Your city's Economic/Office News

[Chogmook]

We got 2, you should've stole one of ours!

[wiggleyleeds]

.........

Originally Posted by aviator

The article is taken from today's YEP.


Don't bring Brum's Bullring here: Plea

By DAVID MARSH
Muncipal Reporter


ARCHITECTS working on £700m plans to reshape a key part of Leeds have been handed a clear warning by councillors: “Don’t bring Birmingham’s Bullring to our city.”

The £500m Bullring redevelopment boosted the shopping facilities of the country’s second city, but Leeds councillors say they want the proposed Eastgate-Harewood quarter shopping, leisure and housing scheme scheme to be different and to reflect the character and heritage of Leeds.

Developer Hammerson, one of the companies behind the Eastgate project, was also involved in the Bullring redevelopment. A six-strong team of internationally-renowned architectural practices has been assembled to work on the Leeds scheme, including Benoy and Gross Max which both worked on the Bullring.

Examples of all six practices’ work was shown to the council’s city centre plan panel and councillors, while acknowledging the quality of the project, raised concerns.

Coun Elizabeth Minkin (Lab, Kirkstall) said: “Some of the work we have been shown is mall-based, but it is pointless going down that route because we don’t want that.”

In an impassioned plea to the architects, Coun David Blackburn (Green, Farnley and Wortley) said: “Please, please don’t try to recreate the Bullring in Leeds.”

Coun James Monaghan (Lib Dem, Headingley) said: “I would be completely against just having a mall on this site. We don’t want to end up with a clone of every other redevelopment project in the UK.”

Coun Martin Hamilton (Lib Dem, Headingley) said: “We don’t want to see shopping malls. Are we going to see something different. That is what we want.”

David Ellis, of Benoy, told the panel: “You can be reassured there are a strong series of guidelines that we as architects will have to follow.

“There will be some covered space but in the tradition of Leeds’ arcades. The architects will respond to Leeds as a distinctive place and that will inform their work.”

The scheme, due to open in 2012, will include shops, restaurants, bars, offices, housing, gym, creche, hotel, medical centre and church drop-in facility.

[Telfordboy]

2nd city

However to describe the Bullring as just a mall is to do it a great dis-service. While it obviously does have a shopping centre in it the best part of it is the recreation of the historic street pattern, the respect it shows to Birminghams first church, bringing back the city's first ever statue to where it was meant to be. Some first class little touches.

[Biosonic]

It's just a case of delivering what works. Precedent was already set on the site with the old Bull Ring (world's first shopping centre?) and in order to deliver the retail requirement for Brum Bullring was needed.

Naturallly it will be different for Leeds and I guess they are sounding off to stop Benoy replicating the shopping centre

I don't think Brum wants another Bullring, hence Martineau Galleries being completely different

Thanks for the article Wiggley.

[wiggleyleeds]

exactly diferent things work for diferent cities. I do agree with the sentiments that leeds doesnt need a bullring mall, but rather something diferent. things have moved on since all those years ago.

if a bull ring / arndale cenrte was built in leeds, leeds would just be a clone of these shopping offfers, rather than something diferent.

[sloyne]

Originally Posted by Biosonic

Precedent was already set on the site with the old Bull Ring (world's first shopping centre?).

Wasn't that the Athena Agora in Athens? If you mean in modern times, I believe the first modern mall was the Country Club Plaza built in Kansas City, MO. in 1924. I think the first enclosed mall was opened in 1950 in Seattle, WA.

[Biosonic]

I can't remember quite what made it, but there is some spiel by the developers that the Bull Ring that was demolished was the world's first indoor shopping centre or somesuch. Possibly first mixed-use nature?

I shall try to find out more...

[jrb]

Good news for Bristol.

From PW.

Environment Agency gets new Bristol HQ
15:45 | 31.03.08

The Environment Agency has signed up for a new headquarters at one of Bristol’s key city centre regeneration projects.



By Jennifer Rigby

The green quango will take a pre-let of 70,000 sq ft at local developer Westmark Developments’ redevelopment of Cabot House, just off College Green in Bristol.

Adrian Slade, project director at Westmark, said: ‘Cabot House will be one of the greenest buildings in the country and will set a new standard locally. This makes it the perfect fit for the Environment Agency.’

