“Could this be the best job in property?” asked EG’s Diary just over a year ago when news broke that Calthorpe Estates, the property company responsible for over two square miles of historic landed estates south-west of Birmingham city centre, had appointed headhunters to find a new captain for its team, or, more correctly, a replacement for retiring chief executive Richard Allen.
Part of the attraction of the job, Diary suggested, was access to cricket matches at Warwickshire Cricket Club’s recently developed stadium at Edgbaston, the Birmingham district synonymous with Calthorpe Estates, as well as cricket.
The grounds have actually been owned by the club for more than 100 years, after Calthorpe gifted it at the turn of the last century, but the chief executive has been welcome there ever since.
And in 2012 Calthorpe’s recruitment consultants didn’t have far to look for their new appointment: Mark Lee was already installed as chief financial officer and donned his whites for his new role last September.
Earlier this month, he agreed to an exclusive interview with Estates Gazette, the first time the historically media-shy Calthorpe Estates has opened its doors to outside scrutiny.
First impressions of Lee are that he isn’t a property person in the traditional mould. He exudes no trace of ebullient excitement or brash bonhomie.
Instead his calm, understated, manner suggests someone with an eye for detail. So it is perhaps no surprise to find that he had a solid career in finance behind him (see CV) before joining Calthorpe in 2008.
The ability to scent out a good deal with a cool head is definitely a property trait, though Lee is keen to point out that his appointment as chief executive was no shoo-in.
He says: “I had to go through a competitive process like everyone else. As it happens, they liked my skill set, my good contacts with the banks and my experience dealing with a crisis situation in a previous company – not that they were expecting a crisis, but it’s good to have someone who is prepared.”
“They” are the Calthorpe Estates Trustees, who oversee the company on behalf of its beneficiary, Hampshire-based Sir Euan Anstruther- Gough-Calthorpe, the descendant of a lineage stretching back 300 years (see history box). The private family nature of Calthorpe Estates’ business means that financial data is hard to come by – many property holdings are distributed across individual trusts.
In EG’s 2012 Rich List, Sir Euan and family were ranked joint 115th based on total holdings valued at £160m, no change from the previous year. The Calthorpe Estates’ contribution was estimated at £80m, though a market insider suggests that the Calthorpe portfolio is worth more than £100m.
It’s not just the property company’s financials that are low profile. Members of Birmingham’s property fraternity claim that their dealings with Calthorpe are limited. They are sometimes irked that information about what is happening on the estate is hard to come by.
Lee is sympathetic, but suggests that the estate’s location outside the city centre means that individuals aren’t as visible as they might be. “Because we take on our own projects, and don’t have a lot of business overlaps with the city centre, there isn’t a great deal of contact,” he agrees, though he adds that he does his fair share of shoulder-rubbing at city networking events.
As for business relations, Lee says the estate has good contacts with Birmingham city council’s key officers, including director of regeneration Waheed Nazir, and he intends to maintain an estate tradition of meeting regularly with the council leader. That could lead to some interesting conversations, as current council leader Sir Albert Bore is actively backing plans to create a life sciences quarter in and around Selly Oak, just south-west of Edgbaston.
Calthorpe, though, is already positioning itself as the city’s medical quarter, to take advantage of the estate’s location mid-way between the city centre and the Queen Elizabeth hospital and university areas. Could that lead to conflict with the council? Lee thinks not. “We see Selly Oak as complementary,” he says. In any case, he adds, sites at Battery Park, Selly Oak, won’t be available for at least two years, while plots on the estate are ready now.
In fact, some are already taken at the jewel of Calthorpe’s medical crown, the 27-acre former Pebble Mill studios site, at the estate’s south-eastern extremity. Since the BBC moved out in 2001 the area has been flattened and deals agreed for a 172,000 sq ft dental hospital and school of dentistry, a Circle Care private hospital and BUPA care home. Two plots, totalling two acres, remain available.
Completing the transformation of Pebble Mill is, says Lee, one his two key priorities. The other is to concentrate on renovation of the 2.5m sq ft mainly 1960s vintage office properties on the estate, mostly clustered on the mid-northern fringe around the A456 Hagley Road and held in a variety of ownerships, from fully managed to freehold on a peppercorn rent. Change of use is a possibility for some units, though Lee says: “We take a long-term view, so turning offices into two-star hotels isn’t our game.”
What is clear is that there won’t, at least for now, be an appetite for big projects like the £400m development programme that Calthorpe embarked on before the recession, which included Pebble Mill and the Edgbaston Galleries retail scheme on the Five Ways roundabout, subsequently scaled back to a 51,000 sq ft Morrisons supermarket that opened last October. There were cutbacks within the estate too: the Calthorpe team of 30 in 2008 has since halved. Lee is hopeful the tide is turning.
Outside of work, Lee enjoys typical property sporting pursuits, including a passion for sailing, though he admits his day skipper qualification is rusty and the dinghy he owns could see greater use. That’s perhaps unsurprising, given that he has been living in landlocked Warwick for nearly 20 years. But what about cricket? Yes, Lee is hoping for a couple of good matches at Edgbaston this summer. “However, I also really enjoy getting to Twickenham when I can,” he confides.
Mark Lee – CV
Born January 1963 – Sheffield
Higher Education:
1981 – 1984 University of Nottingham, BSc mechanical engineering
1984 – 1988 Accountancy training contract (ACA, then FCA)
Career
1984 – 1989 Audit and tax specialist, Coopers & Lybrand, London
1989 – 1995 Property finance, then M&A specialist, Charterhouse Bank, London
1995 – 1998 Midlands head of M&A, Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance
1998 – 2006 Group finance director, Victoria Group
2006 – 2007 Group finance director, Radstone Technology
2007 – 2008 Finance director, Floors 2 Go
2008 – 2012 Chief financial officer, Calthorpe Estates
2012 – Present Chief executive, Calthorpe Estates
Lifestyle
Divorced, with three children, enjoys cycling, skiing, golf, sailing.
