ict active and Commercial Property News

With Keith Evans of CIDA

Keith Evans of CIDA (www.cida.org) joins us for Knowledge Sandwich, The Media Centre's monthly lunch-and-learn session, to explore innovation and what it means for your company.

CIDA can also help people with up to £3000 of innovation support as part of a partnership with Business Link.

This event is free, but places are limited to one person per company – to join us, please RSVP to info@the-media-centre.co.uk or call us on 01484 483010.

Connect at The Media Centre, 7 Northumberland Street, Huddersfield HD1 1RL

Date and time: Thursday 11th March 2010, 12.30 – 13.30

The Media Centre has become only the second property in West Yorkshire to achieve Leading Edge status

The Huddersfield property is also the first in the town to become ict active and is the home to several creative, digital and innovation businesses.

Brent Woods, chief executive at The Media Centre, said: “The Media Centre is a firm believer in giving our clients the best technology and technical support there is and our success in landing the ict active Leading Edge standard reinforces this.”
 

The availability of office space is expected to continue to fall after a 5% drop

The availability of office space in Leeds is expected to continue to fall after a 5 per cent drop to 1.46 million sq ft of available space in the final quarter of 2009.

Figures from Jones Lang LaSalle show vacancy rates for Grade A space at 5.5 per cent, with no additional space under construction and none expected in the short term.

However, despite tight supply, demand is unlikely to grow due to cautious occupiers.

Jeff Pearey, head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Leeds office, said: “We expect that landlords will remain under pressure to cut rents and increase incentives. It’s likely to ease later this year.”

Four properties in North East Lincolnshire are the first in the area to become ict active.

The properties are all managed by e-Factor, an organisation which aims to encourage and support enterprise in their region.

Willows Estate, Yarborough Road and Wellington Street in Grimsby and Pelham Road in Immingham are now ict active.

Tony Parkinson, e-Factor estates manager, says, “We are keen to work in partnership with ict active to improve our facilities and services, as we aim help the local community.

“ict active have been very helpful and very good in explaining, in layman’s terms, exactly what ICT we have in place and what we need at our premises. We will be consulting ict active when we begin the planning work on our newest property. It will important to have them on board from the start to ensure that we have the right ICT facilities in place.”

e-Factor can be rightly proud of their achievements under ict active so far; Pelham Road and Wellington Street both achieved an Excellent rating while Willows Estate became Leading Edge.

Tony added, “The e-Factor offers support and guidance for small, new and existing companies in the area. ict active can help us fulfil our aims of helping to make these businesses successful. Firstly, by ensuring that we have excellent facilities in our properties thanks to their surveys and consultancy. And secondly, by providing us with the ICT Checklist booklets, which we will give to clients. The Checklist provides information that will be very useful to the start up businesses we support.”

ict active's Ali Shankland (centre) with e-factor Managing Director Mark Webb (left) and Tony Parkinson

Yet another flagship property in the region has signed up to ict active.

Victoria House in Leeds city centre has achieved Leading Edge status, making it only the second property in the city to achieve the highest accreditation possible.

The property is the home of Yorkshire Forward, the region’s development agency and supporter of ict active.

ict active recently presented Victoria House’s plaque to Terry Hodgkinson, Chair of Yorkshire Forward.

Terry says, “Yorkshire Forward prides itself on being at the forefront of the region’s development. Therefore to have our offices achieve the highest rating possible under an exciting scheme such as ict active is a real bonus.

“At the same time, ict active is proving to be a highly successful venture and Yorkshire Forward is proud to support it. It is a unique scheme and one that we believe has a strong future in the region and also beyond Yorkshire.”

Victoria House is the fifth Leeds property to become ict active following Leeds Innovation Centre, Leeds Innovation Hub, Leeds Bioincubator and Round Foundry Media Centre.

ict active's Ali Shankland presenting the ict active plaque to Yorkshire Forward Chair Terry Hodgkinson

Business centre Crabtree Hall near Catterick, North Yorkshire is the first rural enterprise to achieve Leading Edge.

Winning the accreditation goes against the widely held view that businesses located in the countryside have to suffer poor broadband connectivity, telephone problems and a lack of ICT support.

A converted 18th century model farm, Crabtree Hall has invested heavily in its technology infrastructure to give a business edge to 11 office units. This includes Cisco based routers and switches with internet connectivity through microwave and wire-based ADSL.

“Crabtree Hall sets the bar high with comprehensive and scalable ICT built into the fabric of its office, conference and training facilities. We know that the business centre’s clients can plug in and go with their own computer and telephone systems and have support when needed from the centre’s management and ICT teams,” said Ali Shankland, ICT Active’s partnerships manager.

