Property round-up: Birchwood Park; Plus Dane; Legacie Developments; Host-IT; Wyldewoods; Guy Harvey Youth Centre
Birchwood Park has announced that 401 Faraday St is now fully let following the arrival of Quintessa. BE Group and JLL were the acting agents for the Park.
Founded in 1999, the employee-owned Quintessa provides scientific, mathematical and strategic consultancy with a vision to facilitate a low carbon energy future.
Working with household names such as BP and EDF Energy, Quintessa has provided consultancy to world leading, science-based organisations spanning across six continents and in 25 countries.
Being a leading nuclear hub in the UK, Birchwood Park is also home to some of Quintessa’s clients and business collaborators, including Rolls-Royce, Sellafield Limited and Nuclear Waste Services.
Richard Little, Quintessa managing director, said: “We’re thrilled to move into 401. We were formerly occupiers of Chadwick House many years ago and we are very happy to be returning to the park, this time occupying a larger office space.
“Being employee-owned, we care deeply about the workplace wellbeing of our staff and it’s great to know the Park are aligned with our aim to encourage and facilitate work life balance in all aspects of employee’s lives.”
Martin O’Rourke, commercial director at Birchwood Park, said: “We’re confident Quintessa’s team will enjoy their time at the Park.”
Alongside Quintessa, Birchwood Park recently welcomed environmental consultants TEP to 401 Faraday St, too.
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Ian Reed
Four hundred homes in the Liverpool 8 area will soon benefit from a range of energy improvement works starting this week.
In August, housing group Plus Dane secured more than £4m from the second wave of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund in partnership with Mayor Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. This funding has been matched by Plus Dane to create a new retrofit energy improvement works programme for more than 400 homes across Liverpool 8.
The aim of the programme is to improve the energy performance rating of homes ranging between bands D-G and improving these homes to a C energy rating or better.
Plus Dane homes identified in the Dickens Streets, Welsh Streets and Camelot Streets, have been energy-assessed and the eligible homes will now be offered a detailed property survey, which will lead to energy improvement works over the coming months.
The retrofit energy assessment survey, and delivery of the improvement works will all be completed by Plus Dane’s contracting partner Next Energy.
The improvement works will vary in each home, depending on the outcome of the survey, and includes improvements such as: Loft insulation; solar panels; underfloor insulation; smart controls; cavity wall insulation; low energy lights; internal wall insulation; triple glazed windows; and external wall insulation.
Plus Dane chief executive, Ian Reed, said: “Funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund will really make a difference to what we can achieve when looking to improve the energy efficiency of our homes in L8. We are grateful to the Combined Authority for helping us to do more with our money and improve the homes of even more customers.”
Cllr David Baines, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Net Zero and Clean Air, said: “We are working really hard with our local authorities and housing associations to retrofit energy saving measures to as many houses as possible, to save people money on their bills, tackle fuel poverty and help the environment, but there is a limit to how much we can do on our own.”
“Making our housing stock energy efficient is a huge challenge but with the right support from government we already have the technology to do this, while creating good quality jobs in the process.”
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One Park Lane
Legacie has unveiled new CGI imagery of its One Park Lane development as it nears the 16th storey – and highest point of construction.
One Park Lane, which has a gross development value of £25m, will see the transformation of a key Liverpool dockland site into 90 Manhattan-style apartments.
The scheme, which will see a 16-storey building erected on the corner of Park Lane and Liver Street, offers a mix of contemporary studio and one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
The development breathes new life into a site which has stood vacant for several years.
Legacie is also building 620 units on the historic Heap’s Rice Mill site surrounding One Park Lane, with a total gross development value of £140m.
International sales agent RWinvest has once more promoted the scheme.
Legacie Developments – which has delivered a string of successful developments across Liverpool including the flagship £90m Parliament Square scheme – is on track to reach the 16th storey at One Park Lane imminently.
CEO, John Morley, said: “This is another flagship site for Legacie which continues to reinvigorate areas of Liverpool left vacant for too long. Our track record of successful developments, completed on time, is second to none across the North West, and One Park Lane is no exception.”
