Legends of property crowned at the Property Awards 2016

Hall of Fame Inductees

Tony Pidgley, Irvine Sellar and Sir Stuart Lipton

See a special report on the ‘Legends of the Hall’ here

Professional Agency Team of the Year

CBRE – Valuation & Advisory Team

Led by Michael Brodtman, the valuation and advisory team is the largest dedicated team of its kind in the UK, and is still growing. In 2015, it added 50 new hires to take its roster to 300 valuers across 12 offices. Its biggest success of the year was winning the mandate in July to value the £16bn portfolio of Land Securities, a deal described by the judges as “groundbreaking”.

The team also developed a consistent valuation approach for the private rented sector, whereby it valued more than 50 schemes with a total of 15,000 units for clients such as Aviva, Hermes, LaSalle and Legal & General. All in all, a “standout year”, the judges said.

Industrial Agency Team of the Year

Bilfinger GVA

(Highly commended: Savills)

Bil nger GVA’s industrial and distribution team let, sold and acquired 10m sq ft of space in 2015 and undertook investment transactions totalling £550m. Praised for its “exceptional level of service and professionalism”, the team’s most significant deals of last year included the acquisition of 528,000 sq ft and sale of 345,000 sq ft of warehouses for Staples; a 235,000 sq ft pre-let to The Entertainer on a site near the M40 in Banbury; and the acquisition of Rolls-Royce’s 60-acre East Works site in Bristol by St Francis Group and Industrial Securities.

Investment Agency Team of the Year

Knight Frank

(Highly commended: Gerald Eve)

Knight Frank’s investment team had a stellar 2015 as it advised on the three largest deals in the City of London: the £575m sale of The Walbrook Building to Cathay Life; the £415m sale of Broadgate Quarter to Blackstone; and the £750m forward sale of One & Two Southbank Place. The team was also active outside London, advising Legal & General on its £400m investment in Cardiff’s 1m sq ft Central Square development, and doing a series of signi cant deals in sectors including retail and healthcare. In total, its 75-strong team acted on £9.4bn of transactions last year, which is an increase of 42% year on year. The judges described Knight Frank as the “clear winner” and praised “the quality of the team, from top to bottom”.

Leisure Agency Team of the Year

JLL

It was a busy 2015 for the leisure team at JLL, which acted for drinks company Diageo on the sale of The Gleneagles Hotel to hotel investor Ennismore and was appointed to sell the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane. Praised by the judges for its “innovation” and “broad reach”, the team worked on deals worth £1.5bn in the hotels sector, which was the major driver behind its total leisure transactions gure of £2.4bn. JLL has bolstered its presence in the hospitality market following its buyout of food consultancy Coverpoint in late 2014.

Niche or Regional Agency Team of the Year

Fawcett Mead

(Highly commended: Burbage Realty)

Former Churston Heard and JLL duo Graham Fawcett and James Mead founded this retail specialist in 2010. Five years later, Fawcett Mead completed 171 deals in 2015, which is a rise of 76% year on year, achieved despite competition from larger rivals. Its successes included opening a second o ce in Bristol and creating an app so clients could track the performance of their portfolios on their phones.

Its major deals included advising CBRE Investors on its £37m acquisition of the Magna portfolio and acting for Vixcroft on its £30m buy of the Sovereign Shopping Centre in Weston-super-Mare. The judges described Fawcett Mead as a “granular business with depth and sustainability” and praised its “amazing performance and market share”.

Office Agency Team of the Year

Knight Frank

Praised by the judges for its “strong growth and innovation”, Knight Frank’s London o ces team had a strong 2015, advising on the three largest deals in the City: the £575m sale of The Walbrook Building to Cathay Life; the £415m sale of Broadgate Quarter to Blackstone; and the £750m forward sale of One & Two Southbank Place.

Its London leasing team worked on the 275,000 sq ft letting to law rm Ashurst at M&G’s Fruit & Wool and represented Brook eld on its 220,000 sq ft letting to Royal Bank of Canada at 100 Bishopsgate. Its highlight outside London was advising Legal & General on its £400m investment in Cardi ’s 1m sq ft Central Square development.

