Manor Royal Business District. Business and Property analysis (May 2014)

Transcription

1 Manor Royal Business District Business and Property analysis (May 2014) A AREA OVERVIEW 1 Site overview and definition B PROPERTY SECTION 1 Development sites 2 Vacant property and availability 3 Rateable values 4 Property offer by type (units) 5 Property offer by size (floorspace area) 6 Industrial property offer by size (units) 7 Office property offer by size C BUSINESS SECTION 1 Employment 2 Business activities and key sectors 3 Large firms / employers ANNEXES A Report notes - sources and explanation B Zonal map of Manor Royal C Development sites list D Development sites, illustration of sites For queries contact: Steve Sawyer Manor Royal Business District Manager e. steve@manorroyal.org w.

2 A. AREA OVERVIEW 1. Site definition and overview Manor Royal Business District is the largest single mixed used commercial area of West Sussex and the Gatwick Diamond, and one of the largest in the southeast. It covers an area of 218 hectares (539 acres) providing 720,173 square metres (7.75 million square feet) of developed commercial floor space. In addition there is a further 30.3 hectares (74.9 acres) of land available for development, most of which is already under development, has been sold or under offer. Note, for the purposes of this analysis the Manor Royal Business Improvement District (BID) area as described in the Manor Royal BID Business Plan has been used (See Figure 1). FIGURE 1: Manor Royal Business District BID Area See Annex B for an illustration of the zonal map of Manor Royal. 1

3 B. PROPERTY SECTION 1. Development sites Table B1: Analysis of development sites Sites Hectares Acres % Total land (including roads and open spaces) Total available development sites Development sites (under development, sold or under offer) Development sites (with no planning application) Of the ten development sites only one is not either under-development or recently been sold or subject to an offer, leaving just 0.4% of development land currently available which itself had planning permission for office development (now lapsed). A list of these sites is provided at Annex C. This is a significant change from 18 months ago when 14 development sites were listed totalling 93.9 acres, of which 39.8 acres did not have planning permission (pending or permitted) and were available for development. In the past 18 months three major developments have been completed and are now in active use providing an additional 201,647 square feet of commercial floorspace. This consists of 182,054 sq ft for Tesco.com (warehouse / home delivery facility), 44,352 sq ft for Mercedes (car showroom and service centre) and 24,759 sq ft to almost double the size for Aerotron to provide an extended factory and warehouse facility. 2. Vacant property and availability Table B2: Occupation and vacancy (by area) Sq Metres Sq Feet Total available floorspace offer 707, ,724, Total available floorspace vacant 73, , Percentage occupied 89.8% Percentage vacant 10.2% Manor Royal offers 788,890 square feet of floorspace available for occupation, approximately 10%. 3. Rateable values Table B3: Occupation and vacancy (by area) Rate Value % Banks (A) 43, Retail / Retail warehouse / Food retail (B) 371, Office (C) 23,481, Industrial / Warehouse / Distribution (D) 27,665, Car / Motorcycle showrooms (E) 2,303, Hotels (F) 671, Business Unit & Premises (G) 449, Other (car parks, open storage, training / fitness centres) (Z) 3,651, TOTAL 58,638, The combined rateable value of Manor Royal properties is over 58 million. This equates to approximately 23% of the entire rateable value of non-domestic properties and business rates collected in Crawley. 2

4 4. Property offer by type (by units) Table B4: occupation and vacancy (by type and units) Available Vacant % Vacant Banks (A) 2 - Retail / Retail warehouse / Food retail (B) 9 - Office (C) Industrial / Warehouse / Distribution (D) Car / Motorcycle showrooms (E) Hotels (F) 2 - Business Unit & Premises (G) Other (car parks, open storage, training / fitness centres) (Z) 26 - TOTAL Manor Royal provides approximately 694 units. Most of these are industrial (53%) and offices (29%). In terms of rateable value the top 50 properties account for 50% of the total rateable value of all 694 properties listed on Manor Royal. 3

