To enter into contract with Oxford Direct Services Limited (ODSL) for the full refurbishment of vacant building (1-3 George Street) including electric, water, heating and ventilation, internal demolition and rebuild into a quality office space.

To appoint the preferred bidder, and agree contractual terms with the bidder for 1-3 George St, with an option to manage Cave St if this scheme goes ahead with the agreement of Council later in 2021. Appointment at Cave St will require the Council to be satisfied with performance to date and agreement of terms for this site both parties. The bidder will lease the site/s and operate it under Management Agreement. This will deliver income against the George St Scheme from 2021-2 onwards and Cave St from 2023 onwards

Council considered the report of the Executive Director (Development) seeking approval to fund and enter into a contract for the building refurbishment of 1-3 George Street to provide affordable managed workspace in the heart of the city centre.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, Cllr Hollingsworth, introduced the report, proposed the recommendations and answered questions.

The recommendations were agreed on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to:

approve a capital budget of £1.921m to deliver the project with the enhanced sustainability option and including the use of up to £800K of funds awarded to the Council from OxLEP’s Local Growth Fund. This will be split £454K in 20/21, £1.361m in 21/22 and £106K in 22/23.

To allocate feasibility funding of £80k to extend the appointment of the Project Management and QS – AAP Projects Ltd, The Design team led by the Architects ADP and including Mechanical & Electrical, Structural and Principal Designer roles.

In addition, agents to prepare the valuations, as part of the business case, will be appointed.

As part of the feasibility, some enabling works and survey work with associated costs, will be required to confirm the condition of the building and these costs are included in the funding allocation.

This funding is in addition to £65K of feasibility funding previously approved for RIBA Stages 1-3.  The earlier funding allocation was insufficient to cover all costs to Stage 3 and this has added £23K. In addition the costs of the technical design work to RIBA Stage 4 of £32K and a contingency of £15K for survey works and £10K for valuation fees have now been added to the feasibility requirement.

The total additional consultant fees of £55K have been defined by competitive tender and are fixed costs.

A bid for OxLEP grant funding for the refurbishment of 1-3 George Street and the redevelopment of Cave Street Standingford House has been successful, and approval to enter into contract for the grant funding has been granted by Cabinet on the 15^th July 2020.