Apple to create new London HQ at Battersea Power Station | Hacker News Reader

Apple to create new London HQ at Battersea Power Station

standard.co.uk

76 pointsrandomname235 comments

There was an interesting bit in Private Eye about the redevelopment a few months ago.

Apparently a common pattern for listed buildings on valuable land is for the owners to hire developers who get planning permission to take down the listed parts, restore them, then put them up again. Then after taking down the listed parts the developer "unexpectedly" goes bankrupt, leaving the owners with valuable land no longer encumbered by a listed building.

But in the case of Battersea Power Station, when developers applied to take down all four towers at the same time, planners only granted permission for them do to one tower at a time, preventing such an "accident" from happening. Private Eye considered this a rare and impressive show of wisdom on planners' part.

London has many many planning problems but the architecture around the River Thames I always find to be pretty awesome...so many amazing buildings to look at when on a run...Glad to see they were careful with the permission this time.

That's pretty smart, i guess someone got tired of getting played all the time.

Yes, that is the one from the Pink Floyd album "Animals".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_(Pink_Floyd_album)

Also the inspiration for the power plants in red alert.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/cnc/images/6/6c/Bombing_...

So are Apple Pigs or Dogs then? Surely we're the sheep.

...and the first power plant in the world to fit sulfur scrubbing. In 1931 (as it was being built)!

In a few movies, often as dystopic backdrop

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2016/jun/22/monty...

Apple could make their employee onboarding look like their 1984 commercial.

It also hosted a Eastern European military camp in the MacGyver movie _The Lost Treasure Of Atlantis_

Lots more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battersea_Power_Station_in_pop...

I've got my soundtrack for the morning. (haha charade you are)

One of my favorite albums of all time. I would be really weirded out if that was the building I went to work in every day. It's a pretty dark and melancholy album. I only like listening to it or thinking about it when embracing that mood. :)

This is brilliant news! It's one of those iconic London buildings. You'll see it on approach to London to Victoria station, it's clearly visible from the London eye, and as the other commenter noted it's on the cover of that pink floyd album. It's use and renovation has been mooted for years but presumably it's always been held up because it's both a listed building and will be very expensive to renovate due to old hazardous materials and the like. It would take a company with Apple's cash to do this and I'm delighted to see it finally happening.

The wider redevelopment has nothing to do with Apple.

The scheme got planning permission in 2011, and construction work has been ongoing since 2012.

It's a mixed-use development, with office space only part of the puzzle, and according to this article, Apple are only taking a lease on 40% of the office space.

I suspect Apple have negotiated hugely preferential rates on said space (as well as structuring the deal so as to pay the bare minimum in taxes, etc.), and the developers have agreed solely because having Apple move in is incredible PR.

Office developments often have "key tenants" that are big names that take an early lease on office space in a development and get a very good deal - having a big name then attracts other companies.

A bit anchor tenants for malls.

Actually, enormous deep-pocketed companies with good credit, like Apple, are treated very favorably by landlords. The credit behind the tenant on a leased property determines the yield. So, a building tenanted by Apple on a 20-year lease can sell for a 2% cap rate while the same building tenanted by Joe's Plumbers Inc on a 10-year lease will sell for 6%+. Apple knows that so they can negotiate cheaper price per SQM.

The renovation has been underway for years now. Apple are simply taking out a lease on some of the new office space.

I love the building but the surrounding area is ground zero for grotesque property speculation in London. Recently it looked like the developers had overplayed their hand and wouldn't be able to shift all the £1M+ flats - but now with a bunch of Apple devs looking to rent them out, who knows?

High London property prices are primarily a function of demand outpacing supply, and supply having been particularly slow for a couple of decades. If property developers struggle to shift flats in Battersea, then that's excellent news, that means that the market for expensive flats appear to have been saturated, and that developers will begin addressing the market below this price point now.

Also, important to remember, Apple is moving their HQ, not adding a brand new location. The majority of the people working in that office already live in London, so when they moving in to pricey flats in Battersea, they're moving out of similar priced flats elsewhere. While possibly a windfall for those particular developers, the overall supply/demand situation in London won't change much.

The only reason anyone is paying £1m+ for pokey two beds in Battersea is because they think a greater fool will pay more in a few years time.

Also, "sales" on these new developments often turn out to mean "off-plan Asian investor put down a £20k deposit which they can and will walk away from in a heartbeat if the market looks like turning, because what are you going to do about it?". In some ways they behave more like options for property speculation.

> The majority of the people working in that office already live in London, so when they moving in to pricey flats in Battersea, they're moving out of similar priced flats elsewhere.

Most of Apple's current offices in London are based in or around Regents Street, nobody is living in apartments near there. Most people are commuting in already, so it's not a massive upheaval.

A software development salary in London will absolutely not support a mortgage on a £1M flat.

Depends, for a first time buying couple it's a 10% deposit (plus £45k for stamp duty) and then a combined salary of £225k (assuming 4x multiplier on combined income). Sure ~£110k/year is firmly in the top quartile of dev salaries, but not out of the question.

More than likely a couple who are already earning ~£70k/year each probably already have some equity in a current home, so a £1m home might not be much of a step up for them.

Thats like the 0.1% of people.

It seems like quite a stretch considering people tend to accumulate financial responsibilities over time (kids, aging parents, etc.).

It's been held up because the numbers didn't work and there were numerous false starts - partly because the market for high-end flats is bubbly, and partly because the area has relatively poor transport links.

Apple is leasing new offices, not organising the work directly.

Work has started on a Northern Line extension to the area, which should open in 2020. That will make flats and offices more valuable, because they'll be on the end of a (relatively) easy commute to central London.

Currently the nearest tube is a significant walk away, which isn't very fun in a London winter.

Right now all those staff are in central London, not a 15-30[1] minute tube trip away from it. But hey, on the plus side, it's the famously-reliable southern half of the Northern Line. And when you get there it definitely won't be wall-to-wall chinless posh kids.

Yuck.

[1] Fifteen being the minimum time it could possibly take door-to-door to Tottenham Court Road tube, assuming no waiting of any kind en route)

It's possible that when the Northern Line is extended to Battersea it will be split into two lines. That should significantly increase reliability.

They're splitting the charing cross branch to run to Battersea Power station, while the bank branch will run to Morden. Kind of how it currently works (Charing Cross trains almost always start at Kennington), so can't see it decreasing reliability. https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-proje...

That's a totally separate idea and won't be done anytime soon. From what I read Camden Town station would need to be rebuilt and plus a lot of other upgrade works: http://www.londonreconnections.com/2013/we-need-to-talk-abou...

I'd guess the staff work in Central London, but don't necessarily live there.

If some percentage move closer to the offices, that might not be a bad plan for them - although not so good for those further north.

The Northern Line is the reason I not only left London, but vowed never to have another job with a daily commute. So I certainly wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Will it have an inflatable pig balloon over it?

When this was reported on the bbc radio today Apple was described as iPad and iPhone manufacture Apple. So desktops and laptops old hat now!

The Battersea Power Station was also once considered for redevelopment into a football stadium, while maintaining the towers and facade: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/artists-impressi...

"Perfection of planning is a symptom of decay. During a period of exciting discovery or progress, there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters." C.N. Parkinson

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