Completely [different] Magazine Issue 2 Summer 2014

SUMMER 2014 | ISSUE 2 | THE MAGAZINE OF THE COMPLETELY GROUP

MIKE HUGHES AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD DELIN CAPITAL THE BILLION EURO BABY RUTH DUSTON HELPING PHOENIXES TO FLY

RODBER AND DAWSON:

TACKLING THE OFFICE MARKET

2 // A Different Message ISSUE #2 | SUMMER 2014 EDITORIAL Editor: Duncan Lamb

DOM MILLAR

Managing Director The Completely Group

FIRST THINGS FIRST April was an amazing month for The Completely Group and marked two ‘firsts’ for us. We published the first issue of this magazine and then held Completely Retail & Leisure Marketplace at Old Billingsgate Market for the first time. The response to both was tremendous and we have to say massive thanks to everyone who collaborated on making them a success. Getting a reaction is what our business is about and we were grateful for all the positive feedback we got on the launch of this magazine. The support for Completely Retail & Leisure Marketplace was even more remarkable.

Despite taking place on the same day as a tube strike, more than 1,500 people attended and were rewarded with a great event – and drinks by the Thames bathed in evening sunshine. Life is full of pleasant surprises sometimes…

You can get a flavour of what the event was like on page 9 and we’re now looking forward to the Completely Trade, Industrial & Logistics Marketplace on 17 June at Old Spitalfields Market.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so I’m delighted to announce another first for us: the Completely Charity Bike Ride. It will take place on September 25th and there are more details on page 22. I hope you will be able to take part.

So much happening and we’re barely half way through the year! Hope it’s going well for you.

ART Creative Director: Ben Parer Design: Clare Kelly, Andy Fleetwood and Matt Hardy Illustrations: Michele Patruno PHOTOGRAPHY Photographers: Paul Harmer, Murray Scott PRODUCTION Production Editor: Mark Bailey Colour Correction: Andy Fleetwood Printer: Hardings Print Solutions MARKETING Head of Marketing: Kate Richardson MECHANICAL INFORMATION Cover Paper: Curious Collection SKIN, Extra White 270 gsm Cover Treatment: 4 colour process, Foil blocked SB Abalone Select Perfect Bound Body Paper: Heaven 42, 170 gsm Fonts: Body text – Avenir Headlines – Aachen, Admiration Pains, Clarendon, Dax OT, Daxline Pro, FanciSide Caps, Geared SLab, Impregnable, Avant Garde, Journal, Lavanderia, Onramp, Slutotronic, Sullivan, Terital United, Thirsty Apps Used: Adobe CC PROPERTY LISTING & ADVERTISING SALES Phone: 0844 6626600 Email: sales@completelygroup.com CREATIVE & MARKETING SERVICES Phone: 01483 238920 Email: info@completelygroup.com EVENTS Phone: 01483 238924 Email: events@completelygroup.com ACCOUNTS Phone: 01483 238931 Email: accounts@completelygroup.com COVER Subject: Rugby players Tim Rodber and Matt Dawson (see page 4) Photographer: Paul Harmer

Completely Group, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 9JX Phone: 01483 238 920 Email: info@completelygroup.com Web: www.completelygroup.com To keep up-to-date with all our news follow us on Twitter: @completelygrp VAT no. GB 770788879 Company no.4321497

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

Contents // 3

04

Tim Rodber

18

25

Stealing Banksy

32

4 Cover story: A disruptive influence The Instant Group is a creating a ‘third way’ in the office sector. We spoke to CEO Tim Rodber.

8 Retail & Leisure Marketplace 2014: Bigger, busier, better A review of April’s ‘must-bethere’ event.

13 Pitching it right Tom Foulkes argues that credentials not creative flair should be looked at first when appointing designers.

16 Keeping it brief All the news that fits.

Mike Hughes

Mark Stirling

18 An Englishman abroad Verdion’s Mike Hughes loves recessions and has strong views on his market.

22 The Completely Amazing Bike Ride Join us for a fabulous day of cycling in the beautiful English countryside.

25 When your workspace becomes a work of art Your building has just become the canvas for a multi-million pound artwork. What do you do?

28 The billion Euro baby Delin Capital Asset Management is growing up fast. CEO Christian Jamison tells us more.

28

Christian Jamison

34

Ruth Duston

32 A drink with...

LondonMetric’s Mark Stirling adjourns to a famous Mayfair pub with our very own Dom Millar.

34 Helping phoenixes to fly Business Improvement District expert, Ruth Duston, tells us why BIDs are now at the forefront of dynamic regeneration.

37 Join the Great Industrial Debate Occupiers and property providers line up to debate at Completely Trade, Industrial & Logistics Marketplace.

38 Portfolio 39 The Secret Agent Our mole thinks pitches are like sitcoms.

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

4 // Interview

The disruptor mentality is not to disrupt to cause problems, it’s to add value COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

// 5

A DISRUPTIVE INFLUENCE Words by Duncan Lamb Photography by Paul Harmer

The Instant Group is changing the landscape of office procurement. We spoke to its CEO, Tim Rodber, about why disruption can be good and why it’s pioneering a ‘third way’ for the office sector.

As the business world has been transformed by technology and globalisation, the capacity for what management consultants call ‘disruptive innovation’ has become increasingly valued. In essence, it is the ability to create a new market by applying a different set of values which enables you to ultimately overtake the existing market.

It was first expounded by Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen back in the 1990s and is now often used as a key measure for carving out new opportunities in just about any given market. In retrospect, probably the first great ‘disruptive innovator’ was Henry Ford: he didn’t invent the motor car but his innovation of mass production and lower pricing transformed the industry forever.

In this context, the Instant Group is also something of a disruptive innovator. But if disruption conjures up a ‘kick-downthe-door-take-no-prisoners’ gung-ho, you won’t find it in the company’s CEO Tim Rodber who is the personification of calm.

This might seem slightly at odds for rugby fans who will recall that about the time that Clayton Christensen was positing his theory, Rodber – as a Northampton, England and British Lions flanker – was bringing his own brand of disruption to opponents.

Those days, however, now sit at the other end of a remarkable career arc that has seen Rodber go from Army officer and professional rugby player through to business CEO and procurement expert in less than 15 years.

Having left the Army and hung up his boots in 2001, Rodber set up his own marketing company which was eventually bought by the Williams Lea Group. This then led to a decade

of working with the group in the US and Asia during which his core expertise became procurement and outsourcing – how businesses can maximise the efficiency of their operations.

During the same period, ex-office agent, Rob Hamilton, had borrowed £10,000 and set up Instant as a serviced office brokerage. The business flourished but really began to kick off when it moved into the ‘managed office’ offer where it became a provider of workspace to major corporates.

In 2012, private equity group, MML bought into the business and last year they brought Rodber in as CEO to grow this ‘third way’ of office provision.

Nearly a year on, Rodber recounts the background to his appointment: “I’d spent 10 years with Williams Lea working on outsourcing marketing services businesses, most of them outside of the UK. I knew the Instant Chairman, Clive Williams and I was attracted to the idea of a business that’s trying to do something new in a traditional market.

“MML felt that there was an opportunity to make the offering more sophisticated for large businesses, take it global and COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

6 // Interview

really capitalise on the strength of the service industry and the understanding of outsourcing as a concept. So they brought me in as I had that in my background.”

