East Midlands: Looking healthy

It’s boom time in Nottingham. The market is doing well in all sectors. Universities are spending money, commercial developers are investing in town-centre schemes and business parks such as the Riverside and Phoenix, and developers are building sheds along the M1 between junctions 20 and 28. Ken Carter, partner in Gleeds’ Nottingham office, says the local market has grown about 10% on last year, and there are plenty of enquiries to sustain the growth.

Transport is funding development in the Nottingham and Derby areas. Local architect Crampin.Pring.McArtney is designing a new rail station for train operator Midland Mainline and East Midlands airport operator National Express. Called East Midlands Parkway, the station will serve the East Midlands airport, where the architect has completed a new control tower.

The scheme everyone is talking about is the £100m extension to the Broadmarsh shopping centre in Nottingham: developers such as Hammerson, Lend Lease and MEPC are vying for the scheme.

Taylor Woodrow has been appointed by railway service company Bombardier to build a £20m train maintenance shed outside Derby to service the Newcastle-to-Cornwall line. In Buxton, Derbyshire, a £40m laboratory, designed by Wakefield’s David Lyons and Associates, is planned for the Health and Safety Executive.

Despite increasing workloads, Bill Crampin, partner with architect Crampin.Pring.McArtney, says fees, as always, are tight. But on a note of optimism, he adds that negotiated work is on the increase. This gives him greater security, if not higher margins.