Sweet deal for Colliers International

Premium doughnut retailer Krispy Kreme UK has opened a new production facility in the Black Country.

The company has taken 3,638 sq ft at Black Country Park, Great Bridge, Tipton, on a ten year lease.

US-based Krispy Kreme has 46 outlets across the UK including Selfridges at the Bullring in Birmingham. Its new production facility forms part of a geographical expansion strategy that will see it deliver fresh doughnuts every day to doughnut and coffee bars and Tesco cabinets the brand is planning across the Midlands.

Big shed rents begin to move north

Average prime rents in the Midlands’ ‘big shed’ sector (in excess of 200,000 sq ft) are beginning the slow climb north.

According to Colliers International’s newly launched Logistics and Industrial Big Sheds Rent Map 2012, eight out of 12 locations across the regions saw rents rise. Only Nottingham saw a fall in rental values, while rents in Derby, Gloucester and Leicester remained static.

Birmingham, Coventry, Northampton, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent, all saw a rent rise of 25p per sq ft.

Rents for secondary properties (ie, those built during the early 1990s), in contrast, have not performed so well. Only Derby saw a rise. Gloucester was the only location to see a drop, with all others areas remaining static.

Colliers’ Rent Map also put land values across prime locations in the Midlands under the spotlight.

Availability of secondhand office stock soars in Birmingham

Availability of secondary office space in Birmingham has increased by 171 per cent since 2007, according to a new report by property adviser CBRE.

In five years, the amount of secondhand office space on the market has risen dramatically from 710,619 sq ft to 1,923,431 sq ft. Conversely, availability of Grade A office accommodation has fallen rapidly and is now in short supply, with less than 700,000 sq ft currently available for occupation.

As a result, there is less than two years’ supply of Grade A stock in Birmingham, compared to more than six years supply in the secondhand market.

The CBRE report, ‘Secondhand office space: What is the reality?’, examines the secondary office market in nine regional business centres – Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Southampton. It found that total secondhand availability across the nine regional cities increased from 6.8m sq ft in 2007 to 13.3m sq ft by the end of 2011, an increase of 97 per cent during this period.

Willmott Dixon appoints new sales and marketing manager in East Midlands

Stephen Corbett (second from right) with the rest of the Willmott Dixon East Midlands team. (L-R) Nick Heath, Steve Nitman, Jerry Major and Scott Corey

Construction firm Willmott Dixon has appointed Stephen Corbett as its new sales and marketing manager for the East Midlands.

Mr Corbett, who is based at the firm’s office in Nottingham, is responsible for raising the profile of Willmott Dixon in the region and supporting its national sector managers and directors in generating leads and driving growth across all sectors, including housing, education and healthcare.

As well as Nottinghamshire, he will cover Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Rutland

Mr Corbett joined Willmott Dixon in 2010 as sales and marketing manager in the West Midlands. Prior to that he occupied a number of sales and business development roles for companies across the Midlands.

CBRE signs up to support Birmingham Hippodrome

The Birmingham office of commercial property consultancy CBRE has put its name up in lights as the latest firm to sign up as a corporate partner of the Birmingham Hippodrome.

CBRE has taken an associate partner membership at the theatre, which follows managing director Martin Guest’s appointment as a Hippodrome development trustee.

As part of its support for the theatre, CBRE hosted a night of comedy for 60 of its clients who enjoyed a few laughs with funny man Dara O’Briain. The evening also raised vital funds for the theatre’s £1million stage appeal campaign.

Work to start on £150m regeneration scheme

An artist’s impression of the 27-storey tower that will be the centrepiece of the Beorma Quarter

A multi-million pound regeneration scheme in Digbeth is set to get the go ahead after Birmingham City Council approved plans for the first phase of the development.

The decision paves the way for developers behind the £150 million Beorma Quarter to start work on site later this year.

The Beorma Quarter, which is being funded by Salhia, one of Kuwait’s leading real estate development and investment companies, is a major mixed-use scheme totaling more than 600,000 sq ft of offices, leisure and retail space, a hotel and public square.

The centerpiece of the development will be an impressive 27-storey tower, which will provide more than 300,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation.

Willmott Dixon to extend John Radcliffe Hospital

Construction firm Willmott Dixon has won the contract to build a new £2.5 million extension to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Willmott Dixon, which opened an office in Oxford earlier this year to service its growing pipeline of business in the region, has been appointed by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust to double the hospital’s intensive care capacity for newborns. The unit is the only designated newborn intensive care unit covering the Thames Valley (Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire).  The contract has been let through the Procure 21+ framework.

The new 410 sq m, two-storey extension, which received planning permission from Oxford City Council in February, will provide an additional ten cots for premature and critically ill babies and will enable the Trust to provide more than twice as much space around each cot, creating an improved environment for the babies, parents and hospital staff.