Shed specialist Simon Blake is returning to CB Richard Ellis almost a year to the day after he left to launch a £1bn fund.
He is returning to the world’s largest property consultancy to take up the role of head of UK capital markets.
Blake, who with Simon Holley sold industrial specialist Holley Blake to CBRE in 2006 for £12m, left the agent last September to launch Altyon Partners.
They had hoped to turn that business into a £1bn fund. However, despite raising around £300m of equity from Qatari and other Middle Eastern investors, the fund has so far only completed the purchase of a £6m site in Kent.
It is close to securing its first major deal, however. The firm is fronting a consortium of investors that is bidding to buy a 595-property portfolio from the German federal state of Berlin.
Blake said: “Being master of your own destiny is great, but so also is having a reasonably senior role in a big global consultancy. I missed the day-to-day adrenalin rush [of being an agent]. It suits my skills better as well, so it was an obvious choice.”
Blake, who rejoins CBRE on 4 October, will work alongside head of EMEA capital markets Stephen Hubbard, who will be freed to further concentrate on his role as chairman of CBRE’s real estate finance group. Blake will continue to advise Altyon.
nick.whitten@estatesgazette.com
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