Annual review for Rayner Davies
12 Dec 2008

It has been a year of ups and downs for those in the property industry, with testing times hitting those in the East Midlands and the rest of the country. Notts-based architects Rayner Davies have experienced a mixed twelve months but there have been some real highs, including an overall rise in fee income.

Steve Rayner, director of Rayner Davies Architects, who have offices in Nottingham and Maidstone Kent, talks us through 2008 and his hopes for 2009.

“While the market has certainly slowed down over the last few months, the work is still going ahead, just slightly more slowly,” said Steve.

“We are finding that certain deals that might have gone through are being put on hold, but this isn’t affecting the bigger deals. The more lucrative and larger jobs are still going ahead – business as usual and that is what we have to focus on.

“2008 has been a varied year with some great projects undertaken. Some of the highs include opening the office in Kent. This was a real boost for business expansion and very important as we have a lot of work in the south and we thought it was important to be sufficiently represented in the Kent area.

“In addition to that we have secured a Framework Agreement with Kent County Council so commissions in the Kent area over the next three years are set to be consistent.”
We have successfully managed to move into other locations; we were commissioned recently to look at the refurbishment of two large mixed use office and retail schemes, one in Birmingham and one in Dunstable. 

“Also in Nottingham we have been working with the YMCA, refurbishing their Nottinghamshire headquarters and creating two retail units which are currently ongoing. We look forward to finishing them early in the New Year.

“We have also secured planning permission for refurbishment of the Pera UK headquarters building in Leicester with work due to start in 2009, and 100,000 sq ft of business space to work on in King’s Lynn.”

So what does 2009 hold for Rayner Davies? Steve remains optimistic about the market and talks about the importance of diversification for businesses to thrive in the current times.
“The residential market which has traditionally been strong for us is certainly not as it was. Luckily we have managed to push into other areas and also other geographic locations. We are now looking at schemes across the Midlands and into East Anglia as well as our connection with Kent and the south coast. The Thames Gateway Regeneration Area is interesting and is throwing up a few possibilities for us.

“2009 still appears good and if the residential market starts moving again soon then we should have another record year of growth.”