionally-designed cloud platform used by major investors. The platform gives details of key documents such as a copy of the ‘How to Rent’ checklist, deposit protection, EPCs and gas safety certificates in a single dashboard. PlanetRent claims this can replace “a host of existing subscriptions and manual processes, saving considerable time and expense as well as avoiding potential fines for non-compliance” as well as giving landlords cheaper access to Rightmove. There is also an app which tenants can use to pay rent and utility bills, and to request and monitor repairs. Ringley has been active in residential management for over 20 years and has advised Build To Rent operators. “The past few years have seen a host of regulations introduced that can leave landlords out of pocket if they are not up to date. Our platform takes the hassle out of staying compliant, keeping landlords safe from fines, while also eliminating the need to buy or subscribe to a whole host of different software packages” says group managing director Mary-Anne Bowring.
When you purchase a new home, or even as someone who’s been living in a home for a long time, there are always improvements or projects that need doing in an effort to make it your own. And when you’re not actively renovating or remodeling, there’s a need to clear out accumulations of stuff that overtake the house either when it gets to be too much or during a seasonal cleaning. The result will most likely be a massive amount of waste that will need disposal. An issue that a lot of households run into when investing in a skip hire service such as Impala Skip Hire is which size bin would be adequate for their needs. In many cases, judgment is off, and you underestimate the amount of debris that needs to be taken away, ending up with a container that is far too small. Usually, when doing any kind of declutter or household jobs, there tends to be so much more waste material to deal with when it’s over than anyone anticipates. Sizing up is always advantageous. Investing In Domestic Skip Hire The time savings that a waste management system allows is invaluable, not to mention the fact of the physical exertion that’s required in bagging up, carrying, and loading all the waste in order to transport it yourself. The materials can be hazardous as far as broken glass or sharps, heavy for any one person to lift, and overall an unsafe process, particularly when you realize the incredible amount that you have to handle. The number of times you need to travel from your home to the recycle center may prove exhausting. A skip bin proves to be an ideal solution for the home environment, whether there is a garage that’s being used to store massive amounts of clutter, and you want to now clear it out to use it as an actual garage. Or if you need an extensive renovation project that will result in significant debris. Having a container situated on your property to dispose of the materials will allow you to focus on the work as opposed to worrying where you’ll put the remnants. Sizing Your Domestic Skip It’s critical to obtain a skip in the size that is equal to the goals of your project. Everyone wants to make sure that they use every square inch of the bin in order to obtain full value, which means filling it to the top. ‘Chain’ skips are typically available in a broad range of sizes beginning with two yards and ranging up to 16. A ‘RoRo’ is available in only two sizes with a 20 yard (ca. 18 m) and a 40 yard (ca. 37 m). In many instances, the company that you hire can give you a ‘bin-bag value’ for the skips as a measurement to provide you with an idea of what size may work for you. For a smaller project, the bins that are within two yards and four yards are ideal. You can clear out a garage or do seasonal cleaning projects where you can be sure the accumulation of junk is going to be more than you can handle with your vehicle but not enough for a full-size container. To learn what happens to the waste material put in the bins after it’s picked up go to https://medium.com/@WasteDisposal/what-happens-to-the-waste-in-skips-319fec76b124. A ‘builder’s skip’ or six-yard container is among the most popular for those who are engaged in a mid-sized renovation as with cleaning out old furniture in favor of new or working over the kitchen. The measurement comparison is that this bin can hold approximately 60 bags or waste to that equivalent. For heavier construction debris, an eight-yard skip would be the best bin for the job as with rubble, concrete, and soil products. Anyone doing a more significant type of remodeling job on their home or renovation would want to invest in this type of container. The waste accumulation will fill a bin of this size. When you get into the more significant ranges of bins, they’re better suited for bigger scale building works and house clearing. It’s essential to be mindful of the weight restrictions. Despite their size, driving a lorry carrying more than the legal weight is an offense. The type of truck will depend on the limitation, and the chains are not capable of supporting large amounts of weight. A skip hire service helps to make the project that you’re working on much more straightforward, cost-effective, and time-saving. The convenience of having a container for your waste that the professionals will dispose of for you is invaluable considering how much clutter and debris that can accumulate with any given situation. Without it, the project could turn into a safety hazard, dangerous undertaking, or a very sore back from heavy lifting.