Retail Agency Team of the Year

CBRE

(Highly commended: Nash Bond)

Delivering an “all-round very strong performance”, according to the judges, CBRE’s 160-strong retail agency team had a highly productive 2015 as it completed deals totalling 5.5m sq ft, which represents growth of 12% year on year. The team retained its leading status in the shopping centre investment market, advising on 25 deals totalling £2.3bn. CBRE also acted for some of the world’s best-known retailers and brands. It secured a 43,000 sq ft agship store for Adidas at 425 Grosvenor Street and Massimo Dutti’s rst UK shop outside London, on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street.

Deal of the Year

Resolution Property and Allsop – The Alphabeta Building

Resolution Property’s sale of the 240,000 sq ft o ce building Alphabeta on the edge of the City for £280m helped to establish a new benchmark for the value of ‘creative’ space in London. Resolution Property’s Resolution Real Estate Fund III bought the scheme, formerly called Triton Court, for a reported £43m in 2012 and refurbished it to appeal to creative tenants in the technology, media and telecoms sectors.

This helped it to attract occupiers including WPP subsidiary Maxus Global, restaurant reservation service Open Table and digital marketer We Are Social. The sale to Indonesian investor Sinarmas for £280m last July re ected an initial yield of 4%. “This stood out as a blinder of a deal,” said the judges.

Developer of the Year

Muse Developments

(Highly commended: Great Portland Estates)

Regeneration specialist Muse has a track record spanning more than 30 years and a portfolio of 40 schemes, from Aberdeen to Plymouth and from residential to industrial. Last year, it had 24 projects on site with a total construction value of £422m. Muse’s highlights of 2015 included an 80,000 sq ft office letting to Freshfields at its New Bailey scheme in Salford; a 50,500 sq ft industrial deal with John Lewis at its flagship industrial development Logic Leeds; and completing the UK’s largest combined John Lewis and Waitrose store in Basingstoke.

“A fantastic year of development across the country and with many different uses,” according to the judges.

Financier of the Year

LaSalle Investment Management

Praised by the judges for the “impressive growth of its loan book” and “ability to move quickly”, LaSalle Investment Management is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers, with operations across all property types globally in the private equity, debt and public equity markets. The rm had $56.4bn of assets under management in September 2015.

LaSalle’s highlights of last year included providing whole loan nancing for the purchase of a £137m o ce building in London and subsequently syndicating the senior debt; providing two mezzanine loans totalling £80.5m for two regional shopping centres; and providing whole-loan financing for the acquisition of a £107m student housing scheme in London, where it subsequently syndicated the senior debt.

Sustainability Achievement

The Crown Estate

(Highly commended: FORE Partnership)

In October, The Crown Estate opened its 46,000 sq ft regeneration of 7 Air Street, which is the UK’s first listed building to receive an ‘outstanding’ rating under the BREEAM 2011 system. Described by the judges as “an inspiration to other developers”, the refurbishment of this grade II-listed property is part of The Crown Estate’s £1bn programme of investment in its Regent Street estate. Work included a substantial refurbishment of the lower level floors and a total rebuild of the top two to provide modern office space with flexible floorplates.

Occupier of the Year

Travis Perkins

Builders’ merchant Travis Perkins invested £300m in property in 2015 as it overhauled its distribution network and sought to grow in new areas. Its innovations last year included striking a deal with student accommodation provider Unite to build ats above its branch in St Pancras, which gave Travis Perkins a £30m profit for zero investment; and agreeing a sale-and-leaseback deal with Standard Life for its 650,000 sq ft warehouse in Warrington. “With a 12% return on their retail assets, they beat some of the people whose sole business is real estate,” said the judges. “They have been very successful in the way they have used real estate.”

Property Company of the Year

NewRiver Retail

Founded in 2009, NewRiver hit a milestone last year as it grew assets under management to more than £1bn, as well as raising £300m through two share placings. Its 45-strong team did deals worth £377m in 2015 for assets including shopping centres, retail warehouses and high-street shops, as well as a portfolio of 158 pubs from Punch Taverns.

The company’s highlight of last year was completing a trio of buys totalling £121m from joint venture partner Bravo, a subsidiary of Pimco, to give NewRiver full ownership of 10 more shopping centres and 202 former Marston’s pubs. “They’re really pushing the boat out in their bid to become a REIT,” according to the judges.

Property Entrepreneur of the Year

Morgan Garfield and Mark Robinson – Ellandi

Morgan Garfield and Mark Robinson set up community shopping centre investor Ellandi in 2008 to build a property company in a market many predicted would imminently collapse. Now, eight years later, their firm has a £1bn portfolio of assets under management after a transformational 2015 in which it grew its portfolio from 11 shopping centres to 29.

