Governments don’t make good city developers and should leave development to the experts, which have a greater appetite for risk, the vice president of US-based Related Companies told MIPIM UK at an Estates Gazette and Scottish Cities Alliance-hosted debate.
Michael Samuelian, whose company is developing New York’s Hudson Yards (pictured), said that in the US the public sector wanted risk off its balance sheets and was more likely to pass land to private developers to “make it great”.
“The private sector can do better when it comes to development. The public does a great job on infrastructure and public space but when it comes to development you want to get the experts in, and I’m not convinced that governments are great developers,” said Samuelian. He added that public/private partnerships had different connotations, depending on how active the public sector was, but that in recent times local governments had been happy to pass the risk to private entities.
Tony Rose, infrastructure director at Scottish Futures Trust, said some of the unconventional public/private partnerships around TIF and Edinburgh’s Accelerator focused on working together in a more a “more structured
and sensible way”.
“These projects looked at questions such as, ‘What’s this going to deliver? How can that benefit the private sector? Who is going to generate jobs and taxes going back into the public sector?’ to make that circle more complete,” he said.
Martin Perry, development director at TIAA Henderson Real Estate, said 21st century cities should be places that encouraged people to “live, work, play and eat within that city”.
He added: “We expect a city to be able to cater to those needs. If you look around the country you can see those that don’t do that. The concept of actually living in the city isn’t realised in every city.”
Samuelian added that connectivity, diversity and planning were the key components for a 21st century city.
Knowledge clusters, once a key part of the city development debate, were “putting all your eggs in one basket”, said Sue Bruce, chief executive of Edinburgh city council.
She added: “Knowledge is a key part of the Scottish economy but you can see that knowledge going into different industries. None of the Scottish cities is going to be a one-trick pony in this land
of enterprise.”
