FA digs its training facility
Last Friday saw the Football Association start construction of its much delayed England training ground at St George’s Park in the Staffordshire countryside (see p66).
Not one to miss a photo opportunity, the FA invited the media to troop out to a chilly field to watch football legends Gareth Southgate and Sir Trevor Brooking (Bob) pose with dignitaries in front of a shiny yellow digger to commemorate the occasion. Diary was then amused to notice that, once the ceremonies were completed, FA heavies loaded the digger back onto a truck, still in its protective plastic wrapping, to return it to the manufacturer.
Diary also noted the site’s poor mobile-phone coverage, something Southgate (Spud) said was one of the major draws because “the kids won’t be messing on their phones all the time”.
Flood muddies the waters for Shell’s revamp plans
Could Shell be about to reconsider its decision to retain the iconic Shell Centre tower as part of plans to redevelop the Waterloo campus?
Agents at MIPIM last week certainly thought it was a possibility. Shell has always been steadfast in its commitment to continue to occupy the 27-storey tower on London’s South Bank, SE1, while proposals to redevelop the wing buildings surrounding it are being reviewed by prospective developers.
But following a recent flood in the basement of the tower, commentators have suggested enough may be enough. It is thought that Shell has now whittled its shortlisted developers down to five parties, and some say the opportunity to build a new HQ campus from scratch should not be missed – that’s if they can get it through planning, of course.
Raven’s Russian raving
Raven Russia chairman Richard Jewson is in a bit of a quandary over how to improve the value of his company’s portfolio. In announcing Raven’s full-year results this week, Jewson said he was “bemused” about the valuation.
His company’s portfolio climbed in value to $942m in 2010, up from $879m in 2009. “We are still roughly at replacement cost,” he said testily. “There must come a time when valuers don’t simply discount Polish/Czech Republic/Hungarian yields by 2% points to UK/French/German yields; and then discount by a further 3% points for Russia! Someone will wake up to the growth and dynamism of the Russian economy and value well-let grade A Russian buildings accordingly. The old paradigm must shift, and we must all begin to accept the new normal.”
Good luck with that one, Richard.
Happy ‘papping’: a property craze
Landlords with vacant buildings have a lot to contend with these days – empty rates, squatters, vandals, looters. But now there are the self-titled Urban Explorers.
This innocent-sounding craze involves breaking into empty buildings or building sites and taking a photo of yourself in situ then posting it online.
One property owner at MIPIM last week said the first he heard about Urban Explorers was when a colleague contacted him to say he’d seen his building on the internet. “Well, at least it’s got some publicity,” was his sanguine reply.
Cardiff’s web spinners at bay
Of the many niggles a developer can hear from new tenants, an excessive amount of spider webs on the outside of the building is probably not one of the more common.
But that is exactly the problem MEPC had to deal with as it let its Callaghan Square office development in Cardiff.
And the cause of this arachnophobe’s worst nightmare? Cardiff Bay. When the nearby tidal bay was made into a permanent water feature, the area’s bird population moved on to a less watery environment, leaving the spiders to flourish unhindered by prey.
MEPC can now relax. As the years have passed, nature has restored the balance, and the spider population has gradually been brought back under control. The buildings must have looked great for Halloween over the past few years though.
Celebrity ‘prop’ spot: Tchenguiz gets tuneful
All eyes were on glitzy yacht Veni Vidi Vici in Cannes, where elder Tchenguiz brother Vincent had planned to throw a MIPIM party.
In the end, the bash did go ahead – but without its host. Diary isn’t sure where Vincent was, but as guests sipped champagne from plastic glasses, queued for the one toilet and heard Vincent’s relayed apologies, brother Robert was spotted shopping in London. He was seen with his young son in Selfridges’ toy department singing the Tight Fit 1982 classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, as revived in The Lion King. A weemer-weh!