Last year, Ellandi completed the acquisition of the £261m Tiger Portfolio for Lone Star; partnered with Colony Capital on the £311m Gemini portfolio; and established a partnership with Bridges Ventures to regenerate deprived areas. “They’re really coming up,” said the judges. “They’re bold and entrepreneurial and proving that the high street isn’t dead.”

Property Fund Manager of the Year

TH Real Estate

(Highly commended: AEW Europe)

Henderson Group and TIAA-CREF formed TH Real Estate in 2014 when they merged their European and Asia-Pacific real estate arms. With o ces in Asia, Europe and the US, TH manages around $90.5bn globally across 50 funds and mandates.

In 2015, the firm grew its headcount by 29% to 290 sta globally, in 18 offices on three continents. Praised for its “innovation, performance and energy” by the judges, the company’s global expertise has helped major rms to invest outside their home markets, including bringing Australian capital into the UK, South Korean capital into southern Europe and US capital into eastern Europe.

Proptech Company of the Year

Appear Here

Appear Here is now the largest online marketplace for short-term space, allowing landlords to list their empty space and occupiers to browse and book space. Described by the judges as “just a really good idea”, the company currently lists more than 1,500 short-term spaces nationwide and has prime retail opportunities in major cities including Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

Brands such as Google, Tate and Diageo as well as smaller independents and entrepreneurs have signed up to the platform. Appear Here has become known for its innovative partnerships. In March 2014, Transport for London appointed Appear Here to introduce pop-up shops across its retail estate, including key underground stations.

Property Newcomer of the Year

Point 2 Surveyors Ltd

(Highly commended: Westmount Real Estate)

Five top directors of Deloitte, GIA and Savills set up Point 2 Surveyors in January 2014 to bring software-led innovation into the rights-to-light market. That spring, Point 2 bought the 20-year-old software consultancy Waterslade, which has worked with a host of London property advisers. Over the next 18 months, it developed a market-leading rights-to-light software package, which enables design teams to fully visualise and interact with their schemes to understand their risks. Point 2 has a team of 55 in its offices in Covent Garden and Oxford, and has advised on more than 850 projects. The judges praised its “phenomenal growth and respect in the industry”.

Placemaking Award

Crest Nicholson Regeneration

The Lee Bank estate on the edge of Birmingham city centre was once notoriously dubbed ‘Europe’s biggest slum’ by disaffected residents, but Crest Nicholson Regeneration has helped to turn this no-go area into the £250m Park Central. In 2015, the rm completed work on the mixed-use development’s centrepiece Central Plaza, which is made up of two buildings comprising 132 one-bed and two-bed flats.

This is a seminal moment for the wider Park Central scheme, which also includes 300,000 sq ft of commercial space including offices, restaurants, a hotel and a health centre. “They’ve transformed a deprived area and created employment and hope for the local community,” said the judges.

Young Property Personality of the Year

Sammy Kingston & Walé Sanusi – The Apprentice Network/CBRE

CBRE apprentices Sammy Kingston and Walé Sanusi launched The Apprentice Network in November 2014 when they were 17 and 20 respectively. The idea of the network was to give those at the rst stage of their career the opportunity to make connections and share knowledge and the pair ensured it made a big impact in its first 18 months.

As well as running events to mark National Apprenticeship Week in July, the network is partnering with LandAid and won special recognition at the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust awards. “Making the establishment sit up and listen is a very impressive achievement,” the judges said.

Property Personality of the Year

Mike Slade – Helical Bar

Described variously as “one of the property industry’s most amboyant gures”, “a bon viveur” and someone who “appears to know absolutely everyone in the business”, Helical Bar’s Mike Slade has been a key player in property for years.

Originally a steel reinforcement business, Helical ran into difficulties in the mid-1980s and Slade was brought in to turn the company around. Having already ratcheted up more than 15 years of experience in the commercial property market, Slade saw an opportunity to take Helical in a different direction.

The result is the developer and investor we all know today. Now that his departure as chief executive is imminent – Slade is to become non-exec chairman in July – he can reflect with pride on the industry stalwart he has built over more than three decades.

As he hands over the reins to long-term colleague Gerald Kaye, Helical is on its way to reaching a market cap of £1bn. Not a bad time for Slade to take a step back and spend some more time with his yacht.