It is virtually impossible to find anyone who has anything negative to say about Stockley Park near Heathrow airport in London. Most agents agree that Stockley Park is the business park in the UK and probably in Europe. Begun in 1986, the park sprawls over 2m sq ft, and work has now begun on the last piece of land available.
“You cannot deny Stockley Park is the market leader in terms of design and infrastructure, and that is why it has been successful,” says Julian King, marketing director for Stockley Park. Yes, he would say that, but he is not alone.
“Stockley is a byword for office parks,” says Chris Hiatt, director at Jones Lang LaSalle.
The park does, and will continue to benefit, from London-based companies moving out of the city centre. Its location next to Heathrow Airport will always be a pull, adds Hiatt. “Being able to get on a plane quickly is a good thing for companies – it is like the British Airways advert; the guy who goes to the meeting does the deal.”
But even the mighty Stockley Park has felt the chill from the downturn. “It has weathered it better than most because it has concentrated on attracting a wider range of tenants,” says King.
Others are equally confident. “Stockley Park will always be strong in my view,” says Mark Jagger, European director of tenant representation at Jones Lang LaSalle. “It is one of the parks that will come back fast as it is a stone’s throw away from Heathrow.”
The park is hoping to continue this trend with the latest phase, Dawleywood, which has looked to design as a way to attract a new breed of companies.
“Market research was carried out, looking at the history of the park and what sort of companies were attracted to this final stage,” says Steve McGrane, part of the office group at architect HOK. “From this we really tried to tailor this latest stage to clients’ needs.”
Triforum, located on the Frankfurter Strasse in Neu-Isenburg, has been particularly hard hit by the downturn, says Mike Phelan of FPDSavills in Frankfurt.
Built between 1997 and 2000, it offers nearly 26,000m2 of office space, 3,789m2 of service space and 309m2 of ancillary space, with more than 800 parking spaces.
Phelan says that, like most German schemes of this genre, it is more of a business park than an office park, although it does have some landscaping and an on-site caf,/bistro.
Despite being almost fully let, tenants are seeking to sublet office space and vacancy rates have risen to the highest level for some years.
“It’s an attractive and successful scheme of fairly high quality,” says Phelan.
Infrastructure is key at Campos de las Naciones. The business park on the north-east fringe of Madrid kick-started the move out of the over-heated city centre.
Created in the 1990s, the business park is the closest to the airport and, despite a faltering start on public transport, now boasts its own metro station, taking three minutes to the airport and seven to the city centre.
The park story is a classic nightmare turned happy ending, explains John Sargent, international investment manager at Aguirre Newman in Madrid.
“The park really hit a crisis when it was first built,” he says. “It had 100,000m2 of space, two hotels, but no tenants and no metro,” he explains.
Bjora Sierra, director of FPDSavills Spain, agrees. “The park sat empty for several months and developers had to sell small suites of around 100m2.”
Things have gone slightly better since then, and plans by the local authorities to launch a bid for the 2012 Olympics should give it a further boost.
“No plans have been made formal,” says Paul Wakefield, director of land and development at Aguirre Newman. “But a lot of time and money will be put into infrastructure, which will mean new roads and a new underground,” he explains.
Work has now begun on phase two of the park, and utility companies are soaking up space left behind by hi-tech companies.
But Sierra believes that Campos de las Naciones could have competition from Omega, a new park to the north of Madrid.
Work by developers Ferrovial Inmobiliaria and Lar Grosvenor started on the 70,000m2 park this year and is due for completion by the end of 2004.
The park will be the closest thing Spain has to Stockley Park, says Sierra, who acts as agent for the scheme. It will compete on price with Campos de las Naciones.
Sophia Antipolis definitely wins the sunshine award. Located in 2,600ha of space in the C”te d’Azur, it is not hard to sell its positives to people.
Sophia Antipolis is in the south and in the sunshine, and the quality of life is much better than in the north, explains Diane Becker at Catella.
JLL’s Hiatt agrees. “It’s lovely going down there,” he enthuses. “I went down for a meeting with someone, we had a nice lunch, and he was going back to the office for an hour before going to play golf in the sunshine.”
Despite being mainly a hi-tech business park, Sophia Antipolis has not suffered as badly as its peers. Vacancy rates stand at around 4% and in the past year 30 companies have joined the park.
“Sophia Antipolis chose mainly ‘local kings’ as tenants,” says Becker. “It has companies like national agro-chemical producer Aventis, and it is not going to go bankrupt because of an economic crisis,” she explains.
The park is more or less full with 1m m2 of offices, but has expansion space of 2,000ha.
“The park has benefited by tapping into a revolution happening in France at the moment,” says Becker. “Companies have been relocating to the south in droves, drawn by the relaxed pace and the fact that people do not have to spend two hours on the Paris metro to get to work,” she adds.
