Havelock Place, the six-storey office building in Havelock Street which suffered a major fire in July 2023, has been refurbished and is available for let to fresh commercial tenants. Owners AD2DAN Limited bought it at auction in May this year and, after extensive work using an array of local tradesmen, are marketing it as “a flagship development of ultra-modern high-spec office space to rent in the heart of Hastings”.

A Grand Reopening was held on the morning of 7 September, with local movers and shakers in the business community invited along to make a tour. Local companies involved in the refurbishment, including heating engineers and plumbers SJ Feist, electrical contractors Hannington-Gilbert & Co and Sussex Lifts, were represented. Hastings deputy mayor Cllr Amanda Jobson was present to cut the official tape.

The building offers 24,500 square feet over six floors, including spectacular views from the top two floors over the roofs of Hastings town centre to Hastings Castle, West Hill and out to sea. The street it’s in, Havelock Road, is about to be re-surfaced under the Public Realm and Green Connections Project funded from the Hastings Town Deal.

Building director Paul Orkin says that the revitalised premises provide “credible ‘luxury’ space with a contemporary feel – high ceilings and airy”. Offered at competitive rates per square foot, they will be among the cheapest in the region. Their Head of Marketing, Gemma Dearman, is confident that they will attract substantial corporate interest, as the trend for large companies to summon their workforce back into office attendance gathers pace.

If so, it will be a welcome reversal, from the perspective of others doing business in Hastings town centre, of historical trends of longer duration.

DECADE OF NEGLECT

The Hastings Business Quarter, sandwiched between Havelock Road and Priory Street, has suffered a decade of neglect and disappointment. Its set of concrete-and-glass buildings, initially developed with public money by regeneration company Sea Space and taken over by its successor Sea Change Sussex, promised competitively priced corporate office space alongside a vibrant student campus for an expanded University of Brighton. But the University pulled out; some office space was leased to insurance providers Saga and then to the Department of Work and Pensions, but Saga departed again, and the DWP – previous leaseholders of Havelock Place – have reduced their continued occupancy to the nextdoor building, Lacuna Place.

Moreover, Sea Change Sussex have in the meantime been turning their attention to developing what might be seen as rival office space out of town in the Bexhill Enterprise Park, and in the Innovation Parks at North Queensway, St Leonards, and Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne. The offers of each of these are of easy traffic access, on-site parking and brand new buildings overlooking green countryside or seascapes.

The Havelock Place team are confident, however, that their building ticks all the boxes. The two-minute walk from Hastings railway station, multiple bus links and nearby multi-storey car parks, together with the promised greening of the town centre, will in their opinion provide more than sufficient counter-attraction.

Dynamic Obfuscation

A freedom of Information request has failed to clarify whether arms manufacturer General Dynamics produced weapons at its Hastings factory which have been used by Israel in the Gaza conflict.

Hastings Borough Council owns the factory buildings and leases them to the arms company. The newly released documents show that, last July, HBC emailed General Dynamics to ‘establish if operations within the buildings result in those products being used in the current conflict’. It points out that some local campaigners have suggested that the council ‘reviews the leases’ it has with the manufacturer.

The FOI request by local campaigner Andrea Needham elicited a response to the council’s communication from General Dynamics. It says of the avionics systems and tactical communications equipment it produces at the Castleton Road site: “I can assure you in all instances these products are manufactured for the UK military or allied nations approved by the UK government.” However, campaigners point out that this totally fails to clarify whether Israel might be one of those ‘approved’ allied nations.

HBC’s lease with General Dynamics commits the arms manufacturer not to use the premises ‘for any illegal or immoral purpose’.

Andrea Needham is quoted by the Hastings Online Times as saying “General Dynamics is known to be one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and a major supplier of military technology to Israel and the US – technology that is being used in both Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and the current illegal US/Israeli aggression against Iran. I urge HBC to terminate all dealings with this evil company, either by revoking the license or by selling the property in question.”

The HBC official whose name is redacted, told the company last July “I am not in any way suggesting that (a lease review) is the council’s intention.”

The full correspondence from the FOI between HBC and general Dynamics is available at: hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk /hot-topics/campaigns/revealed-hbcs-correspondence-with-arms-company

Town Centre Public Realm

East Sussex County Council has announced completion of the final designs for the much delayed and snappily titled Hastings Town Centre Public Realm and Green Connections Project. It comes after public consultation and extensive technical work.

The finalised plans set out a timeline for delivery with construction planned to begin in Autumn 2026 with works expected to be completed by Winter 2027/2028. However residents and local businesses will still be able to share their views as part of a further statutory consultation process.

