Estates Gazette, forthcoming features

If you have interests in these areas, please feel free to get in touch and I might be able to tell you more about the synopsis:

West Midlands retail - by 12 October, please
Aberdeen's office market - also by 12 October, please
Office investment/property development in South Wales: public sector involvement - by 18 October, please

South West Business Insider, November 2010

Two features, with a deadline for contacts/comment of 4th October.

Anything relevant in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and the Bristol/Bath connurbations most welcome.

Business parks

In recent years so much emphasis has been put by planners on city-centre mixed use development, but out-of-town business parks are still an important part of the commercial property mix.

For some businesses an out of town location makes perfect sense, with the likelihood of better road links and more space for your money.

Insider looks at the leading schemes that are coming to market, speaks to occupiers on business parks about their decision-making, and also looks into the future to see what the prospects hold.

Think: for business parks to work don’t they have to be more than the drab 1980s biz park offer of a boring box of an office with lots of parking? Don’t they need to be genuine social hubs? There must be examples of business parks being overhauled by developers/owners to make them attract to today’s tenants. What are the minimum requirements for today’s tenants to consider a business park? How much cheaper are they they in-town office? What advantages can they bring:?

Sustainable development

Everyone knows that sustainable property development is an investment in the future. But is in one that, in the current climate, people are prepared to make?

This month Insider will look at the equation from all sides. Does truly sustainable development stack up right now for developers – and for occupiers? With reputational, environmental and economic factors to weigh up, making the right choice, for now and the long term, is far from easy.

Whether/on what terms does sustainable development still work for developers, particularly given the lack of public sector driven incentive or cash. And on what terms sustainable development works for occupiers. How does that sound? The obvious place where sustainability still applies in retail centres, which are now being built to high environmental standards, aren’t they? But what about offices?

Estates Gazette City & Docklands

Writing this week. Two features - one of the office investment scene in the City & Docklands, another on the office market - particularly on occupier demand.

Comment/contacts asap - definitely by Thursday am, please.

Estates Gazette Basingstoke

Comment/contact useful by 27th September, please. Anything Basingstoke-ish is welcome.

Estates Gazette, Retail Focus, 13 November 2011

Work begins now on three features:

* Over 50s retail - what happened to all the sensible smart apparel fascias now that everyone dresses like a teenage? Specialist retailers?

* Effect of the forthcoming VAT increase

* Another - and its a secret

These are UK-WIDE features - so anything from anywhere is potentially useful.

Comment/contacts by Friday 24th September, please.