Reliable and fast broadband is critical for most businesses as Paul Dingle, director of construction business Speedclad which is based at Crabtree Hall, explained, “Much of our work is carried out via the internet and we send and receive large files containing documents like design drawings. It’s important we send and receive them quickly and Crabtree Hall’s systems handle our demands efficiently.”

The business centre has helped a range of businesses to start-up and expand without having to worry about their ICT as centre manager Mark Pybus noted: “ict active’s top level award shows we provide leading edge computer and communications facilities and that’s brilliant news for all those who work with us.

“We are fortunate to have Comtek our ICT support and advisors close by in Barnard Castle. They designed our computer and communications so that each office is self-sufficient and ready to go and also connected to our information systems control room. Together we provide a service with support tailored to each of our clients which include business tenants and organisations using our conference and training facilities.

“As a rural enterprise we’ve received ongoing support and advice from the Growing Routes organisation with a focus on how to get the maximum benefit from our resources including ICT. This has really paid off.” 

A Tees Valley science park is the latest Leading Edge property.

The Wilton Centre, located near Middlesbrough in Redcar, has been awarded Leading Edge status following a survey by ict active.

The spacious complex contains a range of office and technical facilities set in a 75 acre landscaped park with its own lake and courtyards.

It is home to over thirty companies, including a number of prestigious multinationals from research, technology and design sectors.

Collectively, the research and technology community at The Wilton Centre constitutes one of the most significant science and engineering communities in UK industry.

Liz Wallis, Managing Director of ict active, highlighted how impressive The Wilton Centre’s achievement is.

"We are delighted that the Wilton Centre has achieved Leading Edge under ict active. This represents that they are a flagship building in their region with a very high standard of ICT as, at this time, there are fewer than 10 properties in Yorkshire and Humber who have achieved Leading Edge.

“It also represents ict active moving across the region and we delighted to have the Wilton Centre as our key property in the Tees Valley and north east region."

The Wilton Centre’s Accommodation Manager Steve Duffield said that good ICT support is vital for businesses to be able to operate effectively.

“Excellent ICT capability is a top priority for our tenants so official recognition that we offer the best support available is very pleasing,” he added.

“To lead the region with the assessment given to our provision of ICT is also a huge compliment and we are extremely proud of our new leading edge status.”

Steve Duffield with ict active's Ali Shankland

Two new Humberside office spaces are now ict active

ict active has presented plaques to two award-winning Humber properties.

One Humber Quays and Malmo Park Food Innovation & Technology Centre have both achieved the ict active award.

The two properties are rated Accredited and Excellent respectively and are the first Hull properties to fully pass the assessment scheme.
Malmo Food Park, which is funded by Yorkshire Forward and ERDF, is an innovative business centre combining business units, conference facilities and manufacturing facilities geared towards the food manufacturing sector.

The Park has achieved the highest-level it could under ict active – an Excellent rating.

Gary Hazell, Business Support Officer at Malmo Food Park, says, “It’s great to be recognised by ict active for having an excellent ICT infrastructure. We work very hard here to ensure our tenants have the facilities they need to grow and succeed in business. This award shows potential tenants that we have the capabilities to support them too.”

One Humber Quays is located on the banks of the Humber Estuary, giving spectacular view to tenants and visitors, and was the first development at Humber Quays, Hull's new waterfront and business district.

Its position as one of Hull and Humber's leading business districts is further endorsed as One Humber Quays is home to The Royal Bank of Scotland on the first floor and World Trade Centre Hull and Humber on the ground floor.

Receiving the award, John Holmes, Chief Executive Officer of Hull Forward, says, “It is fantastic that One Humber Quays has received the ict active award. We work alongside World Trade Centres from around the world, often receiving visitors from places such as Mexico and the Far East. To be able to highlight the strength of our ICT facilities is a huge boost to our reputation.”

ict active's Ali Shankland with Gary Hazell of Malmo Food Park

Ali Shankland with Hull Forward's CEO, John Holmes, outside One Humber Quays

ict active has three new properties in Malton, North Yorkshire

ict active is delighted to have three new properties on our website following assessments.

The properties are all managed by Malton Estates and are the first offices in the North Yorkshire town to be ict active.

The Georgian House, 42a Wheelgate and Compton House are all located around the town centre and represent further ict active's expansion across Yorkshire and Humber.

To view the three properties please go to http://www.ictactive.net/properties/search/city:malton  

Face of property in the region is changing

The rise of digital and creative industries in South Yorkshire is changing the face of property, according to Rob Darrington of Lambert Smith Hampton.

New developments such as Sheffield Digital Campus and Barnsley’s Digital Media Centre are signs of an "environment that is evolving at a rapid pace, giving rise to a very different type of business space requirement", he said.

Darrington added: "Supporting this demand for space will enable growth for hi-tech industries and “provide a vital boost to the regional economy."