Final unit fulfils premises search for IT solutions co

The letting of the final unit by Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews at the latest phase of a business park in St Ives, Huntingdonshire sees an international IT solutions company relocate from premises in Duxford, South Cambridgeshire.

ISDM Solutions Ltd is the new occupier of Unit 6, the final unit, at Chestnut Court, Willow Road at The Lakes Business Park, St Ives.

Chestnut Court, together with Oak Court, are the latest new-build schemes to be developed at The Lakes Business Park and, as the sole agent, the Huntingdon office of Eddisons has confirmed that both schemes are now fully sold or leased.

Unit 6 Chestnut Court gives ISDM Solutions 207 sq m (2,225 sq ft) of brand new production/workshop and office space across two storey premises.

ISDM is one of the UK’s leading experts in remote working and space management solutions. The company was established in 2012 and has grown to become a global player with offices in China, the United States, Eire and a UK office in West Yorkshire.

Following an extended period of significant growth, the company required larger premises than those in Duxford where its Cambridge base had been for three years.

Ben Ketteridge, Project Manager, ISDM Solutions, explained, “The past twelve months has seen our local office scaling up to meet the demands of one of the world’s highest profile pharmaceutical companies and we had outgrown our former premises.

“In leasing a unit at Chestnut Court, we now have brand new premises of a quality, size, layout and location to enable us to continue to meet our key client’s growing needs at this important time in its field of work.”

The Lakes Business Park is adjacent to the former A14 (now designated as local road, the A1307, between Cambridge and Godmanchester), to the south of the market town of St Ives.

The park’s newest occupiers – those at Chestnut and Oak Courts join an established band of businesses at The Lakes Business Park, including Cambridgeshire Bathrooms, Vindis Bentley and Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

Eddisons, as the sole agent, confirmed that the developers of The Lakes Business Park are planning a further phase of light industrial units within the existing site this year (2021).

For more information on business units to let in the St Ives or Huntingdon areas, contact Richard Adam at the local office of Eddisons, tel 01480 451578, [email protected] or see eddisons.com/barker-storey-matthews.

Deal sealed on Ely mixed-use investment

The latest investment deal to be announced by the Cambridge office of Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews is the sale of a mixed-use period property in the cathedral city of Ely to a private individual.

The property spans 30-36 Market Street in the central area of Ely and is 2,381 sq ft (221 sq m) in total.

Two occupied ground floor retail units bookend the property at 30 and 36 and fully let residential 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom flats, with their own private courtyard gardens, at 34 and 32, respectively.

With an extensive yard, parking area and outbuildings to the rear, the premises were marketed for sale with a guide price of £625,000 and saw Eddisons acting as the sole agent.

The sale price achieved is undisclosed, but Laurence Gercke of the agent’s Cambridge office confirmed that the property attracted good interest from local investors.

He added, “This Market Street mixed-use property offered an attractive investment with established tenants and offered further potential for residential development in the rear yard.”

For more information on commercial property investment opportunities in the Ely and Cambridge areas, contact Laurence Gercke at the local office of Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews, tel 01223 456155, [email protected] or see eddisons.com/barker-storey-matthews.

Eddisons advises at major new Cambridge tech business campus

The local office of Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews has confirmed its role in a major new Cambridge business park for which planning permission has recently (January) been granted.

Bourn Quarter will be on a site of over 10 hectares and is part of the wider redevelopment of Bourn Airfield, between Cambourne and Cambridge, west of the city centre, where there are also plans for substantial residential development.

Eddisons acted on behalf of client Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) – who has been confirmed as the first tenant at Bourn Quarter which, as a new business park, is modelled on the High Tech Campus at Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

CDP was represented in lease negotiations by Eddisons who also advised on the construction contract and is retained as CDP’s appointed adviser to monitor the build process too.

The Eddisons team working on the project is led by directors Mark Critchley and David Park who are based at the firm’s Cambridge and Peterborough offices, respectively.

Speaking following the announcement of planning approval for Bourn Quarter, Mark Critchley commented, “The new high tech campus is the principal commercial element of the overall scheme that is centred on Bourn Airfield.

“It’s a real privilege to be working for CDP who, as the Quarter’s anchor tenant, will have a top quality headquarters building in blazing the trail for other high profile occupiers.

“Cambridge’s pre-eminence in scientific and engineering fields is acknowledged globally and we are looking forward to playing our part in bringing forward another top calibre business park in the area.”

Construction will begin this year (2021) with CDP’s occupation of its new headquarters scheduled for summer 2022.

Construction complete at new-build industrial units in Huntingdon

Construction of a small, brand new scheme of industrial business units on the Stukeley Meadows Industrial Estate is now complete, with the Huntingdon office of sole agent Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews confirming that the first unit has already been let and strong interest in several of the other units.

The Meadow, on Alms Close, is a scheme of six brand new business units built by Huntingdonshire District Council, suitable for light industrial and warehouse/distribution use.

The units range in size from 1,350 sq ft to 3,228 sq ft (125.42 sq m to 299.88 sq m) and each unit is offered to let with allocated parking.

Stukeley Meadows Industrial Trading Estate is the principal industrial trading area of Huntingdon and is where a number of established local and international companies operate.

The Meadow scheme is one mile from Huntingdon town centre and is conveniently located for access to the A14, the A1(M) and beyond.

Stephen Power, of the agent’s Huntingdon office, commented, “All indications are that the demand for industrial business units will endure well this year.