Rodber came into an office sector where occupiers basically had two options: find your own office and take a traditional lease or go to a serviced office provider. Instant has pioneered a ‘third way’ which combines the control of taking your own space with the one-stop benefits of serviced offices and also adds the ability to adapt your requirements over time.

Rodber explains: “Historically, Instant’s backbone has been online serviced office brokerage. It then evolved into a corporate broker and created a managed office offer which focuses mostly on short-term 3-5 year project leases with a model that gives all the benefits of a serviced office but with a more bespoke approach. One cost, no capex, no risk.

huge amount of infrastructure will always have their own leased and managed space but over time they will, inevitably, look to have this coreand-flex model which we can offer.

“Any business that’s grown up in the last 5-10 years has a very different view about real estate. Many are already outsourcing non-core services such as real estate and as they get bigger why would they change that?

“Companies are going to want real estate options whether that’s through serviced office providers, what we offer, or a combination of both. It’s going to be a huge growth sector.”

Instant remains a passionate advocate of serviced offices and Rodber sees the growth of that sector as indicative of where the market is heading over the long-term.

“There are 7,500 serviced offices in the world and it’s a sector which is growing by 10% annually. Serviced offices provide a great platform for start-up businesses and also a way to move into new territories but it’s not necessarily a platform that suits larger enterprises which want more control and transparency.”

Instant is now working with The Completely Group on using the new Completely Offices online platform to promote serviced offices. Rodber stresses that although Instant is providing a new type of service in the sector their model is not about cutting office agents out of the equation.

Tim Rodber with Matt Dawson who has joined Instant as Business Development Director

“In the UK we work with a lot of companies who grow their businesses by winning major contracts and who need managed office space quickly – one of many business drivers that our offering supports, from M&A to crisis recovery.”

Instant now manages a portfolio of 600,000 sq ft in the UK and Europe, some of its clients include Sky, Network Rail, Red Hat and Serco. It is not a solution that suits every occupier but in a business environment that is increasingly dominated by the winning and servicing of projects there has to be an option for something that sits beyond the traditional solutions.

Rodber observes: “Businesses are all different and in different states of evolution. Very large corporates with a

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

“It is important for us to continue to work with experts in the real estate world, who know what’s available and can work with us so we can provide a managed solution. We partner with the likes of CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield and these relationships remain key. It’s about bringing together two very different skill sets.

“The Instant model means we’ll manage the procurement of all the services for you from the fit-out to the toilet cleaning. We procure it, then manage the services for the term of the lease.

In managing it, we’re actually taking on risk, often even paying the capex.

// 7

People are seeing us as a credible, real alternative in the market

“Most clients come to us because they’re very busy. They don’t want restraints around their existing teams and a lot of what we do is with the clients’ business lines. A division has won a contract, they set it up, and even if there is a central corporate real estate team they are often busy and would find it tough to be able to provide the right space in the right place with a full management service.”

During the past 12 months, Instant has seen a big pickup in activity: “People are seeing us as a credible, real, alternative in the market and we have lots of people to thank for that. Not least the hard work of the Instant teams around the world, our partners, agent friends, and of course our clients. The quality of our delivery is everything for us and that requires excellence across the board”.

To enable that quality of delivery and to spread the message of what Instant can provide, Rodber has been growing the UK team. Outsourcing and procurement specialist, Lyndsay Hardwick has come in from Williams Lea and Rodber’s former rugby team mate Matt Dawson has taken a business development role.

Whilst the business can clearly leverage off Dawson’s profile, Rodber is quick to point out that this is not just a sinecure for the former England scrum half.

“Matt and I have known each other a long time. He has been developing his professional career alongside his media work. He’s on the board as an advisor at Sodexo and he was looking to further develop his corporate career.

“We’re a fast growing business – we’ve got 110 people – and it’s an opportunity for Matt to come in and make a difference.

He’s a professional in his outlook, diligence, preparation,

and he’s very well networked. He’s a good communicator and is now part of our business development team.

“I think he’s really enjoying it and he’s already had some real success.”

Commenting on his appointment, Matt Dawson, said: “Working at Instant gives me the opportunity to expand my business development skills within a fast growing entrepreneurial company”.

Expansion and getting the message across is at the heart of Rodber’s strategy and he relishes the challenge of disrupting the property orthodoxy. Top line growth in the business could be as high as 30% this year with turnover of about £35m and international growth on the radar.

“The US is a real opportunity for us. We have a business here in the UK that’s growing steadily year-on-year. We’ve made investments and we’ve got a good team. We now need to shape our position in the market and get our message out.”

Clearly, the ‘disruptive innovation’ that Instant is bringing to the sector is working. However, Rodber sees this is as much a personal challenge as well as bringing a new process to bear.

He observes: “You’re either someone who joins a business and just quietly works your way through it or you challenge the process and try and get a solution that achieves more value for everybody.

“The disruptor mentality is not to disrupt to cause problems, it’s to add value. There’s a dynamism in it which means you’ve got to push. I enjoy that. It’s challenging, but it’s how you get results”.

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

8 // Marketplace

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

// 9

If you work in retail or leisure property there was only one place to be on Tuesday, April 29th

COMPLETELY RETAIL & LEISURE MARKETPLACE

2014

BIGGER, BUSIER, BETTER. Photography by Murray Scott

More than 1,500 people from the retail property world met at Completely Retail & Leisure Marketplaces’ new home in Old Billingsgate Market for the first of this year’s two major dealmaking events.

The crowds – a who’s-who of the business – thronged the historic market building and spilled out onto the terrace next to the Thames to network, exchange ideas and move deals closer to completion. >

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COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

10 // Marketplace

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All of which gave everyone an appetite – and a thirst – but thanks to the generosity of Tortilla, Corona and B&M there was no shortage of free burritos, beers and coffee. And at 4pm a further influx of guests arrived for the post-event evening drinks sponsored by Westfield and Meyer Bergman. >

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3,000

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COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

ure

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For the first time, the event featured the new Soapbox sessions – a chance for expanding brands to pitch their requirements to agents and landlords.

It proved to be a brilliant format with each brand given only three minutes to get their story across. During morning and afternoon sessions, a total of 18 brands stepped up onto the Soapbox to make their case while a few struggled to hit their time limit, the content was always compelling and a hugely efficient way of getting an overview of some great innovative brands.

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// 11

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the content was always compelling and hugely efficient Omar Allibhoy of Tapas Revolution presents on the Soapbox

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

12 // Marketplace

This is the dynamic that we’ve always been focused on What the Twittersphere said: Cushman & Wakefield Great organisation, attendance, atmosphere and event, well done – looking forward to coming back in the autumn!

Legat Owen

Well done to Completely Events for organising #CRMP2014 yesterday, great venue and we look forward to the next one.

As the sun set on a still packed terrace, Completely’s Dom Millar commented: “It really felt like the event came of age today. Crucially, we now have a substantial core of retailers attending the event – there were almost 500 here today – in addition to the cream of the retail property development and agency sector.

“This is the dynamic that we’ve always been focused on since the first event and we now want to build on this momentum to bring in more people from every area of the retail and leisure property business.

The next Completely Retail & Leisure Marketplace will take place on September 30th at Old Billingsgate Market.