The plans cover Havelock Road, Harold Place and Wellington Place as well as the area in front of the station. Further details from

hastingstowndeal.co.uk/town-centre-public-realm-green-connections

Surgery Closed

The Harold Road GP’s surgery in Ore has been closed “until further notice” due to “significant water damage”. A surgery notice says: “Emergency repair works were carried out; however, these have unfortunately not resolved the issue and water is still entering the building. To ensure the safety of our patients and staff, we have made the decision to temporarily close this site.”

At least one irritated patient has written to local MP Helena Dollimore to complain about the closure and lack of information on when it will reopen.

Cochrane’s financial model, whether consciously so or not, echoed the hotel developments pioneered by a certain Donald Trump in the USA: obtain the capital funding for redevelopment by selling long leases of lettable rooms in advance to ‘investors’, who are offered a shared revenue agreement to divide up the future income. It’s a model which spreads the capital risk, but requires good working relationships between the developer, the leasehold buyers and the managers of the subsequent lettings.

There was no marketing of the Havelock Road development locally. One has to assume that Cochrane did not want to diversify his product by crowding it with leasehold owners who might take up permanent residence. On the contrary, the rooms were offered through national agency Residential Estates as ‘buy to let’ investments with full property management services and built-in demand for short term lets: students plus holiday tourists – what could go wrong?

ONSET OF COVID

The progress of the refurbishment was held up by the Covid-19 pandemic, and its initial prospectus shifted. It became clear that, whatever might have happened in a parallel world unaffected by Covid, there was not, in the aftermath, enough demand for accommodation from College students, most of whom continued to live at home. Accordingly, while some student studios remained, most of the 97 rooms – still owned legally by the investors but subject to letting agreements with one or more of Cochrane’s companies – became subsumed in a year-round hotel marketed under the brand name Vive.

The promotion on TripAdvisor was gushing: “A slice of luxury on the South Coast. Ideally situated in Hastings Town Centre, just 0.2 miles from Hastings Train Station with local Cafes, Restaurants, Bars, Shops, Beach, Pier and Historic Old Town just a short walk away. Designed and built in 2022 by the award winning Interior Design Company, Cochrane Design, who boast an impressive portfolio, including the W hotel and Ibiza’s iconic, multi-award-winning Hotel Es Vive. VIVE offers sleek, contemporary, stylish studio rooms each complete with small fitted kitchen and luxury en-suite shower room.”

But demand was still seemingly insufficient. In May 2024 Cochrane applied to the Council to extend planning permission for the hotel rooms to accommodate not only students and tourists, but also be used for temporary/emergency accommodation for the homeless. Unsurprisingly, given the severe shortage of housing of this sort in the borough, the Council planners made no objection. But there seems, in fact, to have been no take-up by the Council’s housing department.

So was the financial collapse inevitable? According to one of the investors, Linda Howes, a qualified surveyor with her own long experience in property development, Cochrane has admitted that the refurbishment costs ran dramatically over budget (she says he told her the loss was in the region of £1.75million). Breaches of contract in both the sales agreements and in subsequent letting agreements are alleged. The perception is that there has been an apparent muddling of management accounts.

Who, if anyone, is at legal fault, may take time to resolve. In the meantime, yet another building in the centre of Hastings remains largely unoccupied. 

HUGH SULLIVAN

The Vive Hotel at 44 Havelock Road in Hastings Town Centre closed last month after two companies involved in its management – Havelock Property Limited and Havelock 1 Limited – were declared insolvent and put into administration. Sole director and shareholder of both, Sean Cochrane, appears to have dissociated himself after firing up to 15 hotel staff with their last month’s wages unpaid. The administrators have subsequently installed security staff to bar guests from accessing rooms they had booked and paid for.

As well as former staff and prospective guests being out of pocket, the current losers from the business collapse are 97 leasehold owners of the building. As explained on page 4 overleaf (Qui Vive: the Model for a Designer Hotel), the cost of its refurbishment was covered by selling all or virtually all of the 97 studio units to “investors” on individual 109-year leases. The units were sold at prices of between £80,000 and £120,000 each on the basis that on completion the leasehold buyers would enter into an agreement with one of Cochrane’s companies to market and manage as student accommodation or holiday lets. The income was either to be shared under a revenue agreement or released to the company in return for an assured rent.

However, there have been major conflicts between Cochrane and these leasehold owners from early in their relationships, over aspects of the sale agreements, and disputes over service charges and the accounting of the income.