New 118,000 sq. ft development situated at a site in Huddersfield. GMI Construction Group has today announced the completion of a new 118,000 sq. ft purpose-built manufacturing plant in Huddersfield for Aflex Hose– a world leading manufacturer of PTFE-lined flexible hoses for the automotive, pharmaceutical, food and chemical and industries. The new 3-storey facility which was constructed on a 12-acre site and took 52 weeks to build has been specifically designed to accommodate the company’s bespoke processes. Talking about the project GMI Divisional Managing Director Lee Powell said: “This project presented several challenges due to the highly bespoke nature of Aflex’s manufacturing processes and requirements not just now but into the future. Working closely together, GMI were able to design a state of the art, built to suit facility that is entirely geared to the company’s capacity requirements. With the facility achieving PC on time despite experiencing various challenges during construction the completion of this project represents a notable achievement for everyone involved. We would like to thank and congratulate every member of the project team for another fantastic result of which we are all notably proud. The completion of this project follows other notable successes GMI has been involved in across the manufacturing sector over the past 12 months including the completion of a 126,000 sq. ft Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (CESAM) for Henry Boot Developments which has subsequently been transformed into a temporary Nightingale hospital for the NHS to help in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic”.
For the construction industry, COVID-19 poses a unique set of challenges. James Hymers, associate at Pick Everard, discusses the importance of health and safety protocol and how to keep construction workers safe on site. In a recent open letter, the Secretary of State set an expectation that the industry is hoped to keep working on site and keep this vital part of the UK economy going – while continuing to observe social distancing guidelines. Site Operating Procedures The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has created a set of site operating procedures to assist with implementing a plan and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has stated they will take enforcement action where employers are not taking reasonable steps to address social distancing. However, the HSE does also recognise that businesses are not being asked to close with the exception of specific social businesses. However, the industry must take responsibility for ensuring site workers are kept safe and that health and safety arrangements on their sites remain suitable and sufficient. As well as managing the risk of transmission on site, employers must consider the commute to and from the workplace in line with current government advice. Employers should also consider protocol should someone fall ill on site – and what steps will be taken to prevent transmission both at work and before they return home to self-isolation. Where work cannot take place from home, social distancing guidelines should be adhered to. If this is not possible given the nature of a particular task, employers should ‘consider’ whether the works are necessary and if they are, implement measures to prevent transmission of the virus. What if a site has to close? In addition to the site operating procedures, the CLC has produced guidance for where a construction site requires mothballing. While government guidance encourages sites to remain operational, this may not be possible due to issues with supply chain, workers being unwell or constraints to social distancing guidance amongst other issues. This may mean a site must close temporarily. In this instance, the Principal Contractor would still have a duty of care over the site, its visitors and anyone who might enter it illegally – as such, the site must be left clear and safe before it is closed. This may involve additional security measures being put in place, finishing essential works or implementing temporary safety measures to prevent injury to anyone who may trespass while it is not operational. Taking a collaborative approach It is inevitable that there may be programme and cost implications associated with the measures that must be put in place to ensure that social distancing guidelines are adhered to – it may be necessary to defer certain aspects of a build until a full workforce can return or to temporarily stop while appropriate measures are implemented. A collaborative approach among the project team is therefore key. In planning effectively for changes to working practices and potential delays, recovery following the COVID-19 crisis can be accelerated. About Pick Everard Pick Everard is a leading independent property, construction and infrastructure consultancy renowned for cutting edge sustainable design, delivered through cost effective and efficient project management. Established in 1866, Pick Everard has an award-winning project portfolio covering major retail development, city centre and urban regeneration, commercial and leisure projects. Pick Everard, which has an integrated in-house team of 500 architects, engineers, surveyors and project managers, is also part of Perfect Circle – a consortium comprising Pick Everard, Gleeds and AECOM established to deliver the Scape Built Environment Consultancy Services framework. Pick Everard has offices in the UK in London, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Bury St Edmunds, Cardiff, Inverness, Bristol, Edinburgh and Leeds. For more information visit www.pickeverard.co.uk.
