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

 

Electrical wholesaler fired-up by area’s potential

An independent electrical wholesaler is set to open a new trade counter in St Ives next month (February) following the conclusion of a deal which saw the Huntingdon office of Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews act as agent on behalf of the landlord.

The 1,833 sq ft (175 sq m) Unit 5 at Joiners Court, off Nuffield Road in St Ives, will be the first premises in the area for GDA Electrical Wholesaler Ltd whose only other location is in Bedford.

Established in 2016, the wholesaler serves trade and retail customer bases and is opening the new Joiners Court trade counter to serve an existing customer base and to tap the potential for new customers in an area where, it believes, there is not a strong electrical wholesaler presence.

Gerald Sylvester, Director, GDA Electrical Wholesaler Ltd, confirmed that the company had been looking for business premises in the area for six months before securing the Joiners Court unit where the main attractions were its location, the new-build unit itself and its easy access.

He added, “On opening, we will initially staff our St Ives branch from our current team of eleven staff but we will be looking to recruit locally as the business grows.”

Stephen Power, Director, Eddisons – who led the letting instruction – said, “Unit 5 is the final unit available to let at Joiners Court which is a brand new terrace of industrial units in the main industrial, commercial area of St Ives where other occupiers include Parker Rose Kitchens & Interiors and Tech Tile.

“The new occupier’s property requirements were typical of the kind of enquiry with which we dealt throughout last year and also in the first month of 2021.

“The industrial slice of market looks set to continue to be the most active.”

For more information about industrial premises to let in the St Ives, Huntingdon and St Neots areas, contact Stephen Power at the local office of Eddisons incorporating Barker Storey Matthews, 01480 451578, [email protected] or see eddisons.com/barker-storey-matthews.