Will we miss the office party? (From Surrey Comet)

Will we miss the office party?

11:10am Friday 28th January 2005 in News

In the 1970s and 80s Kingston embarked on an office building programme that changed the face of the town centre, and led several high profile companies to establish their headquarters in the Royal borough. Now, office building has ceased, most of the existing buildings are outmoded, many companies have departed, and Kingston is accused of losing the vital balance between retail, residential and commercial provision.

Wimbledon Gate is the biggest speculative office development under construction in the UK, and the biggest local one for many years.

Conceived in 1979, and due for completion in September 2005, it is not only a coup for Wimbledon town centre but also, say commercial property experts, a wake-up call for Kingston, where office development has been extinct for more than a decade.

Bob Cattaneo heads Cattaneo Commercial, the Kingston-based agency that is marketing the new building, and has been closely involved with developments in and around the Royal borough for more than 20 years.

He points out that the last office scheme in Kingston was 1 Wheatfield Way, conceived in the 1980s and completed in 1992.

"There's been nothing new since then. The local authority is not friendly to office schemes," he said. "But I wonder why there isn't more development because, though Kingston lacks the transport links of Wimbledon and Richmond, its high quality of life still makes it a good office location."

His views are endorsed by Tim Gauld, director of Bonsor Penningtons, which has been at the heart of the Royal borough's property market since 1872.

"Planning policies have driven office developers away from Kingston and car parking is a key factor," he said. "There have been many viable sites, and strong interest from good developers. But they lose interest when they hear about the parking restrictions. I know one client who wanted to take 20,000 square feet in Kingston, but when the product wasn't there they went to Epsom instead. So we've lost masses of employment use to residential schemes in recent years."

As examples he cited British Aerospace, Vine Products and the Electricity Power Station, large sites now given over to housing.

"An ideal office location would have been the former industrial land behind Kingston station, right in the centre of the town and on top of the transport hub," he said. "Instead it went to St George for a massive residential scheme."

He added that most councils take the view that it is good for the health of a town to be balanced in what it offers, but in Kingston that balance was being lost.

It's a far cry from the 1970s and 80s, when the Royal borough indulged in an orgy of office building. Left, right and centre, on sites big and small, offices came out of the ground in staggering profusion. And they attracted tenants of the highest calibre, such as Tetra-Pak and Distillers.

Now most of those buildings have been rendered out of date by the enormous advances in computer technology. These require layouts and floor strengths not envisaged 30 years ago, and are another reason why office rents in Kingston fall short of those in neighbouring areas.

Tim Gauld explained, "rents in Kingston are in the mid to late teens, in Richmond the low to mid 20s and Wimbledon the mid-20s".

John Mumford, Kingston Council's economic development co-ordinator, said the on-site parking restrictions of one space per 3,000 square feet had been dictated by the Government and the Mayor of London, and applied to all London boroughs.

And the lack of office development is not due to council hostility, but because residential and retail values are "much higher".

He added a decline in office rental values in the past four years had added to the problem.

"I have been working with Hammersons to include offices in the new development planned for the Ashdown Road area," he said.

"They tell me they would need rents in the order of £25 per square foot to make offices viable. But Kingston can only support rents of £17 per square foot though this is also a reflection of the quality of space available, with little or no grade A."

Mr Mumford said the council was seeking to achieve high quality, new and refurbished office space as part of mixed retail/residential led projects.

"It isn't fair to say the council won't support office building," he said. "We don't want to be just retail based and we're aware that a lot of our existing offices are outdated and second rate."

Evidence that parking provision is a key factor in speculative office building can be found in outlying boroughs such as Elmbridge and Mole Valley.

Though their transport facilities no better in some cases inferior to Kingston's their office development is flourishing because it is free of the parking constraints imposed on London boroughs.

A development that has stood the test of time is the 150,000 square foot development completed by St Martin Property Company in Kingston's Wood Street in the 1986. It was, and remains, the biggest single office property ever built in Kingston.

It was an act of faith by St Martin, who refused to be deterred by warnings about inadequate parking and transport links, and were lured by its proximity to Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the M3, M4 and M25 motorways.

The building was originally Kingsgate House, then divided into Conquest House and Kings Place. Now 40,000 square feet of Conquest House has been let by Cattaneo Commercial to Surrey County Council. For, though the council is quitting its County Hall in Penrhyn Road for new quarters in Woking, it will still need office space in Kingston.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon Gate is nearing completion in Merton where, says head of planning, Steve Clark, there is a policy of retaining employment sites in town centres, rather than giving them over to residential.

The new offices front Worple Road and replace Spa House, a 1930s building which had a McDonald's burger bar and Robert Dyas shop at street level and a language school above.

It has had a long gestation.

McKay Securities acquired the site in 1979, but due to lease agreements and other factors excavations did not begin until October 2003.

Now the building has been ceremonially topped out and is due for completion later this year. And Bob Cattaneo is confident a tenant will be found before then.

"It's just a pity something like it isn't rising in Kingston," he said.