Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals, all perfectly curated to set you up for the day ahead.
Art-Invest Real Estate is overhauling one of its planned buildings at Dockside Canada Water, SE16, switching from an office-led proposal to student accommodation.
The developer secured detailed planning permission for two of three buildings last year, but will now resubmit proposals with a change to the third, plot B.
An environmental impact assessment lodged with Southwark Council and prepared by Trium said the new scheme will provide purpose-built student accommodation and affordable housing across two buildings, one of seven storeys and the other 26. They will include 730 student beds and 75 affordable homes.
In this week’s EG Interview, we sit down with Majestic chief executive John Colley to talk about why bricks and mortar matters most when it comes to growing a sustainable and successful retail business. The wine retailer is on the hunt for 125 more stores to add to its already 200-plus strong portfolio and isn’t afraid of a quirky site, says Colley.
“Our stores are our new customer recruitment vehicle,” says Colley, “We recruit anywhere between 200,000 and 300,000 new customers every year through the shops. If we didn’t have the shops, we wouldn’t recruit new customers. If we didn’t have the shops, we wouldn’t be able to do delivery for our own trade business, we wouldn’t be able to do glass hire and ice buckets and all those great things, we wouldn’t be able to do tastings. It’s a key part of our infrastructure. Majestic wouldn’t be Majestic without the ability to have the right type of property portfolio.”
And that is why every landlord up and down the country needs Colley – or Majestic’s agents at Jackson Criss – on speed dial. Here is a retailer that understands the importance of bricks and mortar for growth and one that isn’t afraid to invest.
Elsewhere across the real estate sector, plans have been approved for Mission Street’s £1bn Cambridge science district, Untold Living has got the nod for a beachfront later living scheme in Eastbourne, logistics developer Panattoni is on the hunt for sites after closing a £625m facility, and property’s padel enthusiasts rejoice as a new 10-court venue gets the go-ahead in Manchester.
And, if you need even more of a little Friday pick-me-up, how about this for the power of property – and EG.
An e-mail pinged into our inbox this week titled “How EG sparked the largest charity toy drive of 2024”. The e-mail came from the Starting Out Charity, for which EG provides free advertising space in the weekly magazine. It was a note of thanks to you, our readers, and in particular Median Capital, which saw one of the ads and provided the charity with a 50,000 sq ft warehouse in Hainault, east London. That space is being utilised by three charities to store more than 100,000 toys that will be distributed to children in hospitals, orphanages, schools and youth clubs and to food banks, to ensure no young child goes without a little cheer this Christmas.
“Our record-breaking 2024 toy drive is all thanks to EG’s support,” said David Goodfellow, Starting Out Charity project co-ordinator. “You can’t pull off a huge toy distribution without a massive space to store them and thanks to EG’s readers, we got exactly what we needed to make it all possible.”
Well done real estate, well done.
All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals:
Art-Invest to switch office for resi at Canada Water
EG Interview: Majestic boss on why retail is bricks and mortar
Cushman grows retail leasing talent
COMMENT: Sustainable furniture is an an art and a science
Strettons raises £10.2m at September auction
Carter Jonas bolsters Leeds team with JLL hires
L&G sells Ivy-let site in York for £5.2m
Thumbs-up for Mission Street’s £1bn science district in Cambridge
Council waves through UK’s first beachfront retirement village
Manchester approves padel centre at Victoria North
Two retailers sign for space at Manchester Arndale
Bywater gets nod for latest timber scheme
Pair of Manchester resi projects set for approval
Persimmon set for go-ahead on 500-home East Leeds scheme
Car dealer group revs up plans for Mayfair Lamborghini showroom
Morgan Capital plans retrofit and extension of London’s Dorset House
Feldberg Capital achieves bumper rents in Putney
CREFC Europe doubles chair’s tenure
Panattoni on hunt for sites as it seals £625m development loan deal
£290m city deal signed for Derry
Next warns of store closures after equal pay ruling (£)
Tice to divest shareholding in Reform UK (£)
UK hospitals with potentially dangerous concrete to be redeveloped (£)
Two-year UK mortgage rates fall faster than longer-term deals (£)
Amazon criticised by Business Secretary for ordering staff back to office (£)
Guy Hand’s property firm takes housing reforms to European court
Film studios proposal to go to planning inquiry
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