Core sponsors for the event are LaSalle Investment Management, Cushman & Wakefield and The Gym Group. There are already 60 exhibition stands confirmed plus more than 600 delegates and we are catering for up to 2,000 delegates.

There’s more information at www.crmarketplace.co.uk and if you’re interested in attending or taking a stand, please call Rebecca Sawyer on 08430 227333 or email rs@completelygroup.co.uk

“We are now planning to make the September Completely Retail & Leisure Marketplace even more essential and vibrant.”

Capital & Regional Well done to the team yesterday.

Cracking event at #CRMP2014.

Loads of business for Capital & Regional and a great end to the day.

Rapleys Rapleys attended yesterday and had a great time. Thank you for organising a great event.

BGP Thank you Completely Events for a great day yesterday at #CRMP2014, and also for placing the bar opposite our stand!

DTZ Great day at #CRMP2014 yesterday – Billingsgate’s a great venue!

Locate Retail Well done to Completely Events for yesterday’s #CRMP2014 at Old Billingsgate Market. Very productive day and a great venue.

Retail Week Thanks to Dom, Rebecca and the gang: it was a superb event and the new venue was perfect.

GVA Great day at #CRMP2014, lots of visitors to the GVA stand.

@completelyevent #crmp2014 COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

erraceccess t e h t n o Drinkswere a huge su

// 13

PITCHING IT

RIGHT

What’s the most effective way of selecting a design agency to work on your marketing material?

Tom Foulkes, Marketing Director of development and infrastructure consultancy, Peter Brett Associates, argues that it’s credentials not creative samples that should carry the day.

Selecting and appointing a new design partner is an important process for any business looking to market itself or a product.

Unfortunately, the prevailing culture – particularly in the property sector – is just to get a few agencies to pitch and ask them to ‘show us what you can do’.

As part of this approach, agencies are invariably asked to present some creative ideas in their pitch relevant to the work in question.

These are called ‘Creative Pitches’, and I believe can lead to poor decisions which may undermine the commercial strength of your business. This is because ‘Creative Pitches’ encourage selection on the basis of random variables – the subjective attractiveness of the creative work shown and not on the objective ability of an agency to deliver the work in hand.

Inevitably, the creative element of a pitch will be naïve and hastily pulled together (the reality is that client-enforced deadlines mean that agencies rarely get long lead-ins before delivering their pitch). The creative will also be based on a very narrow understanding of your business, your market or your product.

To successfully select a design partner, I believe you should consider the following five factors: The quality of any creative produced in this scenario will only reflect the amount of time the agency has spent on the pitch. In most agencies this will not be a great amount of time, unless the agency is struggling to win work.

In this context, selecting a design partner on the basis of ‘rough’ creative shown in a pitch means that the decision is being made on the basis of taste rather than commercial sense.

Accordingly, if the selection is not based on sound commercial factors it may lead to a failure to achieve the project’s goals.

I am not saying there should not be consideration of an agency’s creative abilities, but this judgment should be based on work that the agency has already consistently delivered for other clients – not on a few ideas hastily produced for a pitch. In other words, the emphasis should be on an agency’s overall credentials rather than a brief snapshot of their creative ability.

CREDENTIALS CAPABILITY CREATIVE CHEMISTRY COST You need to gather hard evidence across these five areas. The way to do this is through a ‘Credentials Pitch’. Essentially this boils down to a series of meetings with a small number (usually no more than five) of suppliers. None of these meetings require any of the agencies to produce any original creative.

This is a different approach to the traditional methodology for selecting a new design partner, but it is more likely to result in selecting a partner who can supply a service which is robust, appropriate – and creative.

14 // Pitching it Right gazine presents a m t) n e r e iff Completely (D

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// 15 NT THE CREDE

IALS PITCH

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For a complete roadmap on the process of buying design, we’d recommend the Design Business Association’s Guide to Buying Design which can be found at www.dbadirectory.org.uk/dba/advice

16 // Keeping it Brief

OK, we’re about half way through the magazine so here’s the commercial break: a brief update on what we’ve been up to recently at The Completely Group…

KATE GETS HER MARKETING WISH

The Completely Group has appointed Kate Richardson (pictured right) as its new Head of Marketing.

Kate has been working in marketing for almost eight years, mostly on the client side in sectors including aerospace, IT and defence, and component distribution.

She reports: “I’ve always wanted to work for a creative agency, and every day come into an environment that is buzzing with ideas.

“I’m rapidly learning the intricacies of the property business and really enjoying the fact that we work with all sectors of the industry.”

Changing the menu at Bankside M&G has appointed The Completely Group to re-brand Bankside Mix – a retail and leisure destination on the Southbank behind Tate Modern.

Matt O’Halloran of The Completely Group commented: “The extension at Tate Modern will bring increased visitor numbers to the area and M&G want to create a brand that capitalises on the opportunity to attract more people to Bankside Mix”.

The Completely Group will be creating a retail brochure and a consumer-facing website following the re-brand. Bankside Mix is located next to the Blue Fin building on Southwark Street (pictured left).

Retail features in £600m development Developer Bouygues and agent GVA have appointed The Completely Group to create retail marketing collateral to promote Hallsville Quarter, the mixed-use development that will form the heart of the £600m regeneration of Canning Town.

Yunus Shaikh of The Completely Group commented: “This exciting development, located opposite Canning Town DLR station, will offer retailers the opportunity to get involved in one of the fastest growing markets in the UK with huge potential to benefit from an under-supplied local economy”.

The retail units are scheduled to be launched into the market in September of this year.

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

// 17

A first for our residential team

SEEING THE LIGHT The Property Marketing Awards judges see The Light and The Completely Group gets short-listed in the Best Marketing Campaign – Retail and Leisure Category.

Berkeley First, part of the Berkeley Group has appointed The Completely Group’s residential team to refresh the marketing collateral for their Oakgrove development in Caterham on the Hill in Surrey.

We’ve been tasked with creating brochures for each house type, development photography, a guide to the local area, a door drop and a national advertising campaign. y homes just Discover luxur nction m Clapham Ju fro 21 minutes ed image of a

Computer generat

4 bedroom house

at Oakgrove

Dom does some RECon

Our residential team is really excited at the prospect of getting their teeth into this project with this new and exciting client.

Pier pressure on Glen

The Completely Group’s Dom Millar was among the 34,000+ delegates who descended on Las Vegas for RECon – the International Council of Shopping Centres’ global real estate convention last month.

On July 17th, The Completely Group’s Glen Smallwood will be attempting the 1.4 mile swimming challenge from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier.

The half man-half fish explains: “I’ve always enjoyed swimming and swam competitively as a kid. I went to college in Bournemouth and remember people doing the pier swim then.

Having avoided any incidents reminiscent of The Hangover, he reports: “It is a truly amazing event and a fantastic way to get a perspective on what’s happening in international retailing.

“I lost my Dad in January and his passing kick-started my fitness campaign and made me want to attempt some of the events and challenges that have eluded me up to now. I’ll be swimming to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and would be chuffed if people could sponsor me”

“The UK was well represented among the 1,000 exhibitors and it gave us a very interesting perspective on our future Completely Retail & Leisure Marketplace events.”

