Steve Whyman knows his crustaceans. In fact, what the managing director of Broadgate Estates doesn’t know about the velvet swimming crab isn’t worth knowing. “It is a small crab native to UK waters,” he explains earnestly. “We don’t eat them here but the Spanish love to use them in their paellas. Back in the 80s I researched these crabs to help exporters get them to Spain alive. They kept dying en route.” He pauses for a moment. “I researched lobsters too. And halibut.”
To clarify, these are not the ramblings of an extreme marine enthusiast. Whyman is a former zoologist and it was this crustacean research on the west coast of Scotland nearly three decades ago that, somewhat unexpectedly, set him on the path to property. Any references to a sideways move here are strictly forbidden.
“The punning potential is definitely there,” says Whyman with a half laugh, half grimace. “But they are just so bad. Anyway, it is true that it was working out how to move sealife from A to B that led me into transport and logistics and from that I moved into property to join Broadgate Estates three years ago.”
And those three years have, so far, been pretty successful. The group now manages around £175m of service charges a year on key estates and buildings in central London – Whyman predicts this will climb to nearer £200m over the next 18 months.
Changing occupier demands have seen the firm handling a substantial rise in rent collections, from £10m in 2010 to a current value of around £130m. And last week it was officially announced that the firm has been retained by the new owners of the 600,000 sq ft Ropemaker Place EC2, following British Land’s £472m sale of the property in April – a crucial and very public endorsement.
Here Whyman explains how Broadgate Estates has built up an increasingly strong reputation and growing portfolio since he took over the top job in 2010 and reveals what is next on the agenda.
Retention and reputation
Maintaining a strong reputation in a tough market has served Broadgate Estates well. The group manages an enviable portfolio of some of the capital’s best known estates and buildings, including The Kings’s Cross, Regent’s Place, Central St Giles Estates, and, of course, Ropemaker Place.
Whyman explains that the past three years have been particularly active thanks to the fact that, on top of new projects, most existing properties in the firm’s portfolio have changed ownership: “There have been new entrants like Oxford Properties,” he says. “But also older clients who have been coming in with new partners. Stanhope and Mitsui, for example. These new joint ventures, plus more money coming into London from overseas investors and sovereign wealth funds, have really driven our business forward.”
This is on top of changing occupier demands across the board. An increased demand for simplicity, ease and value for money has seen many clients take the opportunity to consolidate advisers. And Broadgate Estates has fared well.
“As owners have thought ‘why pay fees to different people to cover rent collection, and asset management?’ we have picked up a lot of extra work on top of day-to-day property management. Roll the clock back three years and we were collecting £10m of rent. Now we are collecting nearer £130m a year on behalf of clients. This has been a huge change driven by owners looking for more value. Blackstone has been a great example of this.”
What, and where, next?
While Broadgate Estates is managing properties outside of London, including Liverpool One, it is no surprise that Whyman is focused on the capital. “Central core London is crucial to our strategy – the West End and Midtown in particular, where we have a healthy portfolio building up over the coming months. But we also have a close eye on Battersea, where we have been advising, and the wider Nine Elms area. And we are looking at what CapCo is up to at Earl’s Court. Big resi-led mixed-use schemes are where we feel we can bring something to the table.”
He adds that focusing on maintaining client relationships will also be crucial to winning new work and keeping a high retention rate: “British Land is obviously a key developer at the moment, with money to spend through the Ropemaker sale and the share issue. It has a significant investment going into Broadgate. Then there is Delancey with its various backers, who we have been working with on Plantation Place, and we have a long-standing relationship with Argent and Stanhope.
“We are also focusing heavily on technology. We have been delivering online property management services and community websites through Vicinitee, which we launched in 2001 – giving local information to property owners about what is going on in the area around them including details of shops, services and events happening nearby – and we are moving more towards delivering building information modelling services, or BIM.
“As for technology in the buildings, it is about making sure we have easily accessible WiFi both inside and, in some cases, outside the buildings. At Broadgate, for example, simple things like putting deckchairs outside and having WiFi available mean people can sit and work in the sun, which just shows how much the traditional way of working and the old definition of an office have changed profoundly.”
While Whyman is unable to reveal too much about the forward pipeline at this stage, he does confirm that Broadgate Estate’s 10m sq ft portfolio will grow towards delivering £200m in service charges over the next 18 months, up from the present figure of £175m.
Not bad for a company headed by a man who three years ago “didn’t know a single soul” at MIPIM and who started off his career holed up on a research base in Scotland examining the behavioural patterns of crabs.
