Does the ‘yearly rumour’ have legs?
Another Mipim, another series of wild rumours flying around the Croisette. This year, in the wake of the merger between Deloitte and Drivers Jonas, there is mounting speculation that more agents are set to merge.
The hottest rumour this year is that BNP Paribas RE will buy either DTZ (a French connection that has often been mooted here) or Cushman & Wakefield.
BNP PRE dismissed the talk as “the yearly Mipim rumour”, but more and more folk are guardedly saying that they are expecting a big announcement soon.
Boris rallies the crowd with ode to allotments
Probably the biggest crowd of the week in Cannes gathered at the reception on the London stand on Tuesday evening.
The big draw, mayor Boris Johnson, was as rousing as ever, with a 10-minute pitch so crowd-pleasing that many a stand-up comedian would swap their best material for it.
Introduced by EG editor Damian Wild as the capital’s “cheerleader in chief”, Boris reeled off a litany of occasionally familiar stats (“and as I never tire of saying to mayor Bloomberg, you are four times more likely to be murdered in New York” etc).
But he bemoaned one consequence of the capital’s renewed appetite for development – the loss of alternative uses for land earmarked for schemes.
He was particularly worried that temporary allotments that would be no more. “It is a serious reversal to our food growing programme,” he proclaimed.
St Martin’s students do Madelin’s marketing
There must be something in the air on the London stand that brings out the inner comedian in speakers. After cycling from London as part of the Cycle to Cannes group, Argent’s Roger Madelin thanked the art and design students of St Martin’s College, who will be moving to the college’s new King’s Cross site next year, for saving him millions in marketing costs.
They are apparently complaining in the press that the area is no longer edgy enough for them – an inconvenience for fashionable youngsters looking for a rite of passage experience, but a boon for the corporate occupiers Madelin needs to attract.
The Argent boss was then seen dashing sweaty and Lycra-clad to his first Mipim meeting at 4pm after arriving from the gruelling, 930-mile cycle ride from London just half-an-hour earlier.
Is Madelin just a workaholic or was he keen to impress his colleagues with his bravado? Apparently neither. He got the arrival time wrong.
‘Bad bank’ clients go in by the back door
Since it was set up last August, property types have been wondering why the Royal Bank of Scotland’s “bad bank” has been named West Register.
What was the meaning behind the mysterious name the bank has given to the bad-debt bank subsidiary into which it has sold millions of pounds worth of distressed property?
Diary can now reveal that West Register takes its name from the back entrance to the bank’s Edinburgh HQ. Geddit?
When Witnesses rang Goodman’s doorbell
Diary can also now reveal that the UK branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses was the driving force behind one of the most intriguing industrial requirements to appear last year.
The church entered talks with developer Goodman to take up to 550,000 sq ft at Hatfield Business Park in Hertfordshire to create a meeting place, office complex, printworks and logistics facility to distribute pamphlets.
Sadly, word among agents is that the search has now been put on hold on the say-so of the organisation’s head office in the US. Not so much a case of the Lord moving in mysterious ways, but rather the Lord finding He quite likes it where He is and deciding to stay put.
Is Wolsey Place buy a cardinal sin by council?
Retail investment agents have become keen followers of the Surrey Advertiser‘s website, Get Surrey, after Woking council spent £68m on the acquisition of Wolsey Place shopping centre in the town.
The news hasn’t gone down too well with residents, and the website has been inundated with vitriolic comments aimed at the council and its chief executive, Ray Morgan.
One reader, Graham Thomas, said: “If it was such a good deal, someone in the private sector would have bought it.”
Well, at least tracking local issues is more productive than looking at Facebook.
Nolan Redshaw couldn’t stop Delap
Aficionados of the beautiful game will be aware of the trouble that Stoke City’s Rory Delap has been causing to defences this season.
Delap’s freakishly long throw-ins into the box have so far helped his side to score 10 league goals this season.
Last week, Lancashire-based chartered surveyor Nolan Redshaw earned itself the unfortunate accolade of being the failed last line of defence as “the Delapidator” created yet another goal.
Before the match, at Burnley’s Turf Moor ground, Burnley manager Brian Laws ordered that advertising boards be placed closer to the pitch-side in a bid to curtail Delap’s vital run-up to his throw-ins.
Delap was not so easily thwarted. Awarded a throw-in in the 23rd minute, he merely ran around a board advertising Redshaw’s services to deliver one of his trademark throws, duly slammed into the Burnley goal by a teammate. The match ended 1-1.
