Building Briefs: Hull’s Centre for Digital Innovation; CBRE; Foremans; Conlon
DIGITAL marketing agency Strawberry is moving to Hull’s Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) to be at the heart of the city’s creative community.
The business will bring 35 staff to C4DI and occupy 2,500 sq ft of space on the top floor of the tech hub from May.
Creative director Dominic Love said: “We’ve very excited by everything that’s happening in Hull and we want to be at the heart of what’s going on. Moving to C4DI gives us that.
“The Fruit Market is now firmly established as the city’s cultural and creative quarter and, as the area’s leading creative agency, we believe it’s the ideal place for us to be.
“It also means we’ll be surrounded by creative digital talent in an environment that is perfect for the business to continue to grow.”
Strawberry is moving from premises in Strawberry Street in Hull, where the business was founded 23 years ago. Strawberry’s spin-off business, StrawberryToo, which is staffed by new graduates and apprentices, will continue to be based in The Maltings in Hull city centre.
C4DI is the centrepiece of the £14m @TheDock development by Hull’s Wykeland Group. The gold-clad building offers offices from 200 sq ft upwards to accommodate growing and established digital and technology businesses as well as hot-desking facilities for tech-based start-up companies and freelancers.
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A DEVELOPMENT opportunity with residential planning consent has been brought to the market.
Acting for a private developer, CBRE’s Leeds residential and investment team has been instructed on the Royston Lane site in Barnsley, with planning permission in place for 15 new homes.
Formerly used as an allotment, the 1.1 acre site is located on Royston Lane, the main road running through the former mining village of Royston.
Richard Hunter from CBRE’s Leeds residential and investment team said: “The Royston Lane site offers potential buyers the opportunity to purchase strategically positioned land with planning already in place for 15 houses. Due to the excellent location of the site on the main route into Royston and close to Barnsley, we anticipate high interest from a number of parties.”
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EAST-Yorkshire-based Foremans Relocatable Building Systems, part of the Portakabin Group, has scooped a £1.6m contract to build a purpose-designed sixth form centre in Warwickshire.
The new building for Higham Lane School in Nuneaton will allow the school to provide a post-16 progression route for its students for the first time.
The sixth form centre will be built by Foremans using 52 recycled and refurbished steel-framed modules. The two-storey building will be delivered in less than six months to be open in time for the school’s first intake of sixth form students in September.
This is Foremans’ 11th school project with education construction consultants Surveyors to Education – the designers and contract administrators for the scheme.
Ben Elliott, director of corporate services at Higham Lane School, said: “The Foremans pre-owned approach offers us significant benefits – it is very cost effective and the building will look brand new once it is completed. It is giving us more certainty to have the new sixth form up and running by September because the majority of fitting out takes place off site.”
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CONLON CONSTRUCTION has been appointed to the YORbuild2 framework enabling it to bid for local authority, public sector and third sector schemes across Yorkshire and Humber, the Sheffield LEP area, North East England and Lincolnshire.
Conlon has been appointed to a total of 14 YORbuild2 lots, including four for the framework’s North region and two each for the South, East and West regions, covering projects valued between £250,000 to £1m and from £1m to 4m.
Scheduled to run until 2020, YORbuild2 follows the successful YORbuild framework, which has delivered more than 500 projects with a total value of £750m since 2009. It is one of a group of YORhub frameworks for the region, which includes YORcivil and YORconsult.
Conlon’s success in being selected for YORbuild2 follows the company’s appointment to various public sector frameworks, including the EFA Regional Contractors Framework, the Bradford Metropolitan District Council Schools Framework and the North West Construction Hub.
Neil Conlon, divisional director at Conlon Construction Yorkshire: “This is the first time we have been appointed to the YORbuild framework and we are delighted to have been selected for two lots in each of the four regions, including all four of the sub-regions that make up the North.
“The YORbuild2 framework covers a wider geographical area than its predecessor and requires contractors to have BIM (Building Information Management) capabilities and a commitment to skills and training that will extend the social value achievement of the procurement vehicle.
“For Conlon, it means an opportunity to bid for a diverse range of public sector schemes across Yorkshire and the North East, building on our track record across education, healthcare, public sector leisure and municipal buildings projects.”
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A PARTNERSHIP that aims to address the major skills shortages in the construction industry has secured £1m in funding.
Step Up Into Construction has been granted £500,000 from the England European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme, which has been match funded by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
The Step Up Into Construction project is a partnership between a number of Yorkshire-based education providers, local councils, housing associations, social enterprise groups, careers advisors, training boards and public sector and government departments.
It will use the money to address the need for more skilled workers by engaging with hundreds of people to deliver relevant work placements, training, further education and employment.