Raising the Standard for Notting Hill

If you’d like to sponsor Glen please go to his Just Giving page at: www.justgiving.com/Glen-Smallwood1

The Completely Group continue to work on the ad campaign (below) for long standing residential client Notting Hill Housing. Originally briefed to provide an overview of the company’s offering across London, the ads are updated weekly and run in both the Evening Standard and Metro.

Residential marketing is a fast-growing part of our business and if you’d like to know more about our service in this area, please contact Glen Smallwood on 01483 238 936 / gs@completelygroup.com London’s Shared Ownership experts

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COMPLETELY RETAIL & LEISURE MARKETPLACE

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

18 // Interview

AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD Verdion is a leading force in the continental European logistics development market, but its boss, Mike Hughes, is English through and through. We asked him for his views on the market at home and abroad.

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On the day of the interview with Mike Hughes, a report from the respected think tank, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, announced that ‘robust’ growth in the first part of the year meant that Britain’s economy might already be larger than it was before the financial crisis. On that basis, the report reasoned, the recession might be deemed to be officially over.

While many people might be celebrating this, Verdion’s CEO is more ambiguous in his response: “I like recessions. I like periods of business activity before the dumb money arrives.

Recessions have always been good for me. They are great times to build a business.

“I started my original company, Helios, back in 1996, just as we were coming out of a recessionary period. It’s always a good time for making money and creating value for investors.”

Verdion was born pretty much at the midpoint of the recession in 2010. With backing from Mansford Real Estate and Tristan Capital, Hughes’s aim was to create a specialist pan-European logistics development company.

He started by assembling a team that had worked in different market sectors within continental Europe and in particular within Germany.

“I wanted to build a European business as opposed to a British business trying to do business in Europe. We are a multilingual, multi-national team. We don’t all come from the same background and that’s very invigorating for the business.”

The ‘milestone moment’ for the new company was the purchase in 2011 of three major German development sites in Leipzig, Ingolstadt and Schoenefeld. All in prime locations next to airports, the sites brought with them the scope for more than 3m sq ft of development.

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20 // Interview

Above Left: Phase one of a 110,000 sq m logistics and distribution facility in HanoverMesse, Germany.

Above Right: Air Link Park, Berlin, Verdion’s logistics warehouse park situated directly opposite the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport.

Verdion was up and running and shortly afterwards it made its UK debut by buying out SEGRO’s interest in the 337-acre Inland Port (‘iPort’) development project at Doncaster. The site has the potential to deliver more than 6m sq ft of Grade A logistics warehousing.

In the intervening years, Verdion has added to its German development roster on the Continent and also has projects in Denmark and Sweden. Having been a veteran of the UK logistics scene, Hughes now finds himself with an increasingly Continental perspective on the idiosyncrasies of his home market.

“There are certain fixations in the UK and one of those is the phrase ‘institutional standard’. It’s a mantra that gets drummed into surveyors from a very early age!

“But today the UK is a bit peculiar in the sense that we have certain UK institutional ‘standards’ that don’t fit with the norms that institutions would expect anywhere else in Europe or indeed that occupiers want or need. And yet you see the same funds investing in both continental Europe and the UK but they don’t say, as an example, ‘My goodness, the development density for this German warehouse is 60% so we must downgrade this particular product’.

“In the UK, we tend to be fixated in templating certain criteria : the type of building frame, densities, yard depths etc. Some of it is unquestioning to the point of being lazy.

“There is no reason of course why you cannot achieve a product that fully satisfies the requirements of both the long term investor and occupier”.

Hughes believes that part of this contrast in approach is borne out by structural differences between the development scene in the UK and continental Europe.

“They are two very different markets. The UK has been, and remains, a land market. In the UK, it’s all about controlling the land. That is not generally the case in, for example, Germany

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where the municipalities play an active part in providing land.

“In Germany, it’s all about the relationship with the client. It’s about the ability to deliver a great building on the right commercial terms and less about whether you control the land. In the UK, you can be a pretty average developer but if you control the land you’re halfway there.

“In Germany, you have to be very able technically, and be able to communicate with your occupiers at the very highest level. Occupiers there are very technically minded, and they will often know as much about the building specification as you do, or more.

“We are going to complete in September a facility for Siemens in Germany. It’s a light manufacturing warehouse and office facility, and a very important part of the company’s infrastructure. We got the project because we were able to display technical understanding and competence to the Siemens team. Forget pricing for a moment, it was all about being on the same wavelength as the occupier so they trusted us to be their partner.

“That’s what we’re good at: technical relationships with clients.”

So how does that impact what Verdion will create at iPort in Doncaster?

“We will absolutely deliver buildings that UK and International institutions would love to buy. But we’ll introduce certain

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I like recessions. I like periods of business activity before the dumb money arrives. additional quality standards that we would expect to find in continental Europe and that we think are right in the UK and should be in the UK as market standard.”

Purchase of the Doncaster project completed at the beginning of the year and by the summer it will be a fully accessible development site with a dual carriageway road directly linking to junctions on the M18 motorway at Doncaster. In addition to the logistics park, the ‘intermodal’ project will also encompass a 35-acre strategic rail freight terminal.

Hughes sees the impact of new rail line upgrades and also the increasing movement of freight by rail as a huge factor in the development market.

“The demand for rail is immense and it’s just going to grow and grow. And it’s going to require massive investment in infrastructure which in turn will boost demand for the type of industrial and logistics space we’re building.

“They didn’t want to deal with 20, 30, 50 different developers to get there.

They wanted to find a partner that would look after them; be their representative in Europe. Do everything that needs to be done; protect their interests. They were trying to find that right partner, and happily we found each other.”

Looking ahead, even though the recession may be technically over, Hughes believes the UK market will still provide opportunities for the near future.

“The fundamentals are right; we’re a small country with a very high population, and we’ve got the fastest growing economy in Europe. There are a substantial number of requirements from third-party logistics companies, e-commerce and retailing related companies who are looking to build their supply chains.

“So what we’re going to do over the next year or two is to continue to focus on the things that the ‘dumb money’ is less likely to focus on – and not take our eye off the ball.”

“The demand for rail is immense and it’s just going to grow and grow.”

“It’s not just projects like HS2; there are planned upgrades all over the UK and this will increase capacity on the network, create opportunities for the businesses directly involved in this expansion and also increase the demand for space close to rail hubs.”

Schemes such as Doncaster require substantial investment.

In October of last year, Verdion entered into a €1bn agreement with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) for the funding and development of logistics parks across Europe.

HOOPP is one of the largest pension funds in Canada, with $47.4bn in assets, and through the new partnership will own and develop iPort plus a stake in Verdion’s €250m Link Project in Germany.

The alliance came as a result of Hughes speculatively going to Toronto to see the fund.

“I went over in May 2012 to do a pitch. We showed them what we had, our ideas, where we would invest, how we would invest, and which opportunities existed in this sector.

“Their objective is to generate the kind of returns that they won’t get just buying stock at market value. They already invest in the industrial and logistics sector in Canada and North America and they love it for its resilience and lease longevity.

So the challenge for them was: how do we acquire interests in industrial and logistics in Europe in a way that achieves the kind of returns we want?

COMPLETELY [different] Spring 2014

22 // Bike Ride

g n i z a m A e th letely p m Co e d i R e k i B r 2014 e b m epte S h t 5 2

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// 23 Illustration Francesco Bongiorni

On September 25th, The Completely Group is staging a major charity bike ride which will journey from South West London to the legendary Surrey Hills. And back.

