Six months ago, I found myself one of many admiring a scale model of Cardiff that was soon to be unveiled by the newly formed Cardiff Business Council at MIPIM.
It illustrated how the cityscape could change over the coming years. At its heart, where a dingy bus station should have been, stood a centrepiece block bathed in an optimistic LED glow, surrounded by a cluster of impressive-looking model offices.
Fresh from investigating the council-brokered deal that allowed Rightacres to plan a 1m sq ft professional hub at Capital Square, it immediately caught my eye. “So is this where you want the BBC to go?” I prodded. “It’s one of a number of options,” came a terse and more-than-a-little-defensive reply from the attendant CBC representative.
This was well before a decision was made, but the implication was clear – around the city, fingers and toes were crossed that the BBC would get the Capital Square project moving and, in doing so, change the face of Cardiff.
Capital Square topped a 14-strong list of bids to win the broadcaster’s 150,000 sq ft, £170m requirement, with Aviva’s site at Cardiff Bay and Network Rail’s station site also shortlisted. But the property fraternity had long decided that it “had to be” the Rightacres project – an oven-ready site with political backing that could kick-start an overhaul of the most prominent (and least attractive) location in the city. It seemed inevitable.
With around 50 factors – including community regeneration and the effect on the creative sector – under consideration, Rightacres eventually topped the list of 14 local developers that expressed interest. This was then rubber-stamped by the executive board and the BBC Trust.
It sounded like a pipe dream of a project – until the dream occupier stepped in, along with many of the project team that made Salford’s MediaCityUK into the hive of media activity it is today. That move to Quay House, announced in 2004, triggered a wave of development that saw ITV move in and Salford transformed.
Cardiff, meanwhile, has already seen investment in a new studio this year – from Pinewood. And considering the Welsh capital appears to be at a surging point in its office cycle – developer applications have soared by 40% in the year to June, while take-up more than doubled in H1 2014 – hopes will be high that the trick can be repeated.
The broadcaster has no intention of playing down these expectations. “We’ve seen from other BBC projects that our moving somewhere as an anchor tenant does help bring in other organisations,” says programme director Alun Jones, who brings experience from the BBC’s development of the Roath Lock television production facility in Cardiff Bay.
Real incentive
“I’m sure that us moving to Capital Square is going to be a real incentive for others to go. We understand there’s been a lot of interest now that we’ve gone there. We’re the next generation. We’re not going to be a carbon copy [of Salford] but we’ll build on what they’ve learned.”
Cardiff Business Council chair Nigel Roberts says his organisation is already dealing with new occupier interest off the back of the BBC move, with 30 “hot” enquiries, including a major occupier eyeing up the Aviva underbidder site on the bay. “Lots of media companies cluster around the BBC,” he says. “Look at Pinewood Studios – we still haven’t seen all the opportunities in and around that crystallise. It makes people recognise this is a creative environment, and we can behave like a capital city.”
Plenty of lessons could be learned from Salford, not least that the move required a £32m budget uplift to £244m (although it eventually came in £9m under budget).
Aside from the need to be stringent in the age of austerity, the project has a number of hurdles. The BBC is not expecting to enter a legal agreement with Rightacres until spring 2015, while discussions take place over the design development agreement and who will pick up the bill for the high-tech, costly fit-out process. Other fine points have been agreed – such as a rent, which is expected to be around £23 per sq ft – and lease terms of 20 years with a three-year rent-free period.
The deliverability of the masterplan has also been a hot topic, and deliverability – plus developer pedigree – were key aspects of the BBC’s decision.
Rightacres, while certainly no Peel Group – the behemoth of a developer that masterminded MediaCity – does boast a strong local track record, and chief executive Paul McCarthy is already showing great belief in his project.
Immediately after the BBC selected his Norman Foster-designed building, McCarthy began working up plans for a 100,000 sq ft speculative block at the eight-storey 2 Capital Square, and a masterplan is expected to be published soon. Add to that the 130,000 sq ft speculative block already under way at No 1, and the project is starting to shape up as something worthy of being called Cardiff’s flagship development.
The hope is that construction will begin in spring 2015, but this will depend on the council’s ability to relocate the bus station that sits on the site – a plan that is out for public consultation, with two locations shortlisted.
It is clear the deal will change the fortunes of the area and boost the creative sector. Since the decision was announced in the summer, Network Rail has come forward with a plan for 340,000 sq ft of office space and a revamped station, and Cardiff University has published a £300m development plan focused on creative and digital business. Cardiff will be hoping this will be just the start.
Technology and savings at the heart of BBC decision to move
The BBC will bring plenty of activity for tech suppliers. It was the outdated technology and high running costs in the ageing Broadcasting House at Llandaff that made the BBC eye up alternatives.
That building was opened 48 years ago and is obsolete in a number of ways – including a large area devoted to the storage of physical archive on tape and film, which will all be stored digitally at Capital Square. The need for dual power sources, data connectivity, cooling systems and floor loading capacity all spell a bonanza of work for fit-out contractors and suppliers.
The hi-tech aspects of the move are accompanied by a more traditional office modernisation project. The new building will see the 1,200-odd BBC workers hot desking (or agile working, according to the workspace division), with the space available downsized from 280,000 sq ft to 150,000 sq ft. Studio floor space will be reduced by about 70% from four large studios to two of around 2,000 sq ft, while the cellular winding offices will be replaced with open-plan space.
Programme director Alun Jones will not be drawn on the level of savings the corporation hopes to make, so it is hard to tell whether Rightacres’ project was chosen by commercial head or community-minded heart. But the technology switch will cost the BBC “tens of millions” once Rightacres has delivered the shell and core.
The fit-out will take 12-15 months, with double-running required to ensure programming, radio and online operations can be handed over seamlessly.
Even so, considering the move will be funded entirely by BBC sources, moving the facility was deemed preferable to a refurbishment, which could have taken the best part of a decade and presented fewer opportunities for savings when the project was initiated in 2011.
Moving also has the benefit of cashing in on the potential of Broadcasting House for a residential development, with Taylor Wimpey expected to take on both remaining Llandaff sites for a housing development for around £26m through Lambert Smith Hampton.
As with any project of this size, the financials are subject to change. But at the core of the decision is a clear sense that the BBC wants to come in from the cold. At a time of regeneration, the corporation has no intention of watching, as Jones puts it, “from out here in a leafy suburb”. And having an organisation so central to Cardiff’s sense of identity at the heart of the project can be only a boon for the city.
