Recently the Courier brought together Andrew Sissons, Head of Redevelopment for Hackney Council, and David Silverman, a director at Derwent London, to discuss the growing shortage of cheap workspace that's centrally located.
The underlying thesis was: “Shoreditch has been the hub for creative commerce in recent times, but the shortage of offices and studios for the startup end of the £71bn creative industry has led many to question whether startups can flourish with the disappearance of cheap space that’s centrally located.”
It’s a good conversation and well worth a read here. On the topic of the Bishopsgate Goodsyard….
“Q: How significant is the residential problem? Clearly a lot of developers are very attracted to making expensive flats.
ANDREW: We want to ensure that places like Shoreditch stay as commercial as possible. We don’t want too much residential in the middle of our commercial areas, and we fight tooth and nail to protect that.
Q: What’s an example of that?
ANDREW: The Goods Yard in Shoreditch is an example where we are in active discussion with the developer to make them understand our position around what could be there, around what the community here actually wants.
Is there really going to be any benefit from 15 storey towers with flats that sell in the many hundreds of thousands or even millions, for our business community and people of Hackney?”