Many of us are into cycling at The Completely Group. Some of us go for a quick spin at the weekends, others are obsessive Strava users. We wanted to organise a bike ride that caters for everyone, cyclists of all abilities and levels of fitness.

So we’ve joined forces with Lawrence Dallaglio to stage a unique event, with all proceeds going to the Dallaglio Foundation, an amazing charity which uses the inspiration and values of sport to help young people tackle life’s challenges.

To accommodate the different levels of participant, two rides of 45 and 75 miles are being planned and there will be up to eight weeks of pre-ride hints and tips to get fit for the day. Specialist trainer, Andy Cooke, who helped Davina McCall prepare for her epic Edinburgh to London run/cycle/swim Comic Relief challenge, will be providing training tips online so it is a great opportunity for those who haven’t yet got the cycling bug to try it out.

The idea is that if companies enter a team and perhaps get their clients to take part, then it’s an investment in everyone’s health, and a memorable day out too!

With such a great cause benefitting, people have been fantastically generous with practical support.

Harvey Thorneycroft Ltd is helping us organise the day, and Halfords is providing full mechanical support and giving significant discounts on cycling gear for all the riders leading up to the event.

Lawrence has kindly agreed to host a pre-ride breakfast at The Lensbury in Teddington, and we’re trying to twist his arm to come along for the ride, but realise that could be a high risk strategy!

Just look at him!

Lawrence Dallagio

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

24 // Bike Ride

The Completely Amazing Charity Bike Ride 8am Thursday 25th September, 2014 Entries are invited from teams of 10 and will include: ■■ Breakfast reception at The Lensbury hosted by Lawrence Dallaglio ■■ Route mapping support: fully tested route loaded onto Garmin site, gpx files available etc ■■ Mechanical support throughout the race ■■ Medical support: qualified doctor and two physiotherapists ■■ Andy Cooke, who worked with Davina McCall’s Sports Relief challenge, to supply pre-event nutritional, fitness advice and training tips leading up to the event ■■ Chaperones to guide the ride groups ■■ Branded cycling vests for riders ■■ Sustenance throughout the duration of the event ■■ Lunch at Box Hill ■■ Drinks reception and BBQ after the ride ■■ All proceeds go to charity If you like a challenge, love the feel of lycra in the morning and would like to join the major retail property companies who have already signed up then please contact Kate Richardson on 01483 238684 or kar@completelygroup.com

COMPLETELY [different] Spring 2014

//2525

Banksy’s ‘No Ball Games’, Tottenham Green, 2009

When your workspace becomes a work of art A well-publicised recent incident which appeared to be the appropriation of street art for financial gain turned out to be an elaborate hoax. But what would you do if you suddenly found a highly valuable artwork adorning your building? We asked a lawyer.

COMPLETELY COMPLETELY [different] [different] Summer Spring 2014 2014

26 // Stealing Banksy

The Stealing Banksy project caused outrage last year when a series of the street artist’s works were chainsawed off buildings with the stated intention of them being sold at auction.

Local communities protested and the debate as to who owned street art raged. With the valuation of Banksy originals running into the millions this was clearly a debate of both financial as well as of artistic importance.

An auction was scheduled for late April and hundreds of people turned up to a pre-sale exhibition. Banksy broke cover to condemn the proposed sale but, at the last moment, the organisation behind the project – the Sincura Arts Club – revealed that the reality of what they were doing was far from the public perception.

Sincura Director, Tony Baxter, explains: “Stealing Banksy? was never created as a sale of street art, and in fact many of the pieces displayed were not actually available for sale. Furthermore, those artworks made available

“The show saw a huge amount of public opinion, both good and bad, and proved that as a nation we do feel attached to this form of artwork. Our tours during the show were aimed at explaining the work we do and to engage the public for their opinions on the street art movement. And the positive feedback was tremendous.”

Sincura are now in negotiations with The Old London Underground Company to convert a disused London underground station into the first ever Street Art Museum in the world.

And so the debate about this emergent form of art was successfully raised in the public consciousness. But what happens if you do find a valuable piece of art on your building?

In April, Banksy painted a new piece, Mobile Lovers, on a door in Clement Street, Bristol, but it was swiftly removed by the leader of a nearby boys’ club and used to raise money for the group. The piece was then taken back

by Bristol City Council – who argued that the work was on its land – and sent to a museum for safekeeping. But then Banksy contacted Broad Plain Boys’ Club to say that he was happy for the club to keep the artwork. The estimate of the work’s value is around £2m.

Public opinion, both good and bad, proved that we do feel attached to this form of artwork had strict caveats placed on them; that upon purchase they would be put back on public display and that the proceeds from any sale would benefit local charities.

“As a company we were approached at the start of this project to see whether the world’s first Street Art Museum could be created in the heart of London. We believe strongly that street art is an important part of the modern day art movement and should be recognised as such. Established museums do not have budgets allocated for the preservation of such art and school curricula shun the subject.

“We were tasked to prove that there is a demand for this, for the artwork to remain on view, for the conservation of the art, and as a public debate. This is why we called the show Stealing Banksy? with the goals to explore the social, legal and moral side of the sale of street art. Our goal was not to answer questions but to ask them of the general public.

COMPLETELY [different] Spring 2014 COMPLETELY [different] Spring 2014

So what happens if Banksy picks the end wall of your office building for his next masterpiece? Can the tenant claim ownership or is it always going to be the landlord’s? Or does it belong to neither? If a tenant has an FRI (fully repairing and insuring) lease, could they remove the work as part of routine ‘repairs’, keep the art and make good the wall? Time to talk to a lawyer...

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Whose wall is it anyway?

Whilst the international art market is not her normal preserve, we asked expert property lawyer, Louise Cartwright of Irwin Mitchell, to give her – strictly without prejudice – thoughts on the subject…

“When thinking about leases, whether the tenant will have a right to remove and sell valuable street art will depend on exactly how the lease is worded. As we lawyers always say, the devil is in the detail! However, a few questions may help establish whether the tenant has any rights to remove and sell a piece of art.

Landlords may not appreciate the artistic merit of the gifts left on their building “Firstly, who ‘owns’ the wall for the purposes of the lease and therefore who is responsible for it? The wall may be demised to the tenant and therefore it’s their responsibility. However, in leases of part of a building, particularly offices, this is often not the case.

“If the wall is demised to the tenant, it will doubtless be responsible for keeping the premises in good repair and condition and there is probably a specific obligation to redecorate at regular intervals. It is therefore conceivable that the landlord could require the tenant to paint over or remove a piece of art if it chooses to, however ludicrous that might seem if the art is valuable.

“We should also consider the question of whether the tenant could physically remove the part of the wall containing the painting. This will depend on how tightly the landlord’s control over alterations and works to the building has been drafted.

“It is common for leases to prevent structural alterations or works to ‘cut or injure’ the premises. On the basis that

the art could simply be removed by painting over it, it would be difficult for a tenant to argue the wall really had to be removed as a necessary consequence of its repairing obligation.

The landlord may argue that its consent is required for those works and it would probably be reasonable for it to refuse consent to works that are not connected with the alteration, use or maintenance of the building.