“Given the lack of availability of brand new, quality stock in the Huntingdon area when set against local demand and the boost to the town’s profile given by the A14 upgrade, The Meadow development is well placed for industrial occupiers who are looking to capitalise on the units’ availability, quality and location.”

For more information about the availability of the remaining units to let at The Meadow, Alms Close, Huntingdon, contact Stephen Power at Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews.

 

Ben Green 

 

Pharma investment affirms Cambridge’s pre-eminence

Ben Green, Director, who heads the Cambridge office, joins the chorus of approval for the city’s high profile R&D offering.

News announced earlier in the month (January) that a French pharmaceuticals company is set to pay £820 million for a Cambridge antibody specialist is as welcome as it is unsurprising.

Sanofi is the suitor of Cambridge’s Kymab. The latter is a drug and vaccine developer based at Babraham Research Campus, to the south of the city, and is borne of research its chief scientific officer, Professor Allan Bradley conducted at the nearby Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Kymab was founded in 2010 by Dr Glenn Friedrich with Prof Bradley’s research input. It is a very typical Cambridge tale of deep, academic scientific research spinning out to small, specialist biotech or hi-tech commercial companies.

Such companies’ growth strategies to attract early stage ‘angel’ investment will almost always have an eye on an exit strategy involving attracting a substantial controlling investment, if not buyout, by a larger, international corporate player.

It’s been the story of Cambridge’s prosperity and it sets the tone for the city’s commercial property market for not only its scientific and technology occupiers but also the professional and financial services sector too.

The latter sector’s success – and here I include those of property firms – is very much dependent on the high profile and the churn of business space deals among R&D and laboratory occupiers.

Thus, in Cambridge, we are fortunate to enjoy and benefit from many ‘scientific campus’ style locations offering the kind of office suite and R&D/lab combinations occupiers of all shapes, sizes and stages of growth seek.

The ‘daddy’ of which is, undoubtedly, Cambridge Science Park whose original 1970s site has expanded in phases well beyond its original, concentrated, pioneering, northern edge of city site.

It is still the most coveted of R&D locations and one which its psf price reflects.

The opening of the city’s second railway station, Cambridge North, less than four years ago (May 2017) will continue to bolster the Science Park area of the city as the new station site develops out to have its own commercial attraction and identity.

Down the years, I’ve had the pleasure on being instructed on the high profile R&D sites in Cambridge’s ring of scientific and technology campuses – many of which are at the city’s southern side where there has been rapid development from the mid 1990s.

The latest instruction of this kind is at ((eddisons.com/properties/harston-mill-harston-cambridge-cb22)) Harston Mill, where, true to type for a Cambridge offering, there is a range of suites to suit office or laboratory use from 18 sq m (192 sq ft) to larger suites of 270 sq m (2,904 sq ft) with the ability to combine suites.

With news now announced of planning approval granted for a brand new scientific location to the west of Cambridge at Bourn, which is inspired by a Eindhoven’s high-tech campus and already has the commitment to relocation by one rising star on the Cambridge innovation scene Cambridge Design Partnership, the city’s pre-eminence in for science and technology looks set to continue.

 

For more information R&D and laboratory property availability in Cambridge, contact Ben Green, tel 01223 467155, [email protected].

Martin Hughes

 

Valuations: certainty in uncertain times

Martin Hughes, Director, Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews, stresses the ongoing importance of evidence when it comes to deciding valuations in uncertain times.

Earlier this month (January), the RICS’ ‘think tank’ on material uncertainty clauses (MUCs) convened to conclude that the trading circumstances of repeated lockdown phases were no bar to qualified professionals’ ability to assess and make property valuations.

To the reading of a lay audience or property professionals with only a passing understanding of valuations, the decision of the latest meeting of – to give the think tank its correct name – the RICS Material Valuations Uncertainty Leaders Forum – may seem counter intuitive.

But the counterpoint of those qualified and experienced in the professional valuations discipline is that MUCs have always had a validity. Albeit that validity is limited and only applicable in certain, exceptional circumstances where the evidence or, indeed, an absence of evidence points to the inclusion of an MUC in a valuation following rigorous due diligence.

Not all valuations require evidence.

Admittedly, while acknowledging a degree of uncertainty in certain sectors, such as leisure, hospitality and prime retail, there have been transactions during the past 10 months which have continued in the face of very difficult circumstances.

Fortunately, for those professionals operating in the industrial sector – which has continued to perform strongly set against the lack of available stock – there is, relatively speaking, a solid body of evidence based on market conditions.

Deploying MUCs as a simple default position when and where evidence exists and when trends can be demonstrated simply because of pandemic-induced business lockdowns – whether en masse or in tiered phases – cannot be justified.

While the wholesale use of MUCs cannot be supported there will be presently – just as there have always been – some cases in which their use is justified in reflecting the evidence and the particular attributes of the property asset and its position in the market at that specific point in time.

The guiding principle of the discipline and the practice of valuations is that there should not be a blanket ‘who knows’.

For any registered valuer to reach the conclusion where an MUC is inserted in a valuation, it means that the decision has been reached only after due diligence has been carried out.

The MUC accompanying the valuation in this instance will then have been based on the lack of available evidence to support a value predating the current economic turbulence.

What any professionally qualified valuer cannot be sure of is the performance of future values and it is incumbent on professionals to recommend to interested parties that some property types are kept under more frequent review.

 

For more information on valuations services, see https://eddisons.com/services/valuations/valuations-quick-guide