• £IB RUSH TO INVEST
  IN ROYAL DOCKLANDS

• £6OM BOOST FOR
  EXCEL EXHIBITION

• FIVE MILLION BACK
  TO THE FUTURE TRIP

• MAYOR OF LONDON
  BACKS DOCKLANDS

• RATES SHOCK FOR
  DOCKS BUSINESS

RATES SHOCK FOR DOCKS BUSINESS
What cost goes down but could finish up costing 200 percent more? The answer, as office occupiers in London Docklands are finding out to their cost is business rates, which will be charged from April 1 2000.

Going down…The Government has confirmed the Uniform Business Rate for England and Wales at 41.6p in the pound for all properties (previously 48.9p for large properties and 48p for small properties) for the year 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001.

Going up…Transitional arrangements for occupiers with assessments of £18,000 in Greater London increases in rate bills will be limited to 12.5 percent plus inflation (2.1 percent) with increases on smaller properties limited to five percent plus inflation. Decreases in rates are limited to 2.5 percent plus RPI for larger properties and five percent for smaller firms.

Going up further… Many occupiers in London will face significant increases in rates bills because of the increase in property values since the last rating revaluation in 1995. Even the Valuation Office suggests increases in rateable value of 91 percent.

Going up further still… Many occupiers in London will finish up paying the full 12.5 percent extra plus inflation increases, amounting to a massive £400M cost to London’s business community rate bills in year one, 15 percent in year two and 17.5 percent in year three —Unduly harsh", says Bob Hickman, head of rating at Fletcher King Plc, "and leading to an increase in business failures."

Going up as high as Canary Wharf Tower…new buildings are excluded from the transitional benefits and that means, claims Dron & Wright rating partner, Ian Tanner, a business acquiring a five year lease on a new building in the City will have to bear an additional rates cost of £645 per sq metre over the term of the lease. This is £344 psm higher than the comparative cost of an existing building with the benefit of transition — equivalent to a nine month rent free period.

Docklands business district offices like these will be hit
Commercial property specialists, Dron & Wright have produced a review of 11 prime office locations in London and Wales which shows that firms taking out new leases at Canary Wharf starting 2000/2001 will be paying 220 percent more than 1999/2000. That’s the difference between new and existing buildings and warned Ian Tanner "the Government should avoid the anomaly of virtual identical buildings have significantly differing rate liabilities."

A typical lease on a floor in the Canary Wharf Tower will cost £6M extra to the incoming occupier. Not surprising the agents are advising would be tenants to take professional advice and make sure their appeals are lodged before April 2000.

London Docklands has seen a building boom in the last 15 years with 31.5 million square feet of commercial space in four distinct business/retail districts built and occupied with a further 8.3 m sq ft built or under construction on prelets at Canary Wharf BD. When completed in 5-7 years Canary Wharf will comprise 13.5 million sq ft of grade A office and retail space.

Excel, the new conference and events district in the Royal Docks will add a further 800,000 sg ft when it opens in the last quarter of 2000.

Bob Dickman/Fletcher King Plx 020 7493 8400. Ian Tanner/Dron & Wright 020 7891 2345.
www.canarywharf.com www.excel-london.co.uk
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£IB RUSH FOR ROYAL DOCKLANDS
The regeneration wave is lapping the Royal Docks - the world's largest enclosed Docks system - and there is £1B of inward investment ready to bring success to the last outpost of London Docklands.There could be 14,000 new jobs and 2,000 more new homes in the first few years of the new millennium if current and projected developments in the so-called Docklands Jewel in the Crown are completed.

Landowners, including Government quango, English Partnerships and LB Newham are fielding regular inquiries from potential developers spurred on by the recent Government policy shift that calls for more housing and other developments on brown field sites. Many inward investors are looking towards 2001 for their main marketing thrusts with a raft of exciting regeneration ideas that make the most of the hundreds of acres of wharves and open water. Some of them are becoming impatient with English Partnerships, who appear not to have been involved in any land sales since they took over from the London Docklands Development Corporation in April 1998.

One major developer told London Docklands Online: "We are prepared to invest £70M in development in the Royal Docks, but we have become disillusioned with English Partnerships. We offered to buy land from them and a year later are still waiting for details of their tendering proposals." Another developer said: "We got frustrated in our efforts to buy 22 acres in the Royal Albert Dock, so we went to Edinburgh where we able to do a series of big deals, all of which are underway.

"We may have another look at the Royal Docks if we can acquire the land and get development underway in the next 12 months. We have stimulated the Edinburgh market in the same period we could have been helping to transform the Royal Docks."

LB Newham and the London Lee Valley Partnership are two development agencies that appear to move quicker than English Partnerships. A spokesman for LLVP said: "The time is now ripe for a major thrust to get the Western end of the Royal Docks, Leamouth and the Lee Valley underway. We welcome inquiries from developers." Some areas of the Royals have been granted EU financial incentives such as Lea Valley Single Regeneration Budget 4 to encourage development.

Royal Docklands schemes already underway include the £200M first phase of ExCel International Exhibition Centre, the £30M extension of the Docklands Light Railway to London City Airport, Fairview New Homes £60M high density development on private sector Gallion's Point, the former Harland and Wolf repair facility. Following improved sales at its Britannia Village, Wimpey Homes have decided to commit £30M for further stages.

