Building Briefs: Horbury wins schools work; Dacres Commercial promotes; Empty retail units set to fall
A SOUTH Yorkshire construction specialist is adding to its public sector success after securing a contract to complete work on the £27m redevelopment of two Liverpool schools.
In a contract worth £1.5m, Rotherham based The Horbury Group has been appointed by Balfour Beatty at West Darby School and Ernest Cookson School in Liverpool.
Horbury Building Systems, one of the largest drywall contractors in the UK, will carry out the installation of ceilings and internal partitions, whilst MWS Joinery will complete joinery work on the development.
Part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme, the multi-million pound project will see the two schools, currently housed on separate sites in the city, co-located to form a centre of excellence.
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TWO senior staff at Dacres Commercial have been promoted to associate level. Christian Robb and Fiona Bellamy have both been with the firm for more than three years.
Chartered surveyor Mr Robb works within the planning and land department team at Dacres’ Ilkley office, advising clients on the development potential of land holdings.
Ms Bellamy is based at the company’s Leeds city centre office and is a commercial valuation and landlord and tenant chartered surveyor.
The pair have been promoted as part of an ongoing programme to recognise and reward individuals that have contributed to the development of the business.
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A South Yorkshire company has completed a major piece of work at one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals.
Connect-IP, based at the Vector 31 Networkcentre in Wales Bar, between Rotherham and Sheffield, fulfilled a significant contract at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London.
The 12-month project, in conjunction with Cisco specialists Block Solutions, saw Connect-IP assist with a major upgrade to the hospital’s IT infrastructure.
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NATIONAL commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has secured three new instructions on behalf of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), the body responsible for reviewing complaints made about councils and other public sector authorities.
Led by Paul Hartrick, Piers Stidston and Glenn Wright, LSH’s building consultancy division has been appointed to deliver concept space planning and contract administration services for the internal reconfiguration of three key administration buildings on behalf of the LGO.
The buildings on Shipton Road in York, Millbank in London and Westwood Way in Coventry, which combined currently accommodate over 198 employees, require reorganisation and modernisation to support the LGO’s increasing workload and staff requirements.
The instructions were awarded under LSH’s existing four-year contract with the LGO following a strategic review of the properties by LSH’s Corporate Services team 18 months ago.
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THE number of vacant retail units across Yorkshire is set to fall this year because of a shortage of new space and continuing flexible leases, according to new research by property consultants King Sturge.
Retail vacancy rates are set to fall from a 20% high in prime shopping centres such as Leeds, Sheffield and York and could be as low as 10% or 12% by the end of this year, said the King Sturge Leeds-based in-town retail team.
However, the research warns that vacancy rates will remain higher in some centres such as Barnsley and Wakefield as the recession continues to expose towns that are failing to implement effective regeneration policies.
Partner Jonathan Newns, head of King Sturge’s in-town retail team, said: “The key shake-out among retailers happened a year ago as the start of the recession weeded out weaker players and those exposed to onerous finance structures. As a result we will see retail vacancy rates fall as retailers take advantage of flexible and incentivised leases where they remain available.”
