The river Orwell has been lapping up against Ipswich for the past thousand years. A wide, fairly placid Suffolk river, it isn’t one of nature’s attention-grabbers. Slow-moving and ancient, it is a fitting neighbour to equally slow-moving and ancient plans for the Ipswich waterfront.
Latest efforts to spur the long talked-of waterfront regeneration have seen Ipswich city council attempting to buy three sites at Stoke Gateway, and threatening to compulsorily purchase them if talks with the owners don’t work out.
The three sites include a half-acre surface car park owned by a private investor and the half-acre St Peter’s Warehouse owned by Investec Bank as mortgagee in possession. A third site joins the other two to St Peter’s Quay. Talks with the owners are now in progress. If all goes well they could be wrapped up by the time the new scheme is ready for planning permission in March 2015. If not, compulsory purchase will swing into action next autumn.
The council has prepared development costings for a £9.6m project to provide the 60-unit first phase of a 120-apartment scheme. It has also put aside £300,000 to buy the sites and another £100,000 to get started on planning the new development. It is clear it means business.
“This is a key part of the jigsaw as it will transform one gateway to the waterfront – the university is at the other,” says a council spokesman. “We have new apartments built on Stoke Gateway and two new hotels already – a Premier Inn and a Travelodge. It is a magnet for big events, such as the maritime festival, but it does need this Stoke Gateway sorted.”
The spokesman preferred not to discuss the talks, but the key issues are clear enough. The temporary car park is understood to be on the market at £1.5m and the Investec site at £1m. The council will argue that extensive flood prevention and heritage costs make the sites all but worthless. Given the council’s budget of £300,000 we can expect the negotiations to be tough. Ipswich agent Penn Commercial, advising the owners, declined to comment, as did Investec.
New momentum at St Peter’s Quay comes as the sale of the nearby “wine rack” building boosts confidence. The half-completed 140-unit waterfront apartment scheme, begun by City Living Ipswich, has been sold out of administration to Marina Developments (Ipswich). It is one of two waterfront schemes in administration, both of them entangled with NAMA, the Irish government’s bad bank.
Andy Redman, development director at Savills in Chelmsford advised on the “wine rack” sale. He says: “The waterfront has been in flux – two administrations, one site next to another, has not helped. That one is being sold shows confidence is returning.
“It doesn’t hurt that the council is taking an interest in St Peter’s, but acquiring the site is just part of the solution. They still need to attract a new developer.”
Local hopes are high. John Spice, director at Spice Property, explains: “The waterfront is more of a prospect today than it has been for many years. It feels like we are back to pre-recession levels of interest. It ought to be the heart of the city. Demand for residential is coming back, and we’ll see more office and leisure space, I’m sure of it.”
When and how the St Peter’s sites are developed remains to be seen – but it is increasingly clear something needs to be done to Ipswich city centre. As EG went to press, Legal & General announced it was closing its Friars Bridge Road call centre, with the loss of 140 jobs.
L&G was one of several insurance companies to set up back operations in Ipswich in the 1970s, but today incomers are more scarce. Annual take-up in 2013 was around 110,000 sq ft, down on the pre-recession peak of 170,000 sq ft, but better than it might have been. “Today the market is mostly local churn,” says Spice. “But if you refurbish, then occupiers are interested.”
The £1m refurbishment of 65,000 sq ft St Vincent House, Cutler Street, proves the point nicely. Seacourt Properties has given it a sparkly new look, and it has paid off, with just 21,000 sq ft still vacant.
Duncan Quig, associate director at Lambert Smith Hampton and joint letting agent, says that the owners have spent proper money on the common parts and services. “The locals say they are London-quality toilets,” he laughs.
“We’ve been getting the asking rent of £10.50 per sq ft and I’d be very surprised if we were still letting empty space by the new year.”
The river Orwell will be icy cold by January, but thanks to winter rains it will be moving fast. By then the waterfront redevelopment could be going faster, too.
Tolly Cobbold
Something’s brewing at the old Tolly Cobbold site.
The Ipswich waterfront landmark already has outline planning permission for a 200,000 sq ft mixed-use redevelopment. Cliff Quay Developments is now expected to apply for detailed consent in January.
Project manager Clive Thompson says the 37,000 sq ft main building could become an Aldeburgh Snape Maltings-style arts and performance venue. Talks with the University of East Anglia about the auditorium are going well, and the city’s celebrated transport museum could also move onto the site.
“Tolly Cobbold is the eastern bookend of the waterfront,” says Thompson. “We’ve had a lot of interest from investors and if the waterfront as a whole is sufficiently ambitious to make it appealing, some will take it further. I see no reason why it shouldn’t be ambitious and successful – Ipswich is coming back quite vigorously.”