“People have swimming pools in their homes, they go back there for lunch between 12 and 2pm, instead of eating a sandwich in the streets. Where would you rather be?”
City West, in Dublin has been the first stop for US companies making the leap across the Atlantic. Its popularity has been boosted by major incentives from the Irish Development Agency, and the government designating the park as Ireland’s national digital park.
“It is very much US-occupant orientated,” says Nigel Aslin, head of corporate real estate at Strutt & Parker. “The IDA has been very forward thinking in terms of attracting US companies.”
“This also works the other way,” says JLL’s Hiatt. “People are choosing City West because of the tax breaks and the ease of access to the US market,” he explains.
But every story has two sides. “Everyone is suffering and US companies’ expansion into Europe has definitely declined,” says Aslin.
Suburban vacancy rates hit 19% when people realised that two-thirds of Dublin’s foreign investment came from the US.
Despite this, completion of the M50 and the building of Luas station 0n Dublin’s light rapid transit line should help City West fill up some of its voids.
Slough Estates, developers of Pegasus Business Park to the east of Brussels, is hoping to bring some of its UK experience to Belgium.
The developer, which has already made its mark in the UK, is now setting its sights on the Continent.
The scheme, a stone’s throw from Zaventem airport, will provide 300,000m2 of office space, around a third of which has already been built on the 20ha site.
Hiatt believes the site will be a success. “Pegasus is being built by a UK developer and will bring English values to the site,” he says. “It is pretty much built to UK specifications.”
Simon Hollins, European development manager at Slough Estates, says the move to Brussels was prompted by a growing realisation of the country’s importance as an office location.
Hollins adds that the company will consider building speculatively, but still has space to let in Building Six of the development.
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European business parks |
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City West’s Dublin scheme is the largest of all new schemes |
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Name |
Town |
Developer |
Agent |
Size when complete ‘000 m2 |
Comments |
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Avantis |
Netherlands/ German border |
Jv between cities of Aachen and Heerlen |
– |
Up to 100 |
Calls itself the first European Science and Business Park. Ericsson is a major occupier |
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Chiswick Park |
Chiswick, London |
Chiswick Park Unit Trust |
Jones Lang LaSalle |
139 |
Innovative branding and marketing; uses Enjoy Work as its theme. Employs “meeters and and “greeters” to guide visitors through the park |
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City West |
Dublin, Ireland |
Davy Hickey Properties |
Jones Lang LaSalle |
400 |
Dublin’s leading suburban campus, also home to the National Digital Park |
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Europarc Dreilinden |
Berlin, Germany |
Europarc SGE |
– |
250 |
Tenants include Ebay and I-21 |
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Green Park |
Reading, England |
Prudential |
Knight Frank |
210 |
Cisco took a large letting here, but has put much of it back on the market |
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Kista Science Park |
Stockholm, Sweden |
Kista Science City AB |
Krista Science City |
n/a |
IT and technology cluster outside Stockholm. Started in 1970s with Ericsson, IBM and SAAB as tenants. Now has more than 500 occupiers |
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Pegasus Business Park |
Brussels, Belgium |
Slough Estates |
Slough Estates |
300 |
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Sophia Antipolis |
Nice, France |
French Riviera Chamber of Commerce |
ARW/Insignia Richard Ellis/DTZ |
n/a |
Has 1,227 occupiers. Employs 24,550, including many hi-tech companies.Benefits from South of France location |
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Stockley Park |
Heathrow, London |
Stockley Park Consortium |
DTZ/Insignia Richard Ellis |
223 |
Started in 1980s, this is the UK’s best-known business park |
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Triforum, Neu-Isenburg |
Frankfurt, Germany |
Gothaer Insurance |
Jones Lang LaSalle |
30 |
Pure office park, fully let |
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Waterloo Office Park |
Brussels, Belgium |
Codic |
Jones Lang LaSalle/ CWHP/CWHB |
100 |
A complex of 15 buildings, one of the first business parks outside Brussels city centre |
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Forecast GDP 2003-2007 |
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Ireland tops the chart – way over the EU average |
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Country |
Average growth (%) |
|
|
Ireland |
4.3 |
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Greece |
3.4 |
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Finland |
3.2 |
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Spain |
2.9 |
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Portugal |
2.7 |
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UK |
2.6 |
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Sweden |
2.5 |
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Netherlands |
2.4 |
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Denmark |
2.3 |
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Austria |
2.3 |
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France |
2.3 |
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Belgium |
2.3 |
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Norway (mainland) |
2.1 |
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Switzerland |
2.0 |
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Italy |
1.9 |
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Germany |
1.9 |
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EU average |
2.3 |
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Source: DTZ Locus |
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