Capita Symonds Website - Commercial
 
Skip Links
 

Commercial

Our work covers all aspects of the commercial sector...

Offices

The old, dull, gloomy and cluttered offices have been washed away and in their place we have created new workplaces that reflect the vision and aspirations of our clients. Our unique approach delivers more than just a redesigned workplace; the basis is an activity based layout, designed by engaging with the work force and incorporating a range of alternative work settings allowing the introduction of agile/flexible working which leads to improved efficiency and productivity.

Sport & Leisure

Sport is used as a tool for delivering many social and economic agendas, whether this is through development of facilities, improvement of services or attracting major sporting events. Our work covers three main areas:

Facility Development: The challenges facing public and private sector clients are varied. In the UK, the public sector faces challenges around maintaining an ageing stock of facilities. Decisions on whether to maintain existing facilities or to rationalise and develop new ones are all the more pressing in the face of current spending cuts. Delivering more financially sustainable facilities and services is a top priority.

Major Events: Hosting of major sporting events is increasingly seen as means to market a host city or country. Event hosting is linked to wider economic agendas and destination marketing. Many emerging economies see it as a means to elevate their status on a global stage. However, the highest profile events require significant investment by the hosts in terms of bid costs, development of infrastructure required to host the events and the costs of hosting and ultimately underwriting the events.

Management & Procurement: Increasing numbers of local authorities are looking to outsource the management of their leisure services to achieve long-term contractual savings. This is something that has become increasingly important due to recent cuts in budgets for these services. There are immediate savings that can be made by many authorities where facilities are currently operated ‘in house’.

Retail

Retail is the barometer of the UK economy - the success of our retailers and restaurateurs is directly attributable to the amount of money we as a nation have available to spend. As a consequence the last couple of years have been a roller coaster in the agency world and we have yet to reach the end of the ride. Nevertheless, shopping is now well established as the primary leisure pursuit of the masses but the retailers have had to strive hard to secure brand loyalty and market share in a very competitive market.

Mixed Use and Regeneration

Over the last few years the development market has revealed its cyclical tendencies in spectacular fashion. It is widely acknowledged that between 2004 and 2008 the property market, and the development market in particular, was an "absolute bubble" with the value of assets based on very cheap debt. 

In the absence of this cheap debt, and with a return to more traditional lone-to-value ratios, the development industry is now back to being driven by property  fundamentals (costs, the pricing of risk, return on capital and clear exit strategies). At the point of delivery, development and regeneration projects need to be demonstrably viable; whether publicly or privately promoted.

Industrial and Logistics

The industrial and logistics sector has seen a great deal of change in recent years. Speculative development is no longer viable for most developers and occupiers are at best cautious to sign new leases. What’s more, although finance is available for the right businesses, it’s no longer easy to come by. Nevertheless, developers continue to buy sites as they come to market (the major difference being pre lets and sales are required before breaking ground, unless they’re in prime locations).

Bookmark and Share