From popular culture to property, 2016 has already endured more than its fair share of untimely deaths. Mourning is important but so too is learning from the best of them.
Three significant, recent passings highlight the qualities this sector should seek to emulate to make the best of the challenging years ahead.
The Duke of Westminster, Bob Kiley and Eric Kuhne could hardly have been more different. The first, a member of the landed gentry who, when asked the best way young entrepreneurs could emulate his success, said: “Make sure they have an ancestor who was a very close friend of William the Conqueror.” The second, a former CIA operative who repeated in London his success in rejuvenating New York’s creaking public transport system. And the third, a Texan of Swiss, Czech and Swedish heritage – an architect, masterplanner and skilled communicator. Each made a profound difference and each provides lessons in style and approach.
Kiley, who became Ken Livingstone’s and London’s first transport commissioner, died on Tuesday.
Livingstone described him as “ the most important appointment I ever made in my political career”. The capital’s tubes, buses and, yes, even its traffic – he introduced the congestion charge – are certainly better off for the New Yorker’s interventions.
Kiley described himself as a former CIA agent working for an unreconstructed Trotskyite. The New Yorker painted him as “the cool American, intent on his job, unfazed by the spotlight, the consummate grown-up”. More of that please.
“When I became mayor,” Livingstone said this week, “London Underground was such a mess, the bureaucracy was a shambles and we desperately needed to bring in someone who could make changes. There was no one else who could do the job.”
“New Duke of Westminster, new London property cycle,” said the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. “The death of Gerald Grosvenor could mark the end of a golden era for London.”
Let’s hope his sad, early passing does not come to represent a dulling of the capital’s shine. But it is undeniable that the duke symbolised many of the changes to London’s property market over the last decade.
Having topped the Estates Gazette Rich List for its first 10 years, in 2013 he fell from first to fourth. Despite his wealth continuing to grow, inflows of overseas money – especially from Asia – saw him fall further in the ensuing years. Old money overtaken by new money: it’s the modern London fairy tale.
The duke himself had ceded the chairmanship of Grosvenor Group in 2007 after 30 years at the helm, though he remained chair of the Grosvenor trustees, who represent the family’s interests. That role now passes to his son Hugh, who inherits a £9bn fortune and, hopefully, the good sense to leave control to experienced, talented professionals.
A fortnight earlier, Kuhne passed away. Known for his retail schemes around the world, it was Bluewater that made his name in the UK. He led the transformation of an abandoned chalk quarry into the largest out-of-town shopping centre in southern England. It was never short of criticism but has been an enormous commercial success and a blueprint for much of modern retail.
He was a persuasive, passionate speaker too, amply demonstrated in his last two years of judging the Estates Gazette Awards. He stood up for good design, placemaking and the importance of developers taking the public with them in delivering significant urban change. He was by no means the best-known architect of his generation but that suited him. As he told Estates Gazette back in 2007: “Remember that the architecture is always more important than the architect.”
Each is a sad loss. Better we remember their contributions: if property’s next generation can combine the qualities of Kiley, Kuhne and Grosvenor – the importance of assembling talented teams, delegating, and delivering with a splash of humility along the way – it will thrive.
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