It is alleged by the latter that the refurbishment of the building was never given building regulation final certification, and that no valid practical completion certificates have been issued. Building standards, including fire safety, could be potentially compromised. Furthermore, hotel occupancy rates fell far below the optimistic predictions of the original sales pitch, so that the owners found themselves receiving low returns

Simmering discontent boiled over in December 2024 when the owners were each served with an £8,000 demand, claimed in respect of service charges for the management of the building. It was not backed by any certified accounts, and most refused to pay it. Additionally, rents believed to be due to owners were not paid over, but retained to cover the management company’s costs. 

The owners started – at first individually, then in increasing collectivity – to engage a rival letting agency, My Property Host, to organise their own lettings outside the hotel remit. The management of the common parts of the building remained the responsibility of Cochrane’s companies, though with sharply reduced revenue to cover the costs. 

The owners then resolved to form their own management company to take over the building under leaseholders’ ‘right to manage’ procedures.

On about 28 April, Cochrane summoned the remaining hotel staff – around 15 housekeepers, receptionists and maintenance personnel–to a meeting, and told them that their company employer had run out of money: their employment was at an end, and their month’s wages, due the following day, could not be paid. They would be given a ‘code’ that would enable them in due course to recover from the government’s Insolvency Service what they were owed. However, one of these employees says that he and his former work colleagues are still waiting, more than one month later, for the papers that would be needed to put this claim into effect.

“I am owed around £2,300 pay for April”, said Mohammad Eqbal, an Afghan refugee who had been working for Cochrane as a housekeeper for the last two years. “Others have similar debts. It is very painful. They cheated us. They didn’t give us any notice, so none of us had the opportunity to find other work … I have been looking, but so far haven’t found anything”.

THREAT TO ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

A few days later, Cochrane wrote to all the owners warning them that an electricity bill of £130,000 was owed. Unless they paid it collectively with immediate effect, the electricity for the building would be cut off, and all rooms would have to be vacated for health and safety reasons. Although Vive had by then ceased to take bookings, many of the rooms were occupied by short term guests booked by My Property Host through Booking.com or in some cases by assured shorthold tenants. The owners, whose alternative management company, 44 Havelock Road RTM Company, was incorporated on 14 May, protested that Cochrane’s threat of eviction was illegal.

On 15 and 16 May Ian Goodhew and Abigail Shearing of ‘business recovery’ firm Voscap were formally appointed as administrators. Their first step was to direct local security firm Continental Security Services to take over the communal parts of the building, including front door access, and to bar entry by any tenants or guests.

It was swiftly recognised that eviction or harassment of residential tenants without court sanction would be a criminal offence, and those occupiers who could show they had their own entry keys were then allowed to continue to access their rooms. However, guests who arrived on fresh bookings were denied entry. Over the bank holiday weekend of 24-26 May, a succession of would-be holidaymakers wheeling suitcases down from the station were turned away by reference to notices posted on the glass entrance door giving (initially false, later corrected) email addresses for contact with the administrators Voscap.

By the following week the booking system through Booking.com had been withdrawn and all future bookings cancelled, since Voscap continued to deny access to any new guests.

The owners have pleaded subsequently with Voscap to allow letting of their rooms to resume through My Property Host without intervention while all disputes over service charges and letting arrangements are negotiated or, if necessary, resolved by legal process. At the time of going to press, these pleas have apparently fallen on deaf ears.

The administrator Ian Goodhew has said that the action Voscap have taken is “to protect the creditors of the companies.” He was not willing to comment further. Sean Cochrane was also approached for comments but has not responded.

The Havelock Road site, which is a short walk from the ESC’s Station Plaza campus, will offer a large common room, gym area, two games room, a cinema room, kitchen and dining area, laundry facilities and bike storage.

Havelock Road, CGI design
PICTURE: Cochrane Design

The Cambridge Gardens acco-mmodation will be converted into smaller halls of residence offering 22 rooms, along with a common room, laundry facilities, bike storage, and a management office.

The building work is due to start next month, once the national lockdown
has been lifted. Developers Cochrane Design have begun the tender process to find a local contractor and have also pledged to support construction students studying at the College to offer them on-site work experience.

The aim is to complete and open the Cambridge Gardens halls in September this year, and the Havelock Road accommodation the following September.

David Fowler, Head of Higher Education at East Sussex College, says, “This is a really exciting development for the College, the town, and potential students looking to study in Hastings. We’re now able to offer high-end student accommodation, something that was missing from our university experience for a number of years.” 