5 5. Property offer by type (Floorspace) Industrial uses account for most of Manor Royal s commercial property floorspace offer (64.6%) with office uses accounting for 24.7%. The level of vacancy across all use types is approximately 10%, roughly equivalent to the same period 18 months ago. In terms of unoccupied space 12% (236,791 square feet) of office floorspace is vacant while 10% (517,027 square feet) of industrial space is vacant. AVAILABLE VACANT Table B5: occupation and vacancy (by floorspace area and type) Sq Metres Sq Feet Sq Metres Sq Feet % Vacant Banks (A) , Retail / Retail warehouse / Food retail (B) 2, , , , (2) Office (C) 178, ,923, , , Industrial / Warehouse / Distribution (D) 466, ,024, , , Car / Motorcycle showrooms (E) 24, , , , Business Unit & Premises (G) 2, , , Other (car parks, open storage, training / fitness centres) (Z) 38, , Notes: (1) Hotel floorspace not included in this analysis (2) Accounted for by just two properties as per Valuation Office property classifications, one of which is an industrial unit.

6 6. Industrial property offer by size (units) Graph 2 indicates a limited provision of industrial units at 2,000 square feet and below and very limited availability at just 10 units of this size currently available. The supply of larger industrial units is greater, although the number of available units is still relatively low. 7. Office property offer by size (units) The supply of office space at a range of different sizes appears good especially for smaller offices, which is almost entirely accounted for by serviced or managed office space. It should also be noted that the supply of smaller office units is probably understated as the ratings list shows some subdivided buildings as a single unit while it actually provides numerous small sized office units, e.g. The Office Company on Gatwick Road

7 C. BUSINESS SECTION Records show 557 businesses listed as operating on the Manor Royal Business District. Employee data is available for 517 businesses. This section uses the available data to provide an overview of the activities undertaken and industries represented on the Business District. 1. Employment Table C1: Employment by size of business The majority of businesses on Manor Royal are classified as micro businesses employing less than 10 people. 89% of all Manor Royal businesses employ less than 50 people. The largest employers account for approximately one-third of all the people employed on Manor Royal. It is estimated that Manor Royal generates employment for approximately 30,000 people with the largest employers (for which actual employee data is available) accounting for 10,000 employees. 2. Business activities and key sectors Table C2: Employment by size of business and sector (by number) The above table shows the diversity of business activities present on Manor Royal. Wholesale and Retail activities are the most numerous accounting for 32% of all business activities, most businesses in this sector (95%) employ 50 employees or less. Closer inspection of this sector (see table C3) shows there are numerous businesses involved in the motor trade with the vast majority of the other Wholesale & Retail related businesses connected with some form of trade counter activity, a third of which are involved in supply to the construction industry (32). Table C3: Employment by size of business and sector (by number) 6

8 Manufacturing activities are well represented and account for almost 15% (78) of the total number of businesses. Almost 30% of Manor Royal s largest firms are involved in some form of manufacturing. Transportation and Storage is also a key sector accounting for 12% of businesses and 20% of the area s largest companies. Almost half of all these companies are in some way connected to aviation. A variety of support service activities are accounted for by the Administrative and Support Service sector while the Information and Communication sector include a mix of telecommunications, computer programming and consultancy and systems integration activities. Graph 3: Business activities by sector (by number of businesses) C4: Employment by size of business and sector (by percent) C5: Employment by size of business and sector Table C5 shows the important influence of those companies associated with the Health and Medical, Construction, Aviation and Manufacturing industries. Please note some companies can be represented in more than one area e.g. in the case of a company manufacturing medical products. Please note: While the range of employees provided on site are available for most companies, actual employee numbers are not available for all companies so this figure is likely to be understated and is only provided for illustrative purposes. 7

9 3. Large firms / employers A few large firms, twelve for which actual staff numbers are provided, account for almost one-third of all estimated employment on Manor Royal. A further 41 companies fall into the next size of company by employee (between 51 and 250 employees). Together these companies account for just 11% of all companies on Manor Royal. Between them the top 50 largest employers on Manor Royal account for almost 50% of all employment. Table C6: Employment offered by Manor Royal s largest businesses 8

