ROPEMAKER REVIEW
ROPEMAKER
The
Place
Welcome Welcome to the first ever edition of The Ropemaker Review. It’s our new quarterly e-blast in which your Broadgate Estates management team will take a regular look at what’s happening in the life and community of Ropemaker Place. We’ll review events, comment on corporate responsibility, provide building operational statistics and in general communicate on issues of interest and importance. Using this paperless digital format enables us to strike a balance between communicating regularly in an engaging yet professional manner and the need to be sustainable. We’re all about balance. Service with efficiency. Resilience with sustainability. Strong management with flexibility. If there’s anything relevant to the Ropemaker Place experience that you’d like us to cover, please do contact your building management team.
www.ropemakerlondon.com
TEAM
ROPEMAKER
Meet the
Place
pemaker Running Ro ep Ke ho W aff St d te ca di De e Th
Although we’ve had the privilege of meeting a number of occupier staff, we thought it would be a good idea to give you a brief intro to your management team: SALONI SANASSY, Building Manager – With a background in hospitality, Saloni has been in property management with Broadgate Estates Ltd (BEL) for 8 years. Saloni is your first point of contact and is responsible for day to day operational management of Ropemaker Place. ALLAN ABBOT, Engineering Manager – Allan has been in maintenance and engineering since joining the Navy at age 16 ½. He joined BEL 7 1/2 years ago and is described as knowledgeable, personable, communicative and professional. Allan is responsible for the technical aspects of the building – all those mysterious machines that lurk in dark places and grumble away in isolation. KELLY MARWAHA, Assistant Building Manager – Kelly is our newbie. Having been with BEL since April 2006, Kelly joined the team in November 2010 and brings with her a wealth of experience gained on other BEL-managed sites. Kelly’s background also includes a number of years in the security industry. From Left: Allan, Saloni, Stuart & Kelly. VYNETTE HYLTON, ZOE ESCRITT and KEVIN PATERSON are our “first impressions” team, looking after main reception and ensuring that visitors and staff alike are greeted, welcomed and assisted with efficiency and aplomb. Our intrepid trio also handle the newly-launched concierge and lifestyle services.
ROBERT HENDRIKSE and Kurt Noreiga look after our security team whilst also operating our life safety systems and running our evacuation process. When he’s not securing our building, Kurt is an avid paparazzo and his camera is never far from hand. LEON SAPPLETON leads our Mechanical and Electrical team. They are the ones who actually maintain the aforementioned mysterious machines. All are qualified and experienced, and are also entrusted with looking after all the electronic and building management systems. Leon has recently become a dad for the 2nd time. SABRINA FEITOR (aka Sabrina The Cleaner!) manages the cleaning team on site, ensures that everything gleams as it should and contributes significantly to the wow factor. Sabrina is fluent in Portuguese and is a big fan of the Portuguese football team. STUART BALL, Client Director – A Yorkshireman by birth, Stuart grew up in South Africa and has spent most of his career in property From Left: Leon, Kurt, Robert & Sabrina. management. Stuart has always been attracted to the management of iconic buildings, and says that “Ropemaker Place is by far the best property I have ever had the pleasure of being involved with on many levels – occupier mix, quality of construction and finishes, systems, sustainability initiatives and sheer presence to name but a few.” Stuart is married with 2 children, and is an avid musician and motorcyclist.
