Author Archives: Kate

EDG Property’s Neil Edginton is delighted to have been appointed Chair of next year’s Midlands Property Quiz, which at its peak has raised in excess of £50,000 a year for charities Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Lionheart.

In the diary for 7th February, the popular black tie event will adopt a Monte Carlo theme, with luxury brands Ferrari and Maserati setting the scene for the glamorous evening at Aston Villa Football Club.

Having been involved with the Property Quiz for many years, Neil is a big supporter of the charities involved. Birmingham Children’s Hospital has played an integral part at events hosted by The Cube, where Neil is Director.

“I recently toured the Birmingham Children’s Hospital facilities with colleague Adee Phelan and, as a father myself, I was overcome by the amazing level of genuine care and expertise I witnessed,” said Neil.

The Hospital treats nearly 250,000 children a year from all over the UK. It specialises in liver transplantation, cardiac, and neonatal surgery. Birmingham Children’s also hosts the West Midlands Regional Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate, providing a muliti-disciplinary service for cleft patients, including speech and language therapy, dental, orthodontics, maxillofacial, plastic surgery and psychology. It is currently the only hospital in the UK to carry out intestinal transplants in children.

Neil concluded: “With the Hospital on our doorstep, it’s easy to forget its international reputation. This is one of the best children’s hospitals in Europe and I am proud to be doing my bit to support the cause.”

Tickets go on sale next month. For all enquires and to secure a table at The Midlands Property Quiz 2013 please contact neil@edgproperty.co.uk

Topping out has been taken to an entirely new level at EDG Property’s Sandfields Barn, Luddington, with the installation of a green roof to the contemporary glazed link.

From field to roof in the same weekend, the lush pre-grown vegetation mat utilises a mix of sixteen varieties of sedum plants. All responsibly sourced and sustainably grown in the UK, the sedum is drought resistant and low maintenance.

Sustainability conscious, EDG Property’s Neil Edginton commented, “To stay true to the picturesque rural location, we felt the investment in the roof was essential. From afar the contemporary link will simply merge in to the landscape.”

Sandfields Barn sits at the entrance to Luddington, on the Luddington Road, and EDG Property is mindful to deliver a residence that the village can be proud of. The brick barn and stone barn have stood for years in a state of disrepair, without the original link, providing even more reason to ensure the end product sympathetically blends in with the surroundings.

“We are looking forward to watching the plantation mature and change with the seasons,” said Neil.

With almost all commercial space already Let at The School Yard, Harborne, EDG Property now complete the mix with release details of an amazing 5,000sq ft. restaurant/retail unit with mezzanine, fronting the new public square.

An eclectic mix of eateries, including Metro Continental and Prezzo, plus the delights of Food School Kitchen are already promised at EDG Property’s new development. And now, interest is expected to be high for Unit 4, which comes complete with a demised outdoor seating area.

Unit 4 has been granted planning consent for A1/A3 use and is situated in the architecturally stunning, new build part of the scheme that showcases mass expanses of bronze and glass. Comprising of ground floor and mezzanine floor space, the outlook is the former playground, soon to become The School Yard’s new public square and place to be seen!

The car parking is ample, with public car park adjoining the scheme and secure, private parking provided for The School Yard’s residential. This village location is much sought after, situated just 3 miles from Birmingham city centre and the bustling High Street is well serviced with the likes of Marks & Spencer, Boots, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.

Unit 4 is available for fit out Autumn 2013.

To download a pdf brochure click here. For all enquiries email info@edgproperty.co.uk or call Neil Edginton on 07795 571731.

One of the city’s highest profile pieces of real estate could soon be in new hands after the current owners decided to put it on the market.

The Cube has gone from the lows of administration to becoming one of the property success stories of recent years and offers are now being sought by Savills that will bring to a close a remarkable jouney for the Ken Shuttleworth-designed landmark.

The building was originally the brainchild of Alan Chatham’s Birmingham Development Company which was planned to complement the successful mixed-use Mailbox scheme that is currently the home of the BBC and Harvey Nicholls and was bought by Brockton last year for £127.1 million.

BDC brought in Mr Shuttleworth and his Make practice to design the building and its complexity and the challenging canalside site saw BDC create their own main contractor – BuildAbility – to build out the project.

However, the build programme coincided with the credit crunch and the collapse of commercial property prices and the project’s backers Lloyds, who lent around £92 million to BDC for the project, called in PwC as administrators after claiming it had lost confidence in some of the management.

The freehold for the building was tranferred from BDC to a subsidiary vehicle Aruna Project which was headed up by former BDC director and shareholder Neil Edginton while Mr Chatham and his partner Mark Billingham severed all ties with the project.

Since the building – which includes 244 apartments as well as significant commercial, retail and leisure space – was delivered it has gone from strength to strength.

One of the first deals to be done saw Sanguine pay a rumoured £8 million for the long lease to develop a Marco Pierre White rooftop restaurant, a Hotel Indigo below and a club and spa on the ground floor.

The building has also attracted a Brazilian restaurant and a celebrity hairdresser with just half a dozen units remaining while the commercial space is now almost full having secured the Highways Agency while the building was still being built and snatching a major Law Society letting from under the noses of rival properties in the city last year.

Three quarters of the apartments have now been sold but the process has not been without its problems as some investors who bought off plan initially refused to complete, claiming the delay in delivering the scheme meant they could no longer raise the finance because of a fall in residential values.

However, the High Court found in favour of the developers and said that the project had actually been delivered within a reasonable timeframe and many have since completed.

In terms of the ownership of the buildings, while it is still technically in administration, the debt was sold by Lloyds earlier this year to Loanstar for an unknown amount although rumoured to be for around £60 million as the publically-owned bank looked to reduce its property liabilities.

It is believed that Loanstar are now looking to realise some or all of their asset and Savills has been instructed to market the building via the administrators.

It is believed that Loanstar are initially looking for offers of around £40 million for the commercial space.

The firm is also open to offers to take the entire building including the residential, the remaining of which is valued at around £20 million with the apartments currently achieving around £300 per sq ft.

Neil Edginton, who has been behind many of the deals over the past two years, said that despite the challenges, he believes the project has finally delivered everything it intended.

He said: “Delivering The Cube for Birmingham has genuinely been a very proud time and the building has already positioned itself as the place to be seen in the city.

“We have worked hard over the past couple of years, to bring new names to Birmingham in a truly unique mixed use building with tenants including Marco Pierre White, Hotel Indigo, Rodizio Rico, Adee Phelan and theclub&spa.”

PwC partner Matthew Hammond, who has led the administration from Birmingham, said the time was right to bring the scheme to market.

He said: “The commercial element of the building is 90 per cent full now and despite the difficult economic climate, demand from investors for trophy assets like the Cube remains very strong. We have therefore decided to allow the market a brief opportunity to look at the Cube and initial interest has been extremely encouraging.”

New research published last week showed the region’s commercial property sector continued to tread water in the first half of the year.

A report by international property adviser BNP Paribas Real Estate showed that office occupancy across the West Midlands remained stable, with Birmingham City Centre space costing around £42 per square foot.

With thanks to Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post