The development also includes a car park, a block of 80 apartments, a third of which will be affordable, and another 25,000 sq ft building.

Westmark, which was chosen in 2005 by Bristol Council as its preferred developer for Cabot House, will now demolish the old office building, widely considered to be a 1960s eyesore, and build an environmentally impeccable building for the agency on the site.

Westmark is an arm of the Lewis Trust Group, the family trust best known for founding and owning the River Island fashion chain.

Edwards Hardwick advised the Environment Agency and King Sturge is letting agent at Cabot House. Demolition work on site is due to begin next month. The decision is now subject to approval from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

[jrb]

From http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/

Chinese trade minister discusses development links
31 March 2008, 10:37


Chinese economic minister Jiang Fan visited Peel's emerging Media City UK and viewed plans for Wigan £125m textile centre as part of his visit last week.

The North West Development Agency hosted the delegation led by Fan, the minister counsellor in the economic and commercial office of the Embassy of People's Republic of China, to promote stronger investment links with China.

The purpose of the trip was to try and raise awareness of inward investment and trade opportunities in the North West and to explore the potential for exploiting closer links with China.

In a statement issued after the trip, Fan said: "I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the North West to explore ways of developing stronger ties between the region and China. Building closer trade and investment links with the region is something I am keen to develop further and this visit provided a lot of constructive debate on how we can work together to take this forward."

Mark Hughes, executive director of Enterprise and Skills at the NWDA, added: "China is a key market for the North West. The region secured 17 investments from Chinese companies during 2006/07 and exported over £360m of goods to China in 2006. The NWDA is working with our partners to capitalise on this and create new trade and investment opportunities with this important market.

"This visit provided a valuable opportunity to showcase the North West as a world-class business location, and to identify opportunities to strengthen the Chinese presence within the region."

The minister visited drugs giant Astra Zeneca, as well as meeting with UKTI Northwest and the China Britain Business Council to discuss trade links with China. Midas, Manchester's inward investment agency, also presented on the strengths of the Manchester city region and the dedicated support available to Chinese companies.

Fan also toured Liverpool, in a visit organised by Chinalink, and took part in a roundtable discussion with representatives from Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool City Council, Wirral Borough Council, The Mersey Partnership, Liverpool Vision, the Port of Liverpool, Peel Development and Susino (UK) Ltd, discussing various on-going and future projects to promote two-way trade and investment with China.

Wigan council presented its plans for a £125m textile manufacturing hub which will create the largest clothing and textile industry centre in Europe. The project, which will be home to a large number of Chinese companies trading with the UK and Europe, is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs and a further 3,000 in spin off industries.

[jrb]

http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.....dll/frontpage

Credit Suisse set to open office in city

Another option for high net worth individuals

Credit Suisse is to make Manchester the base of its first foray into the region as wealth managers wake up to the fact that it's not just London's streets that are paved with gold.

Credit Suisse would only confirm that the new office is due to open in May 2008, however, Crain's understands that private banking director Mark Widdup, who already works in the north a couple of days a week, will be in charge.

The move comes at a time when growing uncertainty looms over the UK banking sector and stock markets. Yet those already operating here are confident that there will still be plenty of money around Manchester and the wider North West region, whatever the economy may hold.

“The wealth demographic is rapidly shifting and the North West is an increasing hotspot in terms of wealth growth, particularly among entrepreneurs,” said James Stevenson, senior private banker for city centre-based Kleinwort Benson.

Kleinwort, which opened its Manchester office a year ago, has recently appointed Adrian Pattinson from Coutts as a senior private banker and has plans to double its staff of five over the next couple of years.

Chester-based Cazenove also has plans to add to its staff of seven and business development director David Savage has said that wealth managers opening offices in Manchester are doing so off the back of local demand, which is being driven by senior executives as well as entrepreneurs.

Cazenove has covered the North West region from Chester since 1995, in what Savage sees as a bipartisan approach to serving the region's two major territories of Manchester and Liverpool.

Mr Cheery

Savage has been criticised in the past for painting a bleak financial picture. “Here we are today and it makes me look like Mr Cheery,” he said.

