Golden goose with an ailing heart

The South West’s economy has much to thank Swindon for, but while the town’s outlying business parks continue to expand, its centre has stagnated – although that could soon change. By Lucy Allen Last December, Swindon borough council, along with the South West Regional Development Agency, won approval from the government to establish an urban regeneration company. Once the company is launched towards the end of this year, there are great hopes for the improvement of Swindon’s town centre. The council’s new strategy for Swindon, which the regeneration company is to implement, is outlined in Vision 2030, a local authority plan unveiled in October 2000 for improving the centre of the town. The document aims to revitalise architecture and urban planning, access and public transport, safety, shopping and facilities in the town centre. It includes the construction of an art gallery, improving pedestrian access and encouraging development interest. These improvements are sorely needed. A walk through Swindon’s main drag – Regent’s Street – and into the Brunel shopping centre reveals a town crying out for regeneration. A dark, dated shopping mall and very few welcoming hostelries are all the retail core has to offer. Agents find it hard to sing the town centre’s praises. The town lacks sophistication in terms of licensed leisure, as agents agree. Apart from Pizza Express and a few restaurants in the old town, there are few good eateries in Swindon. Alastair Andrews of King Sturge says: “We are more likely to drive out to country pubs than stay in the city centre if we need to make an impression.” According to Robert Bruce, team leader for urban design and conservation at the council, this problem is to be rectified. “With the urban regeneration company, we are taking steps to protect what is effectively the South West’s golden goose. Swindon contributes vastly to the economic health of the region and, in order to sustain it, we need to improve its central areas,” he says. Bruce expects that the first area of Swindon to benefit will be the North Star Digital Cluster, a plot of underused land near the town centre where the new University of Bath in Swindon and the new site for Swindon College are planned to be. Agents hope that this link between Swindon and Bath University will help to bring in a more sophisticated clientele, which will influence Swindon’s retail and leisure offer. Bradley Forbes of King Sturge says: “A large student population is Swindon’s missing piece.” The council’s Bruce adds that other aspects of Vision 2030 – such as new urban parks and enhanced transport gateways – are at this stage only ideas. Old railway works prove popular According to agents, the council should be looking hard at Swindon town centre’s office sector. Built through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and with poor parking facilities, most offices in the town are proving unattractive to the market. Rents are static at £9 per sq ft. Nevertheless, a converted railway works near the station has attracted English Heritage as an occupier and, in something of a coup for Swindon, the National Trust announced recently that it will be relocating its national headquarters from London to the town. Bruce expects it to move into the railway works too. Agents are happy that the National Trust announcement will boost the profile of the town centre. They hope its presence will dilute Swindon’s reputation as a town dominated by industry and business parks on its outskirts and attract a greater diversity of occupiers. The government has identified Swindon as a centre for major expansion, not least because of its good transport infrastructure in terms of the railway and the M4. The area has low unemployment and, because of the lack of brownfield sites, the only way to get business to develop has been by increasing the amount of employment land. Simon Kingsley of Alder King explains why the town lacks brownfield sites: “Unlike somewhere like Leeds, where there are a lot of pre-war industrial developments like the now defunct mills, which can be regenerated, Swindon has very few brownfield sites because it has expanded so rapidly.” This scarcity, combined with the low rents, may be why there have been no new offices in the town centre for years. Most of central Swindon’s available office stock is refurbished space. Agents fear that the shortage of good-quality office schemes could deter inward investment. This explains Swindon’s continuing policy of expansion into greenfield land despite central government’s preference for brownfield development. As Edward Preece of Whitmarsh, Preece, Lockhart says: “There is only a finite amount of land for quality office space.” Development has been forced onto greenfield sites on the outskirts of town, where companies such as Honda, BMW, Regus, Cable & Wireless, Dyson and Motorola occupy business parks. There has been a major new tranche of development out of Swindon every 10 years since the 1960s, the most recent being the extension north in the 1990s. The out-of-town business parks – with their good parking facilities and landscaped gardens – are experiencing high levels of demand, with the best rents around £17.50-£18 per sq ft. Windmill Hill, a speculative scheme by developer St Martins at junction 16 of the M4, is expected to do well. Agents have started to report an acute shortage of employment land, partly due to the expansion of Honda’s manufacturing plant and the ensuing development of shed sites for the firm’s suppliers such as haulier TDG. The South West’s golden goose seems to be getting fatter. The next tract of green fields earmarked to become employment land is The Triangle, a 98-acre (39.7ha) site adjoining South Marston Park and the Honda works. And public consultation is under way about developing for residential and employment use a 770-acre (310ha) greenfield site to the south of the town, locally known as “the front garden”. Swindon office availability Out-of-town developments command Swindon’s prime rents Scheme/building Size(sq ft) Quoting rent (£ per sq ft) Agent Developer/owner Availability Phase seven, Windmill Hill Business Park 40,000-205,000 N/Q Knight Frank/Hartnell Taylor Cook/Alder King St Martins 91,000 sq ft December Edison Park 20,000-180,000 N/Q WPL/King Sturge Brookhouse & Leehampton Developments December Phase nine, Windmill Hill Business Park 95,000 N/Q Knight Frank/Hartnell Taylor Cook/Alder King St Martins Prelet The Atrium, Princes Street 88,000 16.00 King Sturge Marchday Now Delta Business Park 80,000 N/Q CB Hillier Parker/King Sturge Taylor Woodrow Prelet Drakes Meadow Business Park 10,000-36,000 N/Q King Sturge Laing Property Prelet Bridge House, Farnsby Street 36,000 12.00 Alder King/Keningtons Warner Estate Now Dorcan House, Eldene Drive 27,000 11.00 Dreweatt Neate Worldwide Estates Now Mulberry, Kembrey Park 20,000 15.50 King Sturge/WPL/Rogers Chapman Moorfield Estates Now Isambard House, Churchward 18,000 16.00 King Sturge/Alder King Rowlandson Organisation Now Source: Alder King Research Swindon industrial availability Lack of brownfield sites means the key way to attract business has been to increase the amount of employment land Scheme/building Size(sq ft) Quoting rent(£ per sq ft) Agent Developer/owner Availability Spectrum, Rivermead Industrial Estate 267,000 5.50 Whitmarsh Preece Lockhart/Doherty Baines Green Property Now Alpha Building, Europa Industrial Park 135,000 5.25 Whitmarsh Preece Lockhart/Alder King Howard Tenens Now 6 Stephenson Road, Groundwell 103,000 4.00 Innes England/Alder King Northern Foods Now Marston Gate, South Marston Park 91,400 6.50 King Sturge/Alder King MEPC Now Frankland Road, Europark 72,000 5.95 Chesterton Motorola Now East Reach Park, Dorcan 65,000 N/Q Whitmarsh Preece Lockhart/Lambert Smith Hampton Henry Boot Developments Nov.02 Pagoda 3, Westmead Industrial Estate 52,500 5.30 Alder King Sia Now West 16, Interface Business Park 51,600 5.75 Alder King Severn Trent Property Now Oak Tree Business Centre, South Marston Park 23,700 6.50-7.50 Whitmarsh Preece Lockhart Atlantic Fund Management May Source: Alder King Research Zone A rents Retail rents, like office rents, are static Source: Alder King