Cooke & Arkwright

News

New Welsh home for Peter Alan

30/08/07

Principality Building Society has purchased the 10,000 sq ft former Daewoo showroom at Valegate Retail Park, Culverhouse Cross from Curo Sterling (Valegate) Limited Partnership for £1.7m, to house the new headquarters of its subsidiary, leading Welsh estate agency Peter Alan. The deal, conducted on behalf of Principality by agents Cooke & Arkwright, is part of a £2.4m investment programme which includes significant re-design and refurbishment of the property to adapt it for office purposes. Work has commenced and Peter Alan expects to open its new headquarters before Christmas.

Stephen Thomas, Head of Corporate Property and Development at Principality said, “Peter Alan celebrated 20 years as a Principality Group company last year and delivered an outstanding performance. These exciting expansion plans will help to sustain future profitability and the lettings arm, which now has offices in Cardiff and Swansea.”

As well as centralising its financial and accounting departments, a number of support functions which were previously located in Cardiff, Swansea and Bridgend will be consolidated at Culverhouse Cross. Chris McVeigh, managing director of Peter Alan said, “The site will include purpose built training facilities as well as conferencing and meeting rooms, which will support our branch network throughout south Wales. This is a considerable investment and demonstrates the level of confidence Principality has in Peter Alan and the future success of the company.

“We are keeping HO staff closely informed of progress at the new site through a programme of regular visits and provision of photographic updates. They are also being involved in the appearance of the final working environment by having an input into the choice of facilities and furnishings,” said Mr McVeigh. He added that they had just announced a competition to name the building. “The winner and a partner will spend a weekend at a fine Welsh historic country hotel,” he said.

Peter Alan currently has its headquarters above its estate agency showroom in Canton. The Canton branch will remain open for business as usual after the head office move. Rhydian Morgan of Cooke & Arkwright said, “We are glad that the planners looked favourably upon this change of use given the difficulties associated with re-letting the building as a car showroom, and have recognised the benefits of having a high quality occupier such as Peter Alan.

“While Peter Alan has retained the ground floor estate agency branch at its premises on Cowbridge Road East in Canton, we are now marketing the first floor offices,” he added.

Commenting on the current state of the housing market, Mr McVeigh said “In our view certain indicators in the market are tightening and interest rates are beginning to have an impact. However, the signs are still positive in South Wales and we expect to report a strong year in 2007.”

Peter Alan recently branched out into the land and new homes sector. It currently has 24 branches throughout the region, with two further branches in Llanelli and Carmarthen due to open in the near future.