“We've seen the credit crisis impact on the banks, and we are starting to see the impact going beyond the banks into the wider financial sector. It's only a matter of time that this goes beyond the financial sector into other sectors that are highly dependent on credit.”

Savage added that his sober approach to the crisis should reassure clients: “If we cannot have a clear understanding of how things could unfold, then how can we possibly expect to protect against any potential downsides? This is when wealth managers and private bankers have to step up to the plate and show what they are doing to maintain growth and, more importantly, to control volatility.”

Both Savage and Stevenson said they are protected to a degree because each favours a model of absolute return, spreading risk over a range of asset classes and measuring how much was made over a specified period, rather than relative return, where the performance of an investment is compared to an overall market or index return.

But Stevenson has admitted that client confidence in financial markets is being rocked. “More and more people are seeking assurance of the credit quality of the investments that they hold or that we are advising to them.

“Cash is king but now people want to know what is underpinning their cash. Whereas before cash was the safe bet now people are wondering how safe is their cash? Who is behind the cash? What protections are in place for their cash?

“Is this a crisis or is it an opportunity? For some wealth managers, it is a crisis. This kind of market volatility shakes out those managers who don't have the strategies in place to mitigate the risk.”

[jrb]

From Crains.

Pro.Manchester leads London mission


A delegation of senior figures from Manchester’s financial and professional services community is today visiting London in order to promote the city’s expertise.

The delegation, organised by pro.Manchester, will meet the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman David Lewis, and attend a reception at the House of Commons hosted by Manchester Blackley MP and former city council leader Graham Stringer.

It will be attended by representatives from Barclays, Cobbetts, Midas and Manchester Business School, among others.

[Telfordboy]

Originally Posted by jrb

Good news for Bristol.

From PW.

Environment Agency gets new Bristol HQ
15:45 | 31.03.08

The Environment Agency has signed up for a new headquarters at one of Bristol’s key city centre regeneration projects.



By Jennifer Rigby

The green quango will take a pre-let of 70,000 sq ft at local developer Westmark Developments’ redevelopment of Cabot House, just off College Green in Bristol.

Adrian Slade, project director at Westmark, said: ‘Cabot House will be one of the greenest buildings in the country and will set a new standard locally. This makes it the perfect fit for the Environment Agency.’

The development also includes a car park, a block of 80 apartments, a third of which will be affordable, and another 25,000 sq ft building.

Westmark, which was chosen in 2005 by Bristol Council as its preferred developer for Cabot House, will now demolish the old office building, widely considered to be a 1960s eyesore, and build an environmentally impeccable building for the agency on the site.

Westmark is an arm of the Lewis Trust Group, the family trust best known for founding and owning the River Island fashion chain.

Edwards Hardwick advised the Environment Agency and King Sturge is letting agent at Cabot House. Demolition work on site is due to begin next month. The decision is now subject to approval from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Makes a change, most Environment Agency offices are on scabby out/edge of town industrial estates, not the most sustainable of locations.

[Delirium]

oh, i walk past that site on my way to college

looks good though, its fallen to cliche with regards to the name,

everything round here is named after cabot or Brunel, still... i suppose its better than Colston or Arndale *sigh*

[jrb]

From Crains.

City poised to make most of turmoil
Few of world's top 50 banks are represented in Manchester
By William Hall


Will the series of shockwaves resulting from the US financial crisis dent the flow of foreign banks opening their doors in Manchester? Early days yet, but indications are that the foreign-based institutions represented in Manchester will be far less affected by the problems reverberating around the world's financial centres than those that have flocked to London.

Over the last two and a half years the number of foreign banks in Manchester has risen from 25 to 38, according to Colin Sinclair, chief executive of Midas, Manchester's inward investment agency.

“Manchester is well-placed to take advantage of the turmoil in the financial markets by offering foreign banks a complimentary proposition to London, but with considerable cost savings and world-class connectivity to overseas headquarters and markets via the airport,” said Sinclair.

Admittedly, Manchester is starting from a pretty low base. Over the years foreign banks have opened and closed in Manchester. A quick check of the world's top 50 banks shows that hardly any, apart from the UK banks, have a Manchester presence.