Barratt Homes have sold four out of six terraced blocks at Barrier Point and are putting together plans to market the remainder of the site, including the riverbank white tower. Recent completions included the £60M campus for the University of East London, and a £10M regatta course and clubhouse in the Royal Albert Dock. There are plans for an upgraded windsurfing and sailing centre.

Two developers have plans for mixed schemes totalling £140M, including one on 18 acres on the former Tate & Lyle riverside site in Silvertown. The second phase of ExCel totals a further £200M and gets underway in November 2000 - just as phase one starts operations. Smaller developments being considered bring the total committed to Royal Docklands to £1B.

£6OM BOAT SHOW BOOST FOR EXCEL EXHIBITION
The growing popularity of one of the world’s most desirable "must haves" has given the ExCel International Centre a £60M boost just months before its official opening in Royal Docklands.It has taken ExCel ten years to land the International Boat Show and the fight against West London’s Earls Court was won because successive size increases of the glamorous Sunseeker cruisers finally got too big to be transported through the streets to their pride of place exhibition stand.

There are no such restrictions at ExCel and the organisors finally succumbed to the superior facilities, easy of access, better transport links and the advantages of showing off the boats on acres of water.National Boat Show Shows chairman, Petere Steinberger said: "This move will allow us to expand and boats can be delivered direct from the Thames. It is a key decision for the future of the boat show."ExCel chief executivem Iain Shearer said: "We are delighted. Boats can be displayed in the exhibition halls or in the water."

There are no such restrictions at ExCel and the organisors finally succumbed to the superior facilities, easy of access, better transport links and the advantages of showing off the boats on acres of water.National Boat Show Shows chairman, Petere Steinberger said: "This move will allow us to expand and boats can be delivered direct from the Thames. It is a key decision for the future of the boat show."ExCel chief executivem Iain Shearer said: "We are delighted. Boats can be displayed in the exhibition halls or in the water."

The £200M venue is served by three DLR stations, one Jubilee Line station and London City Airport and there are more than 8,000 car parking places around the 90,000 sq metre halls, waterfront hotels, restaurants and bars.Investors are moving in on adjacent sites to service the giant venue which has now raised another £200M to fund a second phase which includes a concert and conference centre. 14,000 jobs are expected from ExCel which will spearhead the stalled regeneration of Royal Docklands. The exhibition centre idea was first discussed in 1988.

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The Mayor began to change his mind when it was pointed out the Lord Foster designed building will sparked a new wave of regeneration along the South Bank, joining-up the current new Bankside district renewal success, to London Bridge City and the Tower Mayfair on Water district. He also got closer to Paul Reichmann and his Canary Wharf Business District when the Mayor agreed to open a commemorative replica of the original gate to the West India Docks. With 12 High Commissioners from the West Indies, who arrived with him in traditional Thames cutters, Mayor Livingstone happily posed for media shots around the gate. He was taken to visit the marketing suite on the 29th floor of Canary Wharf Tower, where again he happily posed with the giant model of the completed Canary Wharf BD.

His traditional viewpoint of insisting new residential developments include "affordable housing" is not likely to influence his former Left-wing brothers on Lambeth and Newham Councils. Both boroughs have adopted a policy in favour of market forces, LB Newham shocking developers with planning statements like "Give us more luxury homes. We have to change the demographics of the borough."

Ken Livingstone claimed during the mayoral campaign to have been involved in the original Canary Wharf deal where he pushed for "mixed development when I was in charge of the GLC." That was the signal for a broadside from Wharf bosses and community leaders. They denied he was in any way involved in the negotiations over the Canary Wharf Master Building Plan.

CANARY WHARF "REGENERATION KINGPIN"
Mayoral flop, Frank Dobson enraged Isle of Dogs residents and the bosses of the £2B Canary Wharf when he linked the massive business district to the success of the British National Party in East London. He told a meeting of anti-fascists: "The BNP did so well because people in the Isle of Dogs were sickened with the marble halls of Canary Wharf."

Community leaders demanded that Dobbo drop out of the mayoral race "as we can’t believe he got his facts so wrong.
The Canary Wharf project is the kingpin of the area’s new-found prosperity with locals claiming ownership of the 50-floor Canary skyscraper as "our tower".

Frank Dobson was briefed on the benefits of the development when his visited it just weeks before his outburst. A Wharf insider said during the Mayoral campaign: "We put £70M a year directly into the local area and produce 40 new jobs a month. Canary Wharf is appreciated by the local community."
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HOW DOCKS FAMILIES
WON THE DAY
There has been a seachange in the attitude of local families since the Government quango, the London Docklands Development Corporation started its regeneration of 5,000 acres of derelict and desolate Docks in 1981.

Described in Parliamentary debate as "draconian", the LDDC - Britain's first Development corporation - had to balance the enormity of the task and the short term of ten years allocated, against the needs of local people still in shock from 10,000 Docks jobs losses. The community protested that they were missing out on the job prospects and living in poor districts while the LDDC created glittering commercial palaces and "yuppie" riverside homes alongside.

Milestone regeneration celebrations were disrupted by activists with bees, sheep and loudhailer river boats. The Isle of Dogs was sealed off in a declaration of independence - an easy success considering there were only two ways onto the Island in those days. Concessions were made and £millions spent on a raft of community, social, education and training initiatives in the last few years of the LDDC's regime. Now £70M a year is pumped into local jobs and firms and community leaders fully support Canary Wharf and other regeneration projects.