In today's business briefing, Robyn and Remy discuss new homes in Kent, new offices in Leeds and the acquisition of a US tech firm by a Loughborough company.
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00:00New homes in Kent, new offices in Leeds and the acquisition of a US-based tech
00:05firm. That's all coming up on today's Daily Business Briefing.
00:13Hi I'm Robin Hewson. I'm Remy Greasley. And welcome to today's briefing. So Remy
00:19we're starting off with a story from your hometown today. Yeah of course, so
00:23Liverpool where I've been living for quite a while now is seeing a new eJoy
00:28which is an Asian supermarket. One that's quite popular among students. It's
00:32currently got a location on Myrtle Street which is pretty much right next
00:36to the University of Liverpool. Yeah as I say very popular among students. I
00:41remember eating a lot of eJoy ramen when I was a student there. You've tried this
00:47firsthand. Yeah this is me speaking from experience for sure. And the new
00:52facilities opening on Devon Street which is also quite an up-and-coming student
00:56area I'd say. Recently Tom Morris of Home Bargains had permission or planning
01:02permission approved to build I think it's about 250 student apartments in
01:06that area. So they'll all be getting their ramen soon. Definitely and it's really it's one of
01:10those areas that every time I go it's completely different. It seems like
01:14there's a new sort of build going up which is really good to see for
01:18Liverpool I think. So the new shop will have sort of a self-choice hot pot
01:24facility which I know you'll obviously be a big fan of. And then one of the great
01:29bits about the Myrtle Street location was it had sort of these own I think
01:33they're independent vendors. Places like Happy Lemon and things like that and
01:37they were based at the site and they're also coming over. So they'll hopefully
01:41really be able to drive the popularity of the new eJoy location. But yeah
01:47what about you Robin? Yeah well speaking of students we also have a story from
01:51Leeds today which is where I went to uni. Not that long ago. But I mean I've been a
01:57couple of times since for UK Reef the big property conference. And even in a
02:01few years what always strikes me with Leeds is how different it looks. I think
02:05Manchester's been kind of developing over the last 10-15 years hasn't it?
02:07Whereas Leeds it feels like it was maybe a bit behind but now it's just like
02:11development everywhere. And a lot of these office developments so one of the
02:15key ones is Wellington Place which is an MEPC scheme. And there's going to be a
02:19new building there which has been proposed that would bring almost 200,000
02:24square foot of offices. Yeah so there's already some really big occupiers that
02:30are at Wellington Place. So sort of GHD, Lloyds Banking Group, Alliance, people
02:34like that. And this would be an 11-story building for more occupiers. And then
02:40there's also almost 10,000 square foot of commercial space on the bottom floor.
02:44So presumably there'll be sort of you know new vendors coming in and things
02:48like that. So MEPC are always going for kind of sustainability in their
02:54developments and this one is no different. So it's going to be all
02:56electric, net zero carbon in operation and also targeting neighbours 5.5 stars
03:02which is quite a key thing for the office market at the moment. So yeah and
03:06got another property story further down south. So going down to Kent which is
03:11I was also a student in Kent. Oh were you? There's a real theme to this briefing.
03:17Plans have been approved for 273 new apartments in Ebbsfleet or formerly I
03:23believe it's Ebbsfleet Garden City which is quite a nice name. The new homes are
03:27part of the third phase of a project to regenerate what is the Northfleet
03:33Cementworks and the project's called Harbour Village. It's being delivered by
03:37Belway London and be built across eight sort of large residential blocks I
03:43believe with 191 private homes and then 82 affordable homes for local people
03:48which I think it's always good to see. Yeah. The wider sort of Harbour Village
03:52scheme though is expected to bring in around 15,000 new homes which is quite
03:57massive. That is. Along with restaurants, bars, sort of commercial and office space.
04:02So all the sort of ingredients you need for a good community I think and I
04:07believe it is Midlands we're going to next. Yeah we're doing a tour around the
04:11UK with this briefing and yeah moving away from property we've got a tech
04:14story and so Loughborough based Access Group are acquiring a US tech firm which
04:19is quite exciting. Yeah I think you usually see US tech firms acquiring
04:24English businesses. Yeah absolutely. UK businesses I should say. Yeah whereas
04:28obviously this is the other way around. So the Access Group if you've not
04:31heard of them are a leading provider of business management software all across
04:34the world from Europe and the US to Asia-Pacific as well. So they're
04:39acquiring Patronix which is a provider of guest and engagement services. So
04:45the investment is one of their biggest in their 30-year history so a really key
04:50acquisition for them and they're really looking to expand their footprint across
04:54the US so it's made sense to go for Patronix and they are going to
04:59attract more clients worldwide hopefully with this acquisition as well.
05:02That's great to hear. Yeah so that's all we've got time for today if you want to
05:06hear more about any of the stories that we've mentioned then you can head to
05:09insidermedia.com to find out more. So yeah we'll see you next time. Thank you.