Specialist supplier AEI Cables has won support from a major industry body for its campaign highlighting the need for the highest quality of cabling for use in sprinkler systems. The Institution of Fire Prevention Officers (IFPO) is supporting the call for the need to ensure reliable continuous power for sprinkler systems. New blocks of flats of six storeys or higher could require sprinkler systems under new Government plans being considered in the wake of various fire disasters. Martin Dunne of the IFPO said: “We support the move towards increased use of sprinklers especially in tower blocks and the use of quality products including cables which ensure they will continue to operate in the event of a real fire. “The recent advances in fire alarm technology will continue to give an early warning of a fire in its initial stages giving everyone the opportunity to use valuable time to evacuate the building. However, we must always remember that even the best super designed fire alarm system will not extinguish a fire. “A sprinkler system always goes one step further as well as detecting a fire and raising the alarm it will also extinguish the fire to protect the structure by suppressing the fire developing further to protect the escape routes from the building even when unoccupied.” Under current guidelines, sprinkler systems are required for buildings of 30 metres – approximately 10 floors – or higher, but ministers are proposing to decrease this to 18 metres, approximately six floors and an announcement is expected soon. The IFPO is a professional fire safety membership body promoting the advancement of fire safety education which encourages the appraisal, evaluation, research and study in the field of fire safety. It represents the interests of members on bodies and committees dealing with statutory controls, regulations, standards and codes of practice and maintains an approved Competency Council Register of Fire Risk Assessors. The tried and tested generation of AEI Cables’ fire performance cabling ensure critical fire-safety circuits can continue to operate in the event of a fire from 30 minutes up to 120 minutes and often support systems which provide intelligence for the fire and rescue services. AEI Cables’ Firetec Enhanced cabling is the only cable to be independently approved and certified by LPCB to BS8519 (Annex B) Category 3 Control for firefighting systems including sprinkler pumps, fire suppression water mist systems, water spray systems, wet riser pumps, wet riser valve and equipment monitoring under the Code of Practice.
Leading independent construction, property and management consultancy, Rider Levett Bucknall UK (RLB UK) announces the appointment of Sarah Draper as the firm’s new Head of People & Culture with immediate effect. Sarah joins RLB UK’s Senior Leadership Board to head up the firm’s people strategy and the delivery of its best in class approach to people and culture in the UK. Sarah takes over the role from Hilary Richardson who is retiring from RLB UK having been with the business for 30 years. Sarah’s appointment as Head of People & Culture completes the restructure which RLB UK outlined in November 2019. This announced Andrew Reynolds as Chief Executive and the intention to introduce two new senior roles to the Senior Leadership Board to lead work on people & culture and digital transformation. Sarah’s appointment follows Matt Sharp joining in January 2020 as the company’s first Chief Digital Officer. With over 20 years of experience gained in senior HR roles across corporate and professional services, Sarah has extensive expertise leading successful people, diversity and inclusion and cultural change programmes in the built environment. Most recently she was HR Director at Gerald Eve LLP. Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is currently shortlisted for HR Champion at the British Diversity Awards 2020. Andrew Reynolds, Chief Executive at RLB UK said: “As an employee owned business, people and culture is at the very core of our success. I am very pleased to welcome Sarah Draper who joins the team to lead in this fundamental area. Sarah’s breadth of knowledge and experience will be a truly valuable asset as we drive the business forward during these unprecedented times. I would also like to thank Hilary Richardson who has been instrumental in embedding our people & culture ethos as we have grown our business.” Sarah Draper, Head of People & Culture, RLB UK added: “People and culture is so important in any organisation, but more so now than ever before. It’s great to be able to join a company that already fosters a best in class approach to their people and be part of their growth and success story.”
Tandem Property & Asset Management have been appointed by GMS Estates Limited on their commercial portfolio in central London. The portfolio consists of 18 properties with 113 occupiers, with a further 4 properties to follow post completion of refurbishment projects. The Estate is located in the City of London, Mayfair and Mid – Town, comprising of c360,000 sq ft. Tandem’s supply partner ‘Envirotech’ will support in delivering Facilities Management services. Tandem will work closely with GMS Estates to deliver exceptional customer service, as well as managing future building refurbishment projects. Although this could be challenging to mobilise a new portfolio during these unprecedented times, Tandem has proudly achieved this in a period of 6 weeks.
In these extremely challenging times Savills London Development Land team are pleased to be able to report some positive news in the market. The Savills team have had an outstanding few weeks: since working remotely they have exchanged contracts on 9 land transactions with a combined value of £146 million. These disposals and acquisitions take the total number of 2020 deals done to 16 transactions. The results demonstrate continued demand from purchasers for a range of development opportunities across London. Tim Whitmey, Director in Savills London Development Land team said: “We are delighted to be announce this extremely positive news during the most challenging of times. While we are under no illusion that these very difficult conditions will continue, at least in the short term, there are still a number of domestic and international buyers active across both the Central and Greater London residential development sector. The Savills team are working harder than ever alongside their clients and we look forward to building on this successful start to the year”