Diary headed to London’s Royal Albert Dock last week for the topping out of the first building at the new business district being developed by China’s ABP.
It’s a project going up in a hurry.
Started in 2017, next year sees practical completion of phase one.
There were several speeches marking the occasion, with each speaker battling the noise from take-offs and landings at neighbouring London City Airport.
A microphone or two also cut out, which didn’t help. Jin Xu, commercial counsellor minister from the Embassy of the PRC, didn’t miss the opportunity to have a dig as he passed the failing mic. “Says made in Japan,” he deadpanned.
A funny old game
Diary loves a list of cities ranked by key performance metrics. Points, goals scored, goals conceded, that kind of thing.
The Premier League table came to mind when devouring our colleague’s in-depth analysis of the regional office market, using data sourced from the new Radius Data Exchange.
The top 15 regional towns by office take-up over the last decade begins with a familiar name up top: Manchester – a rare triumph that can be celebrated by both City and United fans.
But of the other 10 English cities that make the list, only two others actually boast current Premier League teams: Liverpool and Newcastle.
Instead, the take-up top tier is full of what footie followers of a certain vintage would call “sleeping giants”: Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield… Do occupiers shun soccer cities? Do office workers just not like the beautiful game? Excuse Diary while it goes back to crunching the numbers. See page 32 for the full analysis.
The lightness of biking
Turns out, there is even more of a legitimate business reason to be obsessed with bicycles if you work in real estate, other than networking.
Diary was lucky enough to get a lesson on all things carbon fibre at the first member’s only event for Club Peloton – organiser of Cycle to MIPIM.
The discussion moved from bikes to buildings – including the very swish, carbon fibre roof on the Steve Jobs Theatre at Apple’s new HQ in Cupertino, California. While our bikes may be jaw-droppingly expensive, carbon fibre roofs can actually be much better value for money, say the experts – the polymer’s lightness means fewer joints and less development time. It’s that kind of information that gives Diary a very valid excuse to exercise rule 12 in the Velominati: the correct number of bikes to own is n+1. After all, the more carbon fibre you have, the cheaper it is in the long run.
A ringing endorsement
You can’t please all of the people all of the time when you’re a developer. Grosvenor has worked tirelessly to restore the former St Mark’s Church in Mayfair, which stood neglected for many years. Built in 1825, grade I listed and now creatively renamed as One Mayfair, the venue hosted Westminster Property Association’s 30th anniversary celebrations this week.
WPA chair James Cooksey welcomed his flock from the pulpit, but it was Grosvenor Britain and Ireland chief executive Craig McWilliam who roused guests with a promise that “the one-tonne bell will ring again”. Immediately recognising his next challenge, he added: “We’ll probably get complaints.”
Neis work for some
Casey Neistat has used his new vlog 368 to announce to his 9.2m YouTube followers that he plans to put together a co-working space. He wants to turn a huge empty office into a creative hub for the city – WeWork for vloggers (WeVlog, as one commenter quipped).
The plan is light on detail – beyond him wanting it to be a “fun house”, with room to skateboard, a fully functioning kitchen and facilities for his “friends from out of town” to do their thing. As the man himself muses: “Space is the most illusive thing.”
