Sense Cost Consultancy is on target to make £4.5m in fee income for 2006. This is expected to lead to £900,000 in profit. The offshoot firm is only two years old, although it has the back-up of parent company Mace.

Sense has added 15 staff over the last year, taking the team up to 50 people. Last year its turnover was £3.2m and profit was £600,000.

Chris Goldthorpe, managing director of Sense, said a key business line was data centres for banks and financial institutions. The firm is currently working on four data centres with an average size of 10,000 sq ft. The centres cost an average of around £500 to £1,000 per square foot.

Sense was recently added to a housing framework for Riverside, Manchester, which will spend £100m over four years.

Another major project win is St Botolph’s House, a £160m commercial office development in Aldgate, London. Sense is carrying out a feasibility study for the 735,000 sq ft development for Minerva. Grimshaw Architects is leading the design team, with Arup appointed as structural engineer and Roger Preston & Partners as service engineer. Construction is expected to start in March 2007, with completion anticipated in 2010.

Sense opened an office in Edinburgh in November 2005 and an office in Manchester in January 2005. The London division was launched in July 2004.

This summer, Sense moved its London headquarters out of Mace’s main office in Pratt Street, Camden Town to an office in Southwark.

Source

QS News