Above: Banksy’s Mobile Lovers, on the door of Broad Plain Boys’ Club in Clement Street, Bristol.

“Taking a different approach, let’s say instead that the wall is the landlord’s responsibility. Some landlords may not appreciate the artistic merit of the gifts left on their building by up and coming street artists. There must after all be a fine line between art and graffiti! If it were graffiti, it should be covered by the landlord’s insurance policy as ‘malicious damage’ and so the landlord could make a claim for the costs of removing it. Alternatively, the landlord may repaint the wall and look to recover those costs from the tenants through the service charge. That would seem a shame but would certainly be allowable under most leases.

“Whether a tenant is entitled to remove the wall and sell the art is ultimately a case of interpreting the lease, but it would be safe to assume a landlord would seek to prevent it and try every trick in the book, whether to protect the building or to negotiate a slice of the profit!”

Louise Cartwright is a Partner at Irwin Mitchell

COMPLETELY COMPLETELY [different] [different] Summer Spring 2014 2014

28 // Interview

THE BILLION EURO BABY Nobody knew much about Delin Capital Asset Management when it arrived on the UK property scene in 2012, but it’s had quite an impact since. We spoke to CEO Christian Jamison about the company’s billion Euro strategy.

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The UK was a challenging market to penetrate

In autumn 2012, a newcomer arrived on the UK property investment scene with €200m of Russian investors’ money in its pocket. Its brief was straightforward: start acquiring relatively low-risk assets that will support a strategy of capital preservation and generate a good level of income distribution.

The primary target was logistics properties and the vehicle was looking at buying in the Benelux countries as well as the UK. With world economies still on their knees and the Eurozone crisis around the corner, it was a good time to buy.

A first deal was secured in the Netherlands and then Delin bought its first UK asset with the €15m (£12m) purchase of 4mation, a 172,415 sq ft prime freehold modern distribution warehouse located on Cabot Park in Bristol.

It’s a deal that Delin’s CEO, Christian Jamison, looks back on with fondness – and not just because it was the company’s UK debut.

“In Bristol, we bought 14-year income at an initial yield of 7.75% which today I would say is going to be at least 100 bps more expensive.”

Not quite two years on, Jamison and his team – who work out of an office in London’s Knightsbridge – have

amassed a 4m sq ft portfolio of 13 assets which are valued at €290m and reflect a net initial yield of around 7.3%.

Given what similar assets are now changing hands for, Jamison is sanguine about the current situation but it was far from plain sailing to get to today’s position.

“The UK was a challenging market to penetrate. It’s still quite a relationship-driven environment. Fortunately, I think we were one of the few people in 2012 actively looking and wanting to buy logistics property. This was also the case in the Netherlands where we were originating quite a lot from developers and direct owners.

There wasn’t a great deal of liquidity around so we got traction.

“In the UK, we managed to close some deals quite quickly before the whole world decided that UK logistics was the place to invest. Then the competition became very tough. Fortunately by then we had established our presence and one of the positives about the UK market is that there are high deal volumes.”

So how does a venture in its infancy (albeit with €200m to spend) break into a mature and sophisticated market place?

“You have to be relentless and very focused on what you want. You must be able to articulate in detail exactly what you are looking for and so create credibility.

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

30 // Interview

“We have created credibility by being targeted and by performing well and very fast on deals when required.

We haven’t tried to nickel-and-dime people with last minute re-trading and we have stuck to our views. “ He cites the acquisition of the £66m Wave Portfolio: “It was a complicated deal but we said to the sellers that we we’re totally committed and that we had done a lot of work up front. We agreed to exchange within 10 days and we did that.

“All of these things help you create the right reputation in the market.”

Jamison is a banker by training.

Fresh out of college, he started with Robert Fleming & Co in 1997 before moving to Credit Suisse First Boston to do M&A work. It was there that he got his first taste of real estate when working with Pillar Properties on the take-over of Wates City of London.

Logistics may be becoming a new sort of retail proxy “It was my first real estate M&A deal,” he recalls. “I really enjoyed the transaction.

I enjoyed learning more about real estate supply and demand dynamics.”

A move in 2002 to GE Capital saw him join the real estate business in Paris and then return to the UK team to work on originating new equity and debt opportunities for investment.

“This was at a time that the market was really coming back. GE was starting to move back into the debt space, but as the market continued to evolve it was very difficult to be competitive. That’s when I COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

felt like it might be time for a change and I had an opportunity to join JP Morgan’s real estate structured finance team.”

Two years of lending, securitisation and syndication took Jamison’s story up to the crash.

“Having built up this team we had to dismantle it which was a fairly painful experience but I certainly learnt a lot and I made some very good friends. Unfortunately the securitisation and syndicated markets had dried up and there was no obvious way to do profitable business at that point.”

He left JP Morgan at the end of 2008 and set up his own consultancy and it was then that he was introduced to Delin Capital – an investment advisory group company for a Russian private investor. Delin was interested in possible UK investment opportunities, but Jamison also helped it sort out some legacy assets that they held in central and eastern Europe.

The work developed into a full time role and he joined them in 2010 and the plan to create the investment manager, Delin Capital Asset Management, began to take shape.

Although Delin had been a cross-sector investor previously, it was decided that the new venture would focus on logistics only initially.

Jamison explains: “We thought the logistics sector fitted our objectives because it’s a relatively stable asset class. It offers all the good characteristics of real estate, and also has an added benefit of the trend towards e-commerce, which is underpinning demand for space.

“We felt that even in low or zero growth economic environments prime logistics could still do well simply because of the increased influence of e-commerce.

“There is a view that logistics may be becoming a new sort of retail proxy. So we felt that if we could get in at a good time we would lock in to very healthy yields and cash-on-cash returns for our investors.”

With €200m of equity secured, the plan was to leverage up and assemble a €400m portfolio within two years.

“For that size of portfolio we didn’t want to spread ourselves too thinly and so we selected the UK and the Benelux markets as our focus point. Having a mix of sterling and euro was very important for us and for our investors. We like the UK because it’s got very long leases, triple net and very established infrastructure. It’s also extremely liquid.

“We liked Benelux because we felt it was a slightly lower competition environment, and it’s a real gateway to Europe through Rotterdam, Antwerp, Schiphol etc. There is a huge

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amount of trade that flows through the Netherlands in particularly, so it punches way above its weight from a logistics perspective. “

be more competition out there Jamison remains very positive about the opportunities that the UK presents.

With about four months left of that original time frame, Delin is on track.

“The market is quite hot but what’s good about the UK is that it’s so liquid. We still see lots of deal flow and in certain key sub markets you will see some rental movement which is interesting.

“The good news is we have all of our equity deployed and we are now just leveraging it. Our investors are getting a cashon-cash return which is around 100 basis points higher than the minimum we promised them. We promised them 6% but we are now delivering around 7% net of fees and taxes.”

It is on the verge of securing a UK loan to provide some further liquidity, and the message from Delin’s investors is ‘more of the same, please’.

A second funding from investors is being planned with the aim to raise another €200m and to gear that up. Within five years, Jamison hopes to have €1+bn of assets under management and to double that “a few years after”.