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Host-IT, Chester
Host-IT has announced its latest data centre will be located in Chester, ideally situated to serve the North West.
The Chester Gates facility follows four other site openings during 2023 in Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham and Leeds, expanding the total portfolio to six with its pre-existing Milton Keynes data centre.
Built to tier 3 standards the 3MW site has full UPS with generator back-up and all power is sourced from renewable energy suppliers. Set in 3.4 acres the facility includes meeting rooms, office space and kitchen facilities.
The full range of Host-IT services are available including shared colocation, quarter, half and full racks. More advanced services such as dedicated servers, bare metal and back up are also accessible. The secure facility has 24/7 access and provides onsite engineering support.
Andrew Willis, Host-IT managing director, said: “Adding yet another new data centre to our portfolio is a great end to 2023 which has seen Host-IT go from strength to strength.
“Just 12 months ago we were still operating from a single site and now we have six covering most of the UK. I am looking forward to 2024 as we continue to ramp up our services offerings to meet growing demand.”
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Retirement Villages Group and principal contractor Elliott Group came together with local friends and dignitaries recently to celebrate the first building at The Wyldewoods, a new integrated retirement community in Boughton Heath, Chester, reaching its highest point.
Guests walked up to the rooftop to mark the occasion by signing some of the roof tiles which will be fitted on the roof for the lifespan of the building.
The new community – being built on the disused former Beechmoor Garden Centre on Whitchurch Road – will feature 155 apartments across six villas, alongside a range of amenities including a restaurant, café and wellness area open to people from the surrounding area as well as residents.
Part of Retirement Villages Group’s Thrive Living collection, The Wyldewoods has been designed to regenerate the disused site for the benefit of everyone locally, while creating positive life choices and improving quality of life, health, and social opportunity for retirees.
Tim Seddon, chief property officer at Retirement Villages Group, said: “Reaching the highest point or ‘topping out’ the first building at The Wyldewoods is a fantastic milestone and we are thrilled to be celebrating this achievement with representatives from the local community, including our community liaison group, who have been so instrumental in helping us to connect with local people and businesses in the area.”
Eddie Campion, Elliott Group managing director, said: “Today marks not just the reaching of a physical point in construction, but a milestone in collaboration and commitment. Elliott Group are proud to be a part of this development and would like to sincerely thank the entire project team onsite for their work in taking us to these heights today.”
Thirty local operatives and six local apprentices are currently employed on site at The Wyldewoods with 48 local operatives having been employed to date. Set to open in late 2024, the new community will create more than 300 jobs through the construction process and deliver a £39m boost to the local economy. It will also increase spending in the local area by £1.5m every year and create 30 full time jobs.
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Equans has completed a major milestone in the restoration of the Guy Harvey Youth Centre in Nantwich, as part of a partnership with Cheshire East Council.
The facilities, which are used numerous times a week by the local community, was in need of a full refurbishment and refresh with Equans stepping in to complete the first phase.
The centre is set for further renovations including a gaming area and youth cinema, with work set to fully complete in May 2024.
The centre currently holds a youth club three nights per week, creating a safe space for young people to meet up and relax while also providing support on a range of topics. The space is also used by various other local businesses to run events and hold classes.
Anna Burton, Cllr for Nantwich North and West, said: “A massive thank you to Equans for helping us to kickstart this project by redecorating the space and creating a wonderful sensory room. It is so important to give young people a space to form positive relationships with peers outside of the school environment, and to learn new skills in an informal environment.”
Greg Fitzmaurice, operations director at Equans, said: “As part of our 10-year partnership with Cheshire East Council, Equans has made a commitment to undertake a minimum of 3,000 hours of volunteering and donate a minimum of £50,000 to support local charities and projects, such as this. I am very proud of all of the Equans staff who volunteered their time to support this fantastic project which will benefit the local community massively, creating a key hub for children and young adults to use.”
