Britain’s newest bank is considering moving its HQ offices to this proposed block at East Croydon
Overlooked in the build-up to the election last week came some news in the trade press that could prove more significant to Croydon’s future event than the £1 billion Hammersfield development. Who would have thought at any time over the last eight years or so that it would be a bunch of bankers helping out Croydon?
Stanhope and Schroders, the owners of the Ruskin Square site next to East Croydon, are in “advanced” negotiations with Metro Bank to become the anchor tenant for the office block on the prestigious gateway site into the town centre.
The proposal to move Metro Bank’s national HQ offices from Holborn would see them take 150,000 sq ft of office space – one of the largest Croydon office lettings on record.
Estates Gazette reported last week: “The bank is close to agreeing a deal for the majority of the 180,000 sq ft first phase at the 2.5 million sq ft scheme, where quoting rents are £35 per sq ft.”
Another trade publication, CoStar, suggests that Croydon is on a shortlist of three locations being considered by Metro Bank, the others including Westfield’s Stratford development, as well as another site beside the Olympic Park in east London.
“A pre-let to Metro at Croydon Gateway would be a major shot in the arm for a scheme that over the years has been held back by various issues, most notably a long-running stand-off between developers as Croydon council battled to house a major arena on the site, and subsequently the property downturn,” CoStar reported.
Metro began trading in 2010, becoming Britain’s first new high street bank for 150 years. It has a few more than 30 branches nationwide, including one which is open seven days per week within the Centrale shopping centre on North End, Croydon.
The £500 million plans for Ruskin Square include 625 homes, 100,000 sq ft of shops, cafes and restaurants and 1.2m sq ft of offices, to be provided in five blocks built to between seven and 15 storeys high. The developers have also suggested that they might include a new Warehouse Theatre within the scheme if Croydon Council refunds their £3million grant for the purpose, which was “reallocated” by the previous Conservative administration at the Town Hall.
Schroders and Stanhope hope to begin construction of the first speculative offices at Ruskin Square this summer. CoStar reports they are to appoint Make as architect to draw up detailed plans for Building 2 – a 250,000 sq ft office block.
The nine acres former coal merchants’ site has lain derelict for decades. Following lengthy and expensive public inquiries over ownership and use of the landmark location, the development of the extensive site down the western side of the platforms of East Croydon Station stalled for the best-part of a decade, as the developers struggled to find a business willing to commit to taking up a large portion of the office space they wanted to build.
Promises to bring government departments to central Croydon, made by local Tory MP Gavin Barwell five years ago, have yet to materialise, although Whitehall is reported to be considering again large-scale relocation to Croydon.
- Inside Croydon Events: for dates and links to what’s happening in and around Croydon, updated daily, click here
-
Inside Croydon: Named among best regional media campaigns, 2014.
- Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 729,297 page views in 2014.
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
At last! Some genuine good news for Croydon on the commercial property front, as opposed to the pie-in-the-sky, let’s have a few days in France, nonsense manufactured by the Croydon Council propaganda machine.
Hopefully, where Metro Bank leads, other substantial businesses will follow.
It does at last seem that a ray of sunshine has broken through. However it inadvertently highlights a critical weakness of Croydon’s regeneration approach.
While Croydon has been busily marketing itself as the place for major corporations to locate, it has virtually ignored the Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME’s) for the last two decades. SME’s may lack the glamour and profile of the big corporations, they do create very large numbers of jobs and their individual departure has less of an impact. (IBM, Philips, Nestle etc)
For some strange reason Croydon has overlooked the fact that tens of thousands of people, many of them decision makers or influencers, travel through Croydon each day. Where are the posters at either East or West Croydon stations promoting Croydon as a place to locate and do business? If someone gets off the train at East Croydon, where is there a presence that positively shouts, “Welcome and What We Do To Help You Set Up Your Business Here?”
Croydon is a critical transport hub and should be the epicentre of Outer South London trade and inter-trading between boroughs. Unfortunately Croydon has been so self-obsessed and introspective that it has not developed the critical relationships with the adjacent areas to promote this. There have been far too many wasted opportunities, and the number of vacant office units are testimony to this.
A wholly new approach needs to be adopted and supported (funded) to attract businesses of shapes & sizes if the town is to be revitalised and be economically and socially stable. Big corporations and retail outlets are not the answer alone. More needs to be done create a far more diverse environment.