Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director of Place (to be circulated)

(Listing Officer: D Cockroft, tel: 024 7683 3964)

Further to Minute 105 above, the Cabinet considered a private report of the Executive Director of Place that set out confidential aspects of an update on the Friargate development and sought approval to sub-lease part of the Friargate building.

The Cabinet noted that the report had been considered by the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee at their meeting on 18th January 2017, and that a briefing note outlining their recommendations was circulated.  In particular, in addition to endorsing the recommendations to Cabinet, they recommended that Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee be provided with assurances about any future rolling programme for building developments on the Friargate site.  The Cabinet agreed to accept these recommendations.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet recommend that the Council:-

1)  Agree to amend the approved Kickstart strategy to co-locate 1830 staff to Friargate, by retaining existing operational buildings to house 470 of those staff and invest in these buildings in the event that the Council agrees to grant a sub-lease to the RICS

2)  Approve that officers be mandated to negotiate terms with the RICS to allow the Council to grant a sub-lease to the RICS to occupy space within its building at Friargate on terms as broadly outlined in this report and delegate authority to the Executive Director of Place and Executive Director Resources in conjunction with the Cabinet members for Finance and Jobs & Regeneration to conclude terms, make minor amendments or corrections and complete the necessary legal documentation.

3)  Delegate authority to the Executive Director Place and Executive Director Resources, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration, to enter negotiations with the WMCA in order to secure a grant of up to £50m to secure further Friargate related development and to negotiate a new delivery framework with Friargate LLP subject to the terms of any such agreements being the subject of a subsequent formal report to Cabinet.

4)  Delegate authority to the Executive Director for Place and Executive Director for Resources in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration and Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategic Resources to negotiate and make any necessary amendments or variation to the Collaboration Agreement and associated document between the Council and Friargate LLP only to the extent required to achieve the sub-leasing of parts of the building to the RICS.

5)  Approve the Council grant a lease extension to the RICS on their current premises at Westwood Business Park subject to a deal for the occupation of Friargate being finalised.

6)  Request officers to bring back a further report on buildings to be retained and investment required to maintain them in use for operational purposes and any other mitigation measures.

7)  Authorise officers to negotiate a variation of the building contract to split a floor between the Council and RICS and to minimise any non-recoverable costs from not taking two and half floors.