Seven years ago the University of Brighton was set to build more than 220 rooms for students as part of its intended campus in the Priory Quarter, but then withdrew. 

At a meeting of the Hastings and St Leonards Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) held at the chambers of Hastings Borough Council on Monday, Director of Regeneration, Simon Hubbard, gave a presentation of the council’s latest bid for national funding: £25 million from the Future High Streets Fund for redevelopment of the town centre. 

This Fund was launched by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in December 2018 with a promised pot of £675 million to be spread across the country as part of its Plan for the High Street to “help local leaders implement bold new visions to transform their town centres and make them fit for the future”. Mr Hubbard told councillors and other members of the LSP that there is a two stage process of bidding –  a first phase under which bids were submitted in principle, followed by detailed submissions in the spring of 2020 for those which have been favourably received. Selection of these will be notified this summer.

Applying elementary maths, the value of the Hastings bid can be calculated as amounting to a 27th of the entire sum on offer. However, with all first stage bids in, High Streets Minister Jake Berry MP revealed last month that there are more than 300  of them – which suggests that either the chances of success for Hastings are less than one in ten, or else that funds will be eventually awarded in far smaller packages than originally envisaged.

Mr Hubbard was, nevertheless, upbeat in his assessment of prospects. A proportion of the full pot –  £55 million – is specifically earmarked to support the regeneration of “heritage” high streets. Bids “will help to restore historic high street properties for new work spaces or cultural venues” according to the Ministry. He described the current Hastings town centre as combining old and new buildings but with a pivotal place in history that should be taken advantage of for purposes of development of both tourism and education.

In comparison with many other town centres, Hastings “has done really well” over the last decade, he went on to argue. It maintains three distinct centres  – the Old Town, the new town and Central St Leonards. While the bid would necessarily concentrate on the new town, it would aim at increasing connectivity between the three. Already, despite being a “poor town” and “without resources”, there are lower rates of retail vacancies than average. Office space was almost fully taken. Any decrease of footfall of local residents in the centre has been more than compensated by the increase in visitors.

Loss of the university, with the forthcoming sale of its buildings in the Priory Quarter and on Havelock Road, had been disappointing but now presented opportunities. “We need to plan and improve, otherwise the risk is that we will go backwards” .

In discussion Peter Chowney, leader of the council, expressed concern that the national Fund would target “failing” town centres. That didn’t really fit Hastings: in the last quarter, due in part to the arrival of Primark, footfall was actually up. 

More generally, while supporting the bid and hoping that it would be successful, he queried the short term and competitive nature of the bidding system. “It’s a process which forces the poorest and most deprived areas to compete for scraps from the rich man’s table”, he said. The Future High Streets Fund was the latest in a long history of this kind of funding. On the other hand the recently published House of Lords report on the economies of seaside towns had concluded that the real need was for an overall long term strategy. 

Mr Hubbard responded that “come what may  – we may get the funding or not – we still have to develop a vision that reflects the town’s needs. We’re climbing a hill. But we are climbing”.

PICTURE: Colin Gibson

Lacuna Place, with 32,000 square feet of office space, has been sold by the University to Hastings Borough Council (HBC). Havelock Place, with 25,000 square feet, has been bought from the development company SeaChange by ‘a private investor’ – identity not revealed at this stage, though it will presumably appear in due course on the Land Registry title. Two other edifices, the University Building at Priory Square and the Havelock Building (on the other side of Havelock Road) will be cleared by the University immediately after the end of the academic year in July with a view to sale from September on.

PICTURE: Colin Gibson

As detailed on page 3, the fifth floor at Havelock Place had already been leased to a radiology firm, Medica, while the rest of both this building and Lacuna Place were taken on a 15-year lease by the Department for Work and Pensions from January last year. However, the terms of this lease, which apparently included a rent-free period for the first year, had left SeaChange in financial embarrassment, having to seek support for rescheduling of their loan repayments from their funders SELEP (South East Local Enterprise Partnership). The sale of the Lacuna Place reversion to HBC will enable them to clear this deficit and move on (and out).

It is less clear why HBC has stepped in to buy it. No public announcement has been made by the council as to what capital sum has been spent on the investment or from what source it has raised the funds. The rent due to be paid by the DWP can be regarded as guaranteed income over 15 years, and the level may well justify the deal from an accountancy point of view in an era of low interest rates. But is it too much to ask that the council provide an explanation for its intervention?

For a fuller account of comings and goings at Priory Square, click here