www.ropemakerlondon.com
BIG
ROPEMAKER
The
News
Place
Ropemaker Place is Fully Let ITS OFFICIAL! The last remaining space in the building - half of level 3 – has been taken and our office space is now fully let! Existing occupier Markit have taken the remaining space adjacent to their current location and, in doing so, added the final piece to the Ropemaker Place jigsaw. In just 13 months, 6 concurrent fit outs of some 573,000 sq ft of office space have been completed and Ropemaker Place has become home to our 6 prestigious occupiers. When Allan and Stuart first arrived on site, despite there being plenty of construction and minor works in progress, the building consisted of a beautiful structure with not much soul. Reception was just a big empty space, the lifts hovered around awaiting calls and the floors were eerily quiet. With the arrival of Liberum however, the building started to come alive, and as Mint, MUSI and BTMU arrived, an energy began to grow and the building began to acquire a life of its own. Markit and Macquarie completed the picture and their numbers caused that life to blossom into a busy, vibrant community. Ropemaker Place now has a “bustle” about it, a sense of purpose. There is a constant ebb and flow of people through its spaces and it has become a place of business, of interaction, of synergy, of success. ROPEMAKER PLACE IN NUMBERS Given the successful transition from fit out to occupation, we thought that some of the building’s statistics would be of interest: 1.73 Million Contractor man-hours on site during fit outs 2 Man-hours per sq ft of fit out 3 European Walnut trees from which the reception timber finish was cut 12,528 Average number of lift journeys per car per month 638,905 Total lift journeys from 1 January 2011 – 31 March 2011 (2 Breakdowns) 28,912 kWh of electricity generated by the solar panels to date 4,500 Number of occupier staff in the building 1,500 Average number of visitors per week 500 Average number of monthly planned preventative maintenance tasks
www.ropemakerlondon.com
ROPEMAKER
Retail News We have three retail units at Ropemaker Place, fronting onto Chiswell Street, and we are excited to announce that all 3 have been let.
Place
Unit 1, on the corner of Moor Lane and Chiswell Street, has been let to family run food company EAT. Unit 2, the one in the middle, has been let to organic eaterie POD and Unit 3, on the corner of Chiswell Street and Finsbury Street has been let to the good people of Cycle Surgery. We’ll let everyone know their planned opening dates as soon as they are confirmed, but in the meantime you will start to see some activity in the units over the coming weeks. It’s likely that the parking spaces in front of the units may be temporarily suspended during the fit out process. In terms of the fit outs themselves, whilst being far smaller than any of the office fit outs, we will continue to ensure that all regulations and procedures in terms of noise, contractor management and interface with base build systems will continue to be strictly enforced.
Romance Maker Valentine’s Day is all about love, romance and, here at Ropemaker Place, chocolate! Lots of chocolate! In what proved to be a very popular event, we celebrated Valentine’s Day in style this year with red roses, balloons and a chocolate fountain. The reception was decorated in the traditional colours of the patron saint of romance and it didn’t take long for the news to spread that the fountain had arrived. Hungry visitors arrived in droves and the queue stretched right acrossthe entrance hall. Faces were aglow with anticipation as the aroma of creamy cocoa wafted through the air, accompanied by the strains of a classical guitarist playing songs of love. Suffice to say a good time was had by all and a vast volume of chocolate was consumed. You know what they say: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet!”
www.ropemakerlondon.com
TOGETHER
ROPEMAKER
Pulling
Place
Our Latest CSR Activity JAPAN TSUNAMI APPEAL In conjunction with Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Limited, we’ve have been collecting funds on behalf of the Red Cross Japanese Tsunami Appeal. Occupiers throughout the building have been extremely generous, pitching in with direct contributions and collections from staff. In addition, you’ll no doubt have seen the collection boxes on the reception desk which have raised over £200 thus far. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of the nation of Japan and our hope is for a rapid and efficient recovery from this terrible tragedy. FAIRBRIDGE Our commitment to corporate social responsibility includes support of a nominated good cause, namely young people’s charity Fairbridge. Fairbridge works with disadvantaged individuals aged 13-25 that other organisations find difficult to engage with. They give them the motivation, self-confidence and skills they need to change their lives. FROM FAIRBRIDGE’S WEBSITE: “Inside every disadvantaged young person, there is a confident, positive, individual trying to break out. Last year, Fairbridge helped more than 3,500 take their first step. Most were classed as having ‘multiple needs’, such as homelessness, substance misuse or a history of offending, yet over the last 12 months, 85% went on to achieve something tangible. “They returned to the classroom, started a college course, got a qualification, found a job or chose to remain in the Fairbridge programme to continue their development. “For these young people, Fairbridge was a new start – a chance to show the world who they really are. Fairbridge worked. “Fairbridge centres are based in 15 of the most disadvantaged areas of the UK. Each year hundreds of young people choose to engage with us. For many it is their first step back into education, training or work.” The management team at Ropemaker Place has committed to work with Fairbridge to try to find ways not only to raise funds, but to engage with the young people in a meaningful way in terms of growth and development opportunities. We will make a point of introducing them to our occupiers in the near future and exploring any synergies or joint support opportunities that may exist. In the meantime, please take a look at their website: http://www.fairbridge.org.uk/ Our inaugural initiative was the Monsieur Baron shirt sale which was very well supported by staff from all occupiers. A good number of shirts were sold and 10% of the turnover was presented to Fairbridge.
