Building blocks: The new head of Plymouth’s City Development Company, Bostonian Paul Carroll, speaks about his plans for regeneration
It is the day after American Paul Carroll arrived in Plymouth from Virginia, and there is no sign of jet lag. In fact, the new chief executive of Plymouth’s fledgling City Development Company is looking tanned, cheerful and ready to face the world. Or the first board meeting of the CDC, at least.
At 48, Carroll has spent 18 years working in regeneration for both the public and private sectors. He has headed projects in both his native Boston and Washington DC, as well as working with the United Nations in China.
So what makes a Chinese-, German- and Russian-speaking Bostonian want to move his family across the Atlantic and take up the reins in Plymouth’s regeneration? And, most importantly, what powers will he have to achieve it?
“Plymouth is an incredible place,” he says. “In a lot of places there is talk of potential, but not the building blocks to fulfil that potential. Plymouth has the potential and the building blocks.”
The city’s property industry has greeted his arrival with a mixture of optimism and scepticism.
Ifan Rhys-Jones, at King Sturge’s Plymouth office, says: “Plymouth has needed a driving force behind its regeneration. The South West Regional Development Agency is very big and has a too large a remit to make us a priority. However, thereis scepticism about havinganother quango.”
And Mike Oldrieve, director at local agent Vickery Holman, adds: “Someone new is coming in and bringing new ideas, and that isn’t a problem. It is how those ideas are interpreted that could be.”
The council, which is part-funding the CDC alongside English Partnerships and SWRDA (see panel, p127), is naturally confident that Carroll is the right man for the job.
Peter Ford, planning implementation manager, says: “Paul is bringing in new skills and has access to new markets, as does James Brent [chairman of the CDC board and Citibank investment banker].”
Carroll is aware of the need for results. He points out that Plymouth already has its vision, referring to the Mackay vision, which was drawn up in 2003, so his task is now about making it a reality.
His role will primarily be facilitator, bringing together the public and private sectors and building on what has already been achieved.
Carroll admires the way regeneration is tackled in Britain. “The UK’s public sector is very good at jump-starting regeneration, but what happens next in Plymouth will be dependent on the CDC bringing in the private sector,” he says. “The financial dependence on the public sector needs to be reduced.”
But how much power the CDC will actually have is unclear at this stage. This is partly because the government is in the process of reviewing the role of both urban regeneration companies and economic development companies and drafting new guidelines.
It is also because the public sector bodies and private sector representatives on the board of the CDC, which includes the likes of Brent and Urban Splash’s managing director Jason Collard, have yet to thrash out its exact role.
Plymouth council is also a substantial landowner in the city – a factor that could be key to the CDC striking deals with developers inthe future.
Carroll would like to see the CDC in a position to market council-owned land to the private sector so that it has some real power to facilitate regeneration. He also talks of engaging public/private partnerships to bring forward infrastructure improvements.
Ford says: “We haven’t got to a level of deciding whether the CDC should own land itself but the council would be looking to the CDC to help bring development sites forward. It would almost be like the CDC being the council’s agent with the council adding its compulsory purchase order powers.”
It will be Carroll’s responsibility to bring the minds of the CDC’s board members together and devise an achievable strategy.
He was due to present a 30-page document at the board’s first meeting four days after his arrival, outlining his ideas for what the priorities should be. Among them are key infrastructure projects and engaging the private sector in mixed-use development.
The board will decide on a business plan, which will be launched in September. Carroll’s contract is for two years, but he hopes his achievements will allow him to stay on for five to seven years.
Plymouth is not the first city to see an American take the helm of its regeneration body. Adam Wasserman was parachuted in to head Hull Citybuild in 2004.
Like Carroll, he worked in Virginia turning around the fortunes of Arlington, just outside Washington DC. However, he left Hull just two years later after reportedly being head-hunted for a top development job in the US.
Carroll is moving his family to Plymouth – hopefully, a sign that he plans to stick around for the long term.
Regeneration body faces key tasks ahead
Regeneration in some form has been rolling on for a while in Plymouth. The public and private sectors have brought a number of Plymouth’s historic wharfs back into use, boosted the retail offer with a new shopping centre, Drake Circus, and kickstarted the £300m regeneration of Millbay.
In 2003, renowned architect David Mackay created a vision for the city centre. It outlined, among other things, where it was appropriate for tall buildings to be located and how the city centre could be reconnected with its waterfront.
The formation of the City Development Company was first announced in December 2006. The South West Regional Development Agency decided that, although a lot had been achieved, it was time to move the regeneration efforts on to the next level.
Ian Thompson, SWRDA’s area director, says: “Plymouth council has done very well with its regeneration strategy, but now it is time for a dedicated resource to concentrate on delivery.”
English Partnerships, SWRDA and Plymouth council are each backing the CDC with £250,000 pa for three years. But there has already been debate in the local press about whether that is enough for the regeneration body to achieve anything meaningful. It highlights the necessity for private sector involvement.
Its 15-strong board is made up of a combination of public and private sector representatives, with Paul Carroll as the chief executive and James Brent, global head of real estate at Citigroup, as chairman. Brent will be paid for two days’ work a month but has already said he will donate the money to charity.
English Partnerships, Plymouth city council, SWRDA and the local chamber of commerce all have representatives. Urban Splash’s managing director Jason Collard, Grosvenor’s finance director Richard Handley and Mark Hawkins, group managing director of Twofour Group, make up the private sector representatives on the board.
It is likely that part of the CDC’s role will be helping lobby central government for funds – something that has not been done properly before.
The board met for the first time at the beginning of May, and its business plan outlining its strategy will be launched in September.
Paul Carroll CV
Born: 1964, Boston
Educated: University of Massachusetts, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Boston College
1989: Taiwan desk officer, US Commerce Department
1999: International marketing manager, China, Massachusetts Port Authority
2004: Executive director, Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, Washington DC
Languages: Fluent in Chinese and Russian, and German to university level
Family: Married with son, 13
Lifestