Forum reveals a county rich in investment opportunities
Commercial property deals set to transform the centre of Gloucester are happening; Gloucestershire Property Forum reveals a county ripe for investment that could deliver a bright economic future.
Dear reader,
I hope you’ve had a great week.
Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal did particularly well in terms of audience reach. On the site and on social media it was looked at by thousands. It was the edition in which we covered the Big Sleep Out that helps fund the work of the CCP, the Cheltenham charity dedicated to supporting community in the town and beyond.
It was a story that quickly became more than just some words about an annual fundraising event, as the extent of the passion, power of the community and the collaborations happening as a result of support for the CCP were revealed.
You can read that story here.
As we’ve been gearing up for a week off, we skipped Thursday’s edition and jumped straight to today - a number of stories we hope prove of interest, not least a report on the most recent event under The Property Forum banner.
Why focus on that?
In the quest to deliver some feel good stories amidst a tough economic climate for many, the focus on Gloucestershire’s commercial property sector that is today’s lead story revealed a county with some reasons to be cheerful.
And revealed that the county is rich in investment opportunities that could deliver the potential to strengthen the economy here long term.
It was a pretty solid vote of confidence that growth and long-term stability is there to be had - if investors, entrepreneurs and businesses alike are given the right advice and encouragement.
Which I have to say sounded pretty positive from where I was sitting in the audience.
Another excellent event courtesy of Jo Bruce, of Your Voice Marketing, and ably chaired by the erudite David Jones, managing director of independent chartered surveyors and planning consultants Evans Jones.
I’m off work next week, which means Raikes is effectively closed for business. Have a great weekend. Oh, and because the main story features one of our Founding Partners, Willans solicitors, we’ve left the paywall off initially too!
Remember, for every person you refer to The Raikes Journal’s email service you get points towards a free membership allowing you to see beyond our paywalls. Please do sign up (free or otherwise), send the referral link to a friend or colleague, and help us grow.
Andrew Merrell (editor).
If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be about, or want to learn about commercial opportunities or how to partner with us then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
NB: We believe Raikes now publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire.
Willans LLP solicitors reveals new community partnership
For a second consecutive year, Willans LLP solicitors, a firm we are proud to say is one of the key founding partners that makes Raikes possible, will partner with Pride in Cheltenham and Pride in Gloucestershire.
The Cheltenham law firm’s support of both events, which celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, will include sponsorship of the main stage at the spa town’s 2025 event in Imperial Gardens on Saturday 17 May.
As well as a full line-up of music acts, Pride in Cheltenham will see the return of the Pride dog show, as well as its traditional march through the streets of Cheltenham town centre to celebrate and promote self-acceptance and equality for all.
Willans will host a stand at the event with lawyers from the firm on hand to discuss issues including parental responsibility, child arrangements in same-sex marriages, cohabitation agreements and wills.
Pride in Gloucestershire’s events director and trustee, Joseph-James Picknell said: “We are delighted to welcome Willans on board once again as partners of Pride in Cheltenham and Pride in Gloucestershire.
“It’s really important for us to have the support of local businesses and particularly those who share our passion for raising awareness of LGBTQ+ issues and promoting inclusivity across our county.”
Bridget Redmond, Willans’ managing partner, said: “Equality and inclusion are values that resonate with us as lawyers and as a business. We are looking forward to taking part in this celebration and to meeting clients old and new.”
Tom O’Riordan, partner in our wills, trusts & probate team and LGBTQ+ champion, said: “As an LGBTQ+ lawyer, I feel very privileged to work for a firm that actively demonstrates its allegiance with the community.
“Not only does Pride in Cheltenham help to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, but it also advocates everybody’s right to live their life with equal opportunities and express themselves and their unique identity.”
Pride in Gloucestershire returns to Gloucester Park in Gloucester on Saturday 13 September.
In the week leading up to that event, Willans lawyers will attend the Pride in Gloucestershire HUB where they will be happy to take questions and offer support to parents of LGBTQ+ children, as well as LGBTQ+ parents on any legal matters or issues they may be facing. On the day, the firm will also have a stand at Gloucester Park and one of its solicitors will join a panel of speakers at the event.
Council sells its city centre office
A “well-known local business” has had an offer accepted to buy Gloucester City Council’s offices on Southgate Street. The sale looks set to be agreed next week (commencing 7 April) and civic chiefs are expected to approve the freehold sale of former Gateway offices at 92-96 Westgate Street, until recently home of the council’s customer services. The building was advertised on the open market with a guide price in the region of between £600,000 and £700,000 through a sale by private treaty. The highest bid of £610,000 was accepted. The council has not yet revealed the preferred bidder, but has confirmed it is a “well known local business”. (Thanks to Carmolo Garcia, BBC local Government Reporter for Gloucestershire).
🤦🏽♂️🛹Still on the subject of Gloucester City Council. The local authority has had to pay back £7,500 in developers’ contributions, which could have gone towards a skate park, back to Barratt Homes. The local authority failed to spend all of the £105,000 it received linked to a 49 homes planning application in Quedgeley after the land off the Bristol Road was approved for development in 2013. The section 106 agreement included £75,000 in contributions for formal sports facilities and £30,000 towards play areas. Economic growth officer Nana Pierre blamed a combination of reasons including staffing issues and a cyber incident. (Thanks to Carmolo Garcia, BBC local Government Reporter for Gloucestershire).
🍦 The future of Gloucester as the “home of Wall’s ice cream”, which employs 500 staff directly, has been secured as city chiefs approved plans for a “multi-million pound” upgrade of the firm’s facilities. Unilever UK, which owns the Wall’s ice cream brand, has been granted permission for new buildings and a replacement mix plant facility at their site off Corinium Avenue, Barnwood. The proposals were approved unanimously by Gloucester City Council on April 1. The plans will not lead to extra jobs, but will secure Walls’ long-term future, the planning committee was told.
* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this CIC too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too.
You can sign up to receive your two extra editions a week and see past all our paywalls for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!
Forum reveals a county rich in investment opportunities
Commercial property deals set to transform the centre of Gloucester are happening; Gloucestershire Property Forum reveals a county ripe for investment that could deliver a bright economic future.
Details revealed by Dorian Wragg as the latest event by The Property Forum wrapped up could not have been better timed for an event that set out to explore the potential of the county’s commercial property market and its opportunities.
Had anyone been in the room and demanded proof, perhaps cynically thinking the panel of experts were bound to be there talking it up, they got it when Wragg responded to a question in the audience.
“Was there any news on whether some of the neglected buildings close to the brand new Forum development in Gloucester city centre would ever be tackled too?”
Chairman in charge of proceedings, David Jones, MD of Evans Jones, turned to Wragg, partner and head of commercial at property experts Bruton Knowles, who promptly reeled off a string of pending announcements about those very buildings.
“Station House is under offer. We have had a number of people look at it for a number of uses. That is progressing,” he began.
Wragg was talking about the empty Regency-fronted former public house and hotel at the entrance to the city’s train station - directly opposite the £6.4 million bus station and four-storey £100 million-plus Forum development.
“And the Spread Eagle Hotel is about to be marketed as a residential site,” continued Wragg, turning to the giant red-brick former hotel on the corner of Bruton Way and Northgate Street that dates from 1865.
“The former Wilkinson building (also on Northgate Street) has been sold and is about to complete and Sainsbury’s (opposite the old Wilko building) has been sold and will become 55 new flats.”
For a city investing millions in its centre, reflecting the millions already spent regenerating its Quays and Docks area for the last two decades plus, the dilapidated buildings listed by Wragg have become increasingly conspicuous alongside the shiny new Forum.
The property expert’s insight only reinforced the general upbeat mood in the stalls at the Cheltenham’s Tivoli Cinema venue as members of the property forum looked on.
Other insight came from a panel that also included Suzi Carter, investor and founder of Commercial Property Academy, Alasdair Garbutt, a partner and legal expert in all things real estate, from Willans solicitors, Carolyn Quinn from commercial property consultants Harris Lamb, Richard Maguire from Dedicated Capital Allowances, Kevin Stevens of E5 Holdings and Phil Clement from Invest in Gloucestershire.
Jones’ main focus was to better understand “what is the landscape for commercial property in 2025, does it offer sound investment and development opportunities and which areas are performing well in Gloucestershire and beyond?”.
The panel’s unanimous answer was that if you had the right advice, could pinpoint the right area and deliver the right scheme, the opportunities were there, business demand was there and the returns favourable too.
Those who gathered for the networking and panel discussion heard Gloucestershire described as a thriving hub for the industrial and logistics sector and a county where areas of retail also performed strongly, as does, mixed-use and office markets.
The panel also suggested that with the right strategic leadership from local authorities such investments could serve Gloucestershire well for a long time too.
“If you can create the right developments - residential and commercial - you are likely to get businesses who want to buy those premises and if you get that right they will be there for a number of years creating a more resilient community.
“People want to live close to where they work too. If you get the housing right as well it bodes well.
“When I started 30-odd years ago Gloucester was not really on the map as a place to invest like this, but now it is,” said Stevens, whose business is dedicated to delivering “transformative spaces” across a number of sectors with a particular focus on commercial property.
“Businesses are looking for something special though. With offices there is a race for quality. There is demand there, but it is demand for the higher level of property. And price can still be a hurdle.
“Changes to the way consumers now buy things has led to a demand from warehouse-based logistics businesses for property and that makes areas around the motorway junctions significant.
“With retail, there is not much demand for specific size units. There has been a huge change on the high street that is still taking place.”
The panel agreed that the motorway junctions of Gloucestershire would be key drivers in the county’s economic development as they made increasingly good sense as locations for businesses, with property also coming in at cheaper prices than some other areas in the West.
“I think junction 13 will be really important. We are bringing forward junction 10.5 and I think we will see an influx of manufacturing. And I think junction 13 could be key,” said Jones, referring to the development of the junctions themselves that still needed significant investment from Government to take place.
Junction 10.5 is also known as the ‘M5 Junction 10 Improvements Scheme’, a new road linking to west Cheltenham that will involve a widening the A4019 east of Junction 10, and dedicated footways and cycle lanes.
“One of the big issues will be what to do with our town centres. If you look around Gloucestershire you can see a lot of places ripe for development and not fit for purpose.”
Carter said: “I think there are opportunities everywhere; you just have to know what to look for.
“What I like about Gloucestershire is there are really nice pockets where investments are pretty solid; probably quite expensive, but solid.
“Even some of the niche retail areas are doing really well, probably helped by the social demographic.”
Opening up opportunities for companies to buy their own freehold was a challenge, but achieve that and you are on the road towards a more stable and sustainable economy, said Stevens.
Quinn, an associate at Harris Lamb, said it was key to get into the detail of what the demand was.
“Manufacturing might not want to own their own buildings as they are putting a lot of capital into machines. Logistics are more fluid,” said Quinn.
Firms that were finding their feet were beginning to look at how they could invest in their own buildings and to see the potential of doing that for all sorts of reasons, she said.
And if they were looking to invest, the advice was to ‘seek advice’, both in what you are buying but also how you are buying it.
Maguire, whose firm exists to help businesses and individuals identify capital allowances on investments, said: “There was £84 million of unclaimed capital allowances in the UK last year. You need to know what you are due in order to get what you are due.”
Carter added: “It is really dangerous to generalise about the market as well. It is a race to Grade A offices. Secondary offices are being offered to us at auction for very different prices.
“The danger is thinking of markets as a whole. They are not. They are fragmented. Looking closer at each market is important.”
Alasdair Garbutt, of Willans LLP, said: “At Willans we are seeing exactly as the panel describes. Some businesses are doing brilliantly and making a lot of money and at the moment, those tenants are acquiring their freehold.
“Some of those still growing are more focused on that, but longer term they want to invest and understand how they can transfer the freehold to the company pension scheme and explore any other opportunities.”
Clement, whose job is selling the county and drawing in investment, said the strategy to try to achieve that was simple.
“It is important that the county galvanises as one voice to make sure we maximise our ask from central Government when it comes to major projects like the Golden Valley development.
“Our neighbours, Bristol, are bound to be very competitive and we must make sure we are heard and look attractive. We must do everything we can to bring business here. That means playing to our strengths. And we have a lot of them.
“With the Golden Valley, for example, we have good relationships with NCSC (the National Cyber Security Centre) and GCHQ, which are obviously key to a development like the Golden Valley and cyber.
“We have to play to the most convincing narrative, and that is what we will do,” said Clement.