10 ANNEX A: Report notes - sources and explanation This report draws on various sources of information to assess the property and land offer provided by the Manor Royal Business District. The primary sources of information used to undertake this analysis include; Valuation Office (VOA) data to understand floor space area, building uses and rateable values of individual properties and units. Information concerning the level of vacancy i.e. those properties that were available for immediate occupation, was obtained using the EGi commercial property database combined with information from commercial property agent websites. Details of development sites were obtained using publicly available sources of planning information. Local knowledge was drawn on to check, verify and supplement the data. The uses referred to in this document broadly accord to Valuation Office property definitions, which have been used throughout this analysis, although the labels do not and have been applied for the convenience and ease of analysis and interpretation. This analysis has been conducted to improve the understanding of Manor Royal for interested parties and lay-persons. It has been produced primarily for use by the Manor Royal Business Group (MRBG) but has been made widely available via the Manor Royal website ( and upon request. It is understood that professionals working in this area e.g. commercial property agents and land use planners, may have conducted or commissioned their own research that may have derived slightly different results. In this event, this report does not intend to serve as the definitive analysis of Manor Royal nor should the reader necessarily accord primacy to this document. The reader is encouraged to make sound judgements to arrive at their own conclusions concerning accuracy and content. Every effort has been made to avoid duplication or inaccuracy. Comments that help improve the accuracy and interpretation of this analysis are welcomed and should be directed to the author. A full list of available properties can be made available upon request. Those parties looking for property should also visit the Property & Planning pages of the Manor Royal website ( For queries contact: Steve Sawyer Manor Royal Business District Manager t m e. steve@manorroyal.org w. 9

11 ANNEX B: Zonal Map of Manor Royal Manor Royal Business District has been divided into 5 zones of non-equal size. The zones have been derived, initially, for security purposes and to assist with navigation and branding. Table 1: Site area (including breakdown by each zone) Hectares Acres Zone 1 (includes Astral Towers, The White House, The Atrium) Zone 2 (inlcudes development sites to north) Zone Zone Zone TOTAL

12 ANNEX C: Development sites SITE / ADDRESS / LOCATION Zone Status Intended use Hectares Acres Premiere House Site, Betts Way (former Tokyo Electron) 1 n/a (see note 1) n/a Betts Way (including Beech House, Oak Court and Oak House) 1 PERMIT A1 Food Retail - supermarket Gateway Site / SEGRO West (former Thales) 2 SOLD Purchased by Elekta Gatwick Road (former Thales) 4 UNDER OFFER n/a Principal Park (former GSK Site) (see note 2) 3 UNDER Digital Realty data centre DEVELOPMENT Area North of Manor Royal (site 1) Hydehurst Lane. 2 PERMIT Purchased by Welland Medical Manor Royal / Faraday Road (former BOC Edwards) 2 SOLD Purchased by Harwoods Faraday Road (former Alexir Packaging) 2 PERMIT Purchased by SECAMB Crawley Business Quarter 2 SOLD Proposed office development Nova (former The White House, London Road) 1 PERMIT Inviting pre-lets for office Total number of sites Note 1: Planning permission (CR/2008/0022/FUL) was given to develop this site for office use. This permission has effectively lapsed. Note 2: The extent of the Principal Park site includes the former 3 acre development (off of Napier Way). Sites developed since August 2012 (when this report was last produced) SITE / ADDRESS / LOCATION Zone Developed for use by Hectares Acres Development areas to the North of Manor Royal (site 2) 2 Tesco.com home delivery service Eastleigh House (former OCS and Team Sport) 3 Mercedes car showroom and service centre Jenner Road (former Airtech buildings) 4 Integrated as part of the new Aerotron facility Total number of sites

13 ANNEX D: Development sites, illustration of sites Available sites 18 months ago Available sites May 2014 Red areas indicate available sites. Green areas indicate sites that are either Sold, Under Offer or with planning consent granted for development. Solid green areas are sites that have been developed and are now occupied and in use. Red hatched areas are sites with planning consent where pre lets are being sought. 12