It’s a very different environment from the one that Delin began buying into in 2012, but even though there may

“The rental growth prospects for the sector today are probably better than they’ve been for many years. We are long-term investors and can take a very positive view for the right opportunity. “ Having been a virtual ‘baby’ in the sector only 18 months ago, Delin’s growth spurt is seeing it mature fast and it intends to stay in the sector that has delivered returns to date.

“Logistics is our focus, we like the sector a lot and for the next few years that is where we are going to continue.

“We are pleased with what we have done to date but we are certainly not sitting on our laurels. It’s still just the beginning and we have got a lot of ambition.”

COMPLETELY [different] Summer 2014

32 // A Drink with

A DRINK WITH…

MARK STIRLING LondonMetric Property Plc is one of the country’s most dynamic property companies investing in retail and distribution properties across the UK. Since last year’s merger between Metric and London & Stamford, it has embarked on a £1bn programme of buying and selling assets. The Completely Group's Dom Millar lured its Asset Director, Mark Stirling, away from his desk with the promise of a quick pint at The Only Running Footman in London’s Mayfair.

What can I get you, Mark?

In an ideal world, I’d say a pint of Robinsons bitter from a great northern brewery, but today I’ll settle for a Bombardier, thanks.

LondonMetric seems to be in the news every week. Keeping you busy are they?

I’d say so. The combination of a very active investment market and significant growth in the portfolio size following the merger last year has led to a £1bn+ recycling programme. We’re a small team so it has been all hands on deck across all the operational activities.

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What’s the most important skill for an asset manager?

Staying close to your retail customer.

The invaluable intelligence they offer dictates our ‘buy, hold or sell’ strategy across the investment portfolio and determines those sites which offer the greatest development potential.

Is there a particularly interesting asset that you and your team are currently working on?

Our move into retailer-led distribution assets has been both challenging and rewarding. It’s shown us how important an efficient logistics operation for retailers is key to succeeding in a multi-channel retail world. It’s also demonstrated how closely aligned our historic approach to retail park investments through retailer intelligence has become to this relatively new asset class.

What’s the best – and worst thing – about your job?

The best is working with a young(ish!), enthusiastic and dynamic team, and creating jobs through our sustainable development programme. The worst is the duplicitous nature of politicians

I hate shopping but my wife loves it so she has probably been to more retail parks with me over the last 20 years than she cares to remember sitting on planning committees who tell us they will support an initiative and then they change their mind without sharing that decision with us.

At the weekend are we more likely to find you in cycling lycra or golf waterproofs?

Both although I have yet to find a golf club that allows lycra!

It’s time to go shopping: do you prefer sauntering through a retail park or browsing online?

I hate shopping but my wife loves it so she has probably been to more retail parks with me over the last 20 years than she cares to remember.

However, she’s drawn the line at visiting retail distribution sheds – so far!

The Only Running Footman is just what it says: the only pub of that name in London. You can find it on Charles Street off the south west corner of Berkeley Square.

This much-loved pub and restaurant houses elegant yet unpretentious surroundings complete with a truly British menu featuring the best in home grown produce. Guests can relax at the long mahogany bar or comfy booth seating and enjoy traditional blighty breakfasts or pub classics later in the day.

The restaurant, a little more luxurious, serves stylish items such as Grilled Lemon Sole, Samphire, Fennel Broth & Clams against a beautiful backdrop of vintage chairs and plush carpeting.

For a truly British experience of food, drink and atmosphere, The Only Running Footman is a definite recommendation.

For more information, please go to www.therunningfootmanmayfair.com The Only Running Footman 5 Charles Street London W1J 5DF 020 7499 2988

Snack time: what do you fancy?

Anything with chocolate, please.

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34 // Interview

HELPING PHOENIXES TO FLY First seen as a way to help deprived neighbourhoods, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are now at the centre of some of the most exciting development areas in the UK. We spoke to BID expert, Ruth Duston.

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All over the world, Business Improvement Districts have proved to be remarkable drivers of economic renewal by providing a focal point for initiatives and collaboration between business, local government and invariably the property developers who are looking to progress projects in the relevant area.

They were born in Canada in 1970 and quickly spread through North America but it was 30 years before they were introduced into the UK via the 2003 Local Government Act. In the UK, it is perhaps fair to say these ‘mini-development corporations’ were first viewed as a means of helping struggling areas rise phoenix-like from the ashes of deprivation. However, more recently, and especially in London, they have come into their own as helping to shape areas which are facing massive development activity.

BIDs typically drive initiatives aimed at improving the quality of the streetscape/public realm, enhancing security, the ‘greening’ of urban areas, sustainability and the marketing and promotion of their area.

Ruth Duston is a social and economic regeneration expert who cut her teeth working on a government special task group in London Docklands which looked at the impact of development on the local population and what could be done to ensure that they benefitted in parallel with economic regeneration.

It is this central ethos that has been carried into UK BIDS of which there are now more than 100.

developers and property owners appreciate the agenda because they know it’s going to increase values After working on projects in the Hertfordshire new towns, Duston came back into the capital to work with the Waterside Partnership in Paddington – a body set up to support development in the area.

Reflecting on that time, she comments: “What we were starting to find was that there was much more emphasis on the social, economic and physical generation of an area. Developers were starting to take more interest in the areas that they were investing in and to look more socially and economically at the impact they were having.

“That was the reason why a partnership was formed at Paddington, really to drive that agenda forward. Paddington was one of the first London business improvement districts to be developed.”

Duston has now become a ‘go to’ expert for areas in London looking to set up BIDs. She helped establish the Baker Street

Quarter and is currently actively involved in the Victoria and Northbank BIDs. She is also advising on partnership projects in Aldgate, Kings Cross/St Pancras and Cheapside – the last of which is heading for BID status. When prime areas in the Square Mile see the value of becoming a BID it’s clear that these bodies can achieve a great deal in all types of urban environments.

In many respects, BIDs fill the vital gaps that public sector services are not designed to address.

Duston explains: “We do a lot around business continuity, corporate community engagement and acting as a forum for business and developers. We are able to take more of a 360-degree view than any individual business or developer. We can co-ordinate everyone’s efforts so that there is the best outcome for those who are invested in an area from both a corporate or community perspective”.

BIDs are established by a vote among local businesses and require a mandate of at least 51% to be set up. They are then funded by an obligatory levy on local businesses which equates to around 1% of the rateable value of their property.

“When you set up a BID, developers and property owners appreciate the agenda straight away because they know it’s going to increase their asset values. And for retailers and hoteliers it’s an easy sell because we’re offering improvements in footfall, dwell time and ‘beautification’ of the area.

“For a corporate occupier it’s initially a bit more nebulous so the ‘hearts-andminds’ battle is really about bringing all occupiers on board and so that they feel convinced there is benefit.”

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36 // Interview

We can play a major role in improving public realm and connectivity Duston believes that it’s often hard to win this battle until a BID has shown what it can achieve: “When you have the mandatory re-ballot after a BID’s first five years of operation, you tend to be voted in by a much stronger majority of the business community because they have seen the merits of what they have been paying for.”

Somewhat anomalously, at present, it is possible for owners and developers in an area to basically freeload on the work that is done by a BID and funded by local business without paying a penny.

Duston is quick to point out that many owners and developers are keen to engage financially but it makes sense to regularise the situation: “You get many developers and owners that are very responsible – companies like Land Securities, British Land, Derwent London etc – and who will make a voluntary contribution but you also get a lot that won’t. So they reap the benefit and make no contribution at all but their tenants are the ones paying for it.