The recent announcements that Kaupthing, the Icelandic owner of merchant bank Singer & Friedlander, is to close its Manchester office, and move its property and corporate banking activities to Birmingham, together with the transfer of Citibank's credit card operations from Salford Quays to Derby, are reminders that Manchester faces tough competition from rival regional centres.

Nevertheless, Sinclair's confidence in Manchester's ability to ride out the current upheavals in the world's financial markets appears to be supported by several of the overseas institutions which have recently opened their doors in Manchester.

The main reason is that Manchester's foreign banks are largely focusing on generating local business, and not on trading complicated financial instruments with offshore counterparties.

The arrival of State Bank of India in Albert Square and ICICI Bank, another Indian bank which opened on Cheetham Hill Road, are examples of the growing number of lenders targeting Greater Manchester's increasingly active ethnic business communities. They are travelling the same path as the Irish banks which are now well entrenched in the local business community.

Aggressive inroads


Iceland's Landsbanki, which has been in Manchester for two years, has been making aggressive inroads into the SME corporate market. But the recent decision by Sweden's Handelsbanken to make Manchester the headquarters of a new regional bank for the North of England is the surest sign that some foreign banks are starting to take Manchester seriously.

“We could have been anywhere in the north, but it did not take long before Manchester stood out as the natural city to establish our headquarters”, said Anders Bouvin, head of Handelsbanken's new northern operation.

Handelsbanken, which has 20 branches in the north and 170 staff, plans to open up to 15 new branches over the coming year which could add another 80 to 100 employees “Manchester is the dominant city in the north, and, more importantly, it has very good communications both from a domestic and international point of view with a large international airport on our doorstep.”

Bouvin's last post before Manchester was in Denmark where Handelsbanken is the fifth biggest bank with 39 branches. “If we were to match that sort of market penetration in the north it would mean 265 Handelsbanken branches. That is not a forecast but it gives a sense of the big opportunities for growth in the north”, says Bouvins.

Jackie Williams, who led the start-up of Bank of New York Mellon's Manchester operation, is another big fan of the city as a base for banking operations. Building up an operation with 750 staff in a city with no existing securities servicing experience was a major gamble for her bank, which employs 42,000 staff worldwide.

However, Manchester has “far exceeded our expectations”, said Williams. “We've been able to quickly build a strong team whose motivation and commitment has ensured the office has become a major success story for our global operations in just over two and a half years.”

Bank of New York Mellon, which has more than $20 trillion in assets under custody and administration, is not a traditional lending institution. Its Manchester office helps clients across Europe with the management and administration of investments which span a broad range of assets.

Hence the recent market dislocation has not had a negative impact on its Manchester operations and the bank remains firmly committed to growing its Manchester presence, said Williams. “It has proven itself to be a centre of excellence delivering exceptional levels of client service.”

[sloyne]

Originally Posted by Biosonic

I can't remember quite what made it, but there is some spiel by the developers that the Bull Ring that was demolished was the world's first indoor shopping centre or somesuch. Possibly first mixed-use nature?

Hope Brum isn't copying another city with unsubstantiated claims like above and the recent claim (on these forums) as having the worlds second biggest St Pat's parade etc.

[Biosonic]

3rd biggest, and that's what the organisers (and media) report. Not for me to discuss what makes a parade a parade.

I shall try to find out what the claim for the Bull Ring was.

[Biosonic]

Hmm.

I am finding "Britain's first shopping mall" and St martin's having "the world's first peal of 16 change-ringing bells".

Will look at lunchtime

[Flogging Molly]

Originally Posted by sloyne

Hope Brum isn't copying another city with unsubstantiated claims like above and the recent claim (on these forums) as having the worlds second biggest St Pat's parade etc.

Err, Brmingham has had the 3rd largest St Pad's day parade for decades now.
Its not a unsubstantiated claim!

[sloyne]

Originally Posted by Flogging Molly

Err, Brmingham has had the 3rd largest St Pad's day parade for decades now.
Its not a unsubstantiated claim!

I don't believe it is and I would dispute it and make money betting against it. Forget North American locations if you will and look at the figures for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

[Mercurius]

Its what the media report so if they are wrong then the city is wrong. Can you get some figures for us to see?