Sir Albert Bore
Leader, Birmingham city council
The next two years will be crucial for Birmingham, and Sir Albert Bore will be the man running the show. The head of the UK’s largest local authority has ambitious plans for the city’s economic growth. He is throwing his weight behind initiatives including the £600m redevelopment of New Street station and the Pallasades shopping centre. By 2016 a number of major infrastructure projects will have been implemented and the council is also now looking to release cash from its sizeable property assets and as the majority owner of the NEC Group – estimated to be worth £250m-£300m. Don’t take your eye off the Birmingham ball.
Jackie Sadek
Chief executive, UK Regeneration
One of property’s most outspoken representatives –her comments include: “We say ‘bollocks’ to existing volume housebuilding,” – with a passion for all things regen, Jackie Sadek is also one of the industry’s most powerful regional champions. Don’t miss the MIPIM regular in Cannes next week, where she should be a priority contact for anyone in regional property. Indeed, UK Regeneration has recently invested £33m to deliver a residential scheme in Lenton, Nottinghamshire, following a meeting at MIPIM two years ago. Fiercely determined and an expert networker, Sadek knows all the right people and what to do to make things happen.
Sir Howard Bernstein
Chief executive, Manchester city council
A Power List stalwart and tireless force of nature in Manchester, just last month Sir Howard Bernstein scored a victory in his drive to attract global financial talent to the city. Along with inward investment body MIDAS, Bernstein helped persuade the financial arm of automotive giant Ford to choose the city for a new 60,000 sq ft European HQ at Ask Developments’ £500m First Street. Not just Mr Manchester, Bernstein is also still looking to spread himself between London and the regions, increasingly working in the West End advising growth strategies.
George Ferguson
Mayor of Bristol
The UK’s first elected mayor, George Ferguson has the power to greatly increase his influence in 2014 in the run up to his potential re-election in two years. This will be crucial if he is to deliver his 2020 vision for Bristol. This year, all eyes will be on his plans for better housing provision in the city. In December, he unveiled plans to build 2,500 new affordable homes by 2018 through the council partnering with a range of providers and housing associations. He was a co-presenter on the Channel 4 programme Demolition in 2005, so he knows how to get his views across. He is also known for being a “red trouser” man. But he is an architect, so we won’t hold it against him.
John Whittaker
Chairman, Peel Group
“Reclusive”, “private” and “secretive” are all words bound to add to the intrigue when it comes to describing someone such as John Whittaker – particularly when other words used to describe him have included “very astute”,”very clever,” and “very good.” With a labyrinth of subsidiaries under the Peel Group umbrella – best known as being the owner of Manchester’s Trafford Centre mall until 2011 – the company has attracted widespread attention since the BBC moved into its £200m MediaCity building in Salford. With the broadcaster due to spend hundreds of millions of pounds with the Peel Group in the next 20 years, Whittaker’s Power List credentials – albeit masterminded from his hideaway home on the Isle of Man – are holding firm.
Duke of Buccleuch
Chairman, Buccleuch Group
The fact that the 10th Duke of Buccleuch is one of the largest landowners in Europe is not Power List worthy in its own right. It is what the Buccleuch Group is doing with that land and how it is investing in property assets around the world that should be catching the industry’s attention. He owns acres of land in Dumfriesshire and the Buccleuch Group covers a swathe of property services almost as extensive. It has a property portfolio worth around £500m across the commercial and residential sectors, including joint ventures, and has significant property interests in Australia, the US and Europe, together with a substantial UK investment and development portfolio.
Lord Edmiston
Founder, IM Properties
Just one part of Lord Edmiston’s impressive portfolio of businesses, his property group hit the headlines last month when it was revealed it has more than £100m to spend on the private rented sector in the Midlands. The group will be one of the first to bring this sort of development into the region. It was also the first developer to announce a large-scale speculative industrial development in the area last year – circa 330,000 sq ft. In addition, it has £100m of investment in Germany. Edmiston himself is certainly a controversial character – particularly when it comes to his views on gay marriage – and with so much recent activity, IM Properties will be one to watch in 2014.
Sheila King
Group leasing director, Hammerson
She may be a King by name, but Hammerson’s group leasing director is the queen of all things retail across the group’s portfolio, and at Leeds’ Victoria Quarter in particular. King successfully secured Harvey Nichols as the anchor tenant at the 18,900 sq ft development and has attracted other high-end brands, including Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood. Her goal to push Hammerson to the forefront of retailing in the UK and France looks set to not only be met but exceeded this year, as she helps to put Leeds well and truly on the world’s very best retail radars at the same time.
Tony Gallagher
Chief executive, Gallagher
One of Warwickshire’s most powerful men, Tony Gallagher is also one of the county’s richest. Worth £450m, income from his residential and commercial property businesses (Gallagher Estates and Gallagher Developments respectively) saw ranked 12th in the Birmingham Post Rich List in January. A hugely influential property player in the Midlands, he never gives interviews but remains one to watch throughout 2014 thanks to “spade-ready” residential plots in Ashby and Birmingham. And Gallagher Developments has more than 6m sq ft of land with commercial development planning consent ready to go. Successfully navigating the still tricky regional property market, he is definitely worth adding to the contacts book.
Jeanette Walker
Director, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Jeanette Walker has pretty much single-handedly driven the vision for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus since it was nothing more than a sparkle in the city’s eye. Since joining the campus as project director in 2011, she has secured outline planning consent for the 70-acre healthcare village, and has convinced Papworth hospital to move to the site in 2015. Eighteen months ago, Walker targeted a 35,000-40,000 sq ft prelet at the campus to support a 100,000 sq ft building. Last summer, AstraZeneca’s £30m global R&D centre and corporate HQ took up 11 of the park’s 70 acres, allowing Walker to push forward with game-changing plans in Cambridge.