Next year this inequality will be addressed by the introduction of new property-owner BIDS which require owners who have been previously exempted from the levy to pay. However, instead of just bringing owners into the existing levy framework, these new BIDS will sit outside it as separate entities.

Duston, like many others, is puzzled by the structure that is being mooted.

“We won’t be entirely sure how it’s going to work until the legislation comes out, but what we do know is that it will enable owners in areas where there is already an existing BID to set up a separate company to run the new property-owner BID through. Potentially, COMPLETELY [different] Spring 2014

there is the threat that the two may not work in partnership but obviously we would hope that they would going forward.”

It would certainly be a massive step backward if the progress that BIDs have made in the past few years was hampered.

Meanwhile, Duston and her teams are pressing on with expanding the benefits that BIDs deliver.

“We can play a major role in improving public realm and connectivity which, of course, is completely aligned with the modern view of placemaking. We have shown that we can make a real difference in terms of security. Our initiatives in Victoria have delivered a 26% reduction in street crime and are now being used as a template for collaboration between business and the police in other parts of the UK.” She also believes BIDs should help promote available properties in their areas.

“If BIDs want to promote economic growth and inward investment then they need to be demonstrating what they are doing to assist that. It goes further than cleaning the streets and putting on activities and having nice marketing collateral. It is promoting what the area has to offer through its available space, and also looking at how that can help bring in new businesses to the area.”

The Northbank BID is now working with The Completely Group on an online platform to showcase available properties which follows a pilot scheme that The Completely Group is running with the Guildford BID, Experience Guildford.

Even though we are entering a more positive economic environment, Duston believes that government fiscal policy will ensure that there is a continuing and broadening role for BIDs. “With the continuing austerity measures and the public sector still under pressure to cut budgets, BIDs are able to pick many of the essential co-ordination, collaboration and promotional roles that local authorities are now just not able to fulfil.

“By working in partnership, everybody in a BID area – businesses, property owners, developers and the local community can all benefit. It’s a much more 21st-century way of looking at regeneration and renewal.”

The work of BIDS today may be less about ‘helping phoenixes to fly’ and more about creating an environment for dynamic development, but it is clear that they will have a growing influence on urban placemaking.

// 37

JOIN THE GREAT (INDUSTRIAL) DEBATE! On Tuesday June 17th, property professionals and occupiers from the trade, industrial and logistics sectors will gather at London’s Old Spitalfields Market for a day of discussion and dealmaking at the Completely Trade, Industrial & Logistics Marketplace.

In addition to the networking and information exchange opportunities, there will be a series of debates throughout the day featuring property providers, occupiers and agents each moderated by a leading journalist from our media partner, Estates Gazette.

As a curtain raiser, we spoke to panellist, Mike Hughes of Verdion, for some thoughts on the market (see page 18).

The full programme is on the right and we hope that you’ll come along and be part of The Great Debate.

If you’re not yet signed up for the Completely Trade, Industrial & Logistics Marketplace, please go to www.tradeandindustrial. completelyevents.co.uk or contact Shelley Batey, 08433 937729 / sb@completelygroup.com

IN A SSOCIATION WITH ESTATES GAZETTE

THE GREAT DEBATE SESSIONS 10AM Chaired by Noella Pio Kivlehan, EG Markets Editor Alastair King, Chancerygate

Date: June 17th Venue: Old Spitalfields Market, London E1

in association with

Nigel Turner, Kier Property Philip Joyce, Travis Perkins

11AM Chaired by Emily Wright, EG Features & Comment Editor Mike Hughes, Verdion Kevin Sey, DHL Gareth Osborn, SEGRO

2PM Chaired by Nick Whitten, EG News Editor Henry Angell-James, Graftongate Nigel Harris, John Lewis Paul Till, LaSalle IM Mark Webster, Cushman & Wakefield

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38 //

Ultimately, at The Completely Group we hope that our work speaks for itself.

We also hope you’ll come to our events, and check out our listing platforms.

In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of some work we’ve done. You can see more on our website (www.completelygroup.com) in the Portfolio section.

The Diamond Portfolio investment brochure

The Drake brochure for Countryside Properties

TH Real Estate UK Retail Warehouse portfolio

Pier Road Industrial Estate redevelopment CGI

Capital & Regional iPDF portfolio

Moat at Q Park

Kennedy Wilson portfolio

The Oaks brochure for Mantle Developments

Morgan Williams iPDF portfolio

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ISSUU

The Secret Agent // 39

PITCHING A SITCOM

For anonymity and the avoidance of a P45, the identity of the Secret Agent must remain hidden. Suffice it to say they are active in the London market and we join our covert correspondent in the midst of a series of marketing pitches…

I once saw an interview with Simon Nye – the guy who wrote Men Behaving Badly. He was asked what made a successful TV sitcom.

the energy, the fun, the recognition that what we’re doing here is marketing a building not forming a new religion?

project (and god knows none of that lot make me laugh or get me hot). Track record and capability is what counts.

He said that the secret was that you never had to be more than a minute away from the next laugh, and that ideally you should feel physically attracted to at least one of the characters in the show. On the basis of the latter you have to think he was pretty brave casting Martin Clunes in MBB but there you go, I suppose it takes all sorts.

So while reflecting on this I realised that marketing pitches can be a bit like sitcoms.

The agencies usually ‘bring the family’: there’s the senior ‘Mum/Dad’ figure (that’s what ‘MD’ stands for) and then there’s the kids (‘Sam is our senior designer and Lucy would be your account manager’).

I put this strategy to my colleagues and they were appalled at the idea. “But it’s so much fun watching the pitches – and it makes us look busy,” said one.

The reason I bring this up is that I often think of these principles when I’m sitting in a series of development marketing pitches. Every time we land the agency gig on a big scheme there’s the inevitable procession of marketing consultants pitching to do the brochure, the website, the launch event, the social media, the giveaway mug/USB stick/stress toy etc etc.

And it’s a stress toy that you need to get you through these pitches. For a start-off, I always think we see too many people (we had seven agencies pitch for a recent job). It all becomes a blur of ‘market penetration, heliotrope accents and vegetarian meal options’.

And it’s all so bloody serious. Let’s be honest, creative marketeers (or ‘the guys with crayons’ as our senior partner likes to call them) can incline to the pretentious. I know they want to show that they’re taking the job seriously but, even so, where’s

And like all good sitcoms, there are misunderstandings aplenty (‘It’s an office project not retail’) and so hilarity ensues…

Three of us from here usually sit in on the pitches which is a disaster as M***** is openly hostile to the whole concept of marketing consultants. He always does the same thing: he waits until the presentation is finished and then says:‘It’s the wrong colour’.

No matter how much the ‘creatives’ then probe this statement or suggest alternatives, my colleague maintains a sphinx-like silence.

And so – in this firm at least – a much-loved property sitcom looks set to run and run…

It’s so much fun watching the pitches – and it makes us look busy

Anyway, having accepted that using Nye’s other principle about feeling physically attracted to a chosen supplier might be a tad unprofessional, I’ve had an epiphany about appointing development marketing consultants: let’s just go to the people who we know can do the job and do it well.

We don’t ask our lawyers to re-pitch every time we need them to work on a

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