www.ropemakerlondon.com
BUTTONS
ROPEMAKER
Bye Bye
Place
Handy Hints For Getting Around By now, everyone will have realised that there are no buttons in the lifts and that lifts have to be called using the touch screen call panels. The lift control system is intelligent and makes decisions about the allocation of lifts based on usage patterns but it needs your help in order to work efficiently. We’ve put together a few handy tips to keep everything moving: •
elect your floor only once. Every time a lift is called, the system thinks S a passenger is waiting (e.g. if you touch the screen 5 times, it thinks 5 passengers are waiting). This could result in the lift departing before it is full, thus slowing the entire system down.
•
he same thing happens if you call a lift on the touch screens after your access T card has already summoned one at the entrance barriers. This is effectively a duplicate call, so if your card is allocated to a floor and calls a lift at the barrier, please try to remember the lift number allocated to you so that you don’t need to enter a second call.
•
I f you are in a group, each member of the group must select the required floor. If 10 people arrive together and only 1 enters a call, the system thinks only 1 person has entered the lift. It will then wait for other passengers which both slows your journey time and also results in over crowding.
•
on’t get into a lift you haven’t been allocated. If a lift hasn’t been allocated and D is left inactive, it goes into power save mode, during which the doors close and the main lights go off. If you forget which lift you were allocated and mistakenly get into a lift just before it goes into power save mode it won’t go anywhere. (If this does happen to you, simply press the door open button. The lights will immediately come on and the doors will open.)
www.ropemakerlondon.com
ROPEMAKER
SUSTAINABILITY
Place
atives Ropemaker’s Environmental Initi Ropemaker Place comes jam-packed with sustainability features. Tilting facades (which significantly reduce the energy required for cooling), the photovoltaic cells, the solar heating system, the rainwater harvesting system and the green roofing (comprising 50,000 sq ft of planted roof terraces), are amongst the features which have contributed towards accolades such as the Estates Gazette Green Award 2008, a BREEAM rating of “Excellent” and a pre-certified LEED “Platinum” rating. More on these features and how they each contribute to sustainability in later issues. INTRODUCING SARAH •
amed after British Land’s Sustainability Executive Sarah Cary, Sarah is our N biomass boiler. With a capacity of 1200kW, she is designed to be main source of heating in the building, supported by 2 gas-fired boilers that will assist when needed.
•
arah is fuelled by S wood pellets that are sustainably produced. The pellets are “smokeless”, thus preventing smoke or particulate pollution being released into the atmosphere. Pellets are stored in a silo on the floor above the boiler, from where they are automatically fed into the combustion chamber, and at full heating load, Sarah will consume around 1.5 tonnes of pellets per day.
•
ellets are delivered by P lorry into the loading bay, and there is a port through which they are blown into the silo. The silo holds about 18 tonnes of pellets and is regularly replenished.
•
he boiler was tested for a couple of weeks during February, during which she T performed admirably with the required load. The reason Sarah was not run full time is that she is at her most efficient when there is a full heating demand from the building and, until recently, occupancy levels have not created the full demand. However, we’ll be fully occupied by autumn and from then on, she’ll become the primary heating source.
•
I n terms of comparative expenditure, the cost of pellets is very similar to the cost of gas. However, gas is a non-renewable fuel whereas pellets are fully sustainable. When combined with the fact that gas prices are currently increasing as a result of issues such as instability in the Middle East, pellets become the more cost-effective option too. We’ll monitor this on an ongoing basis and provide regular updates.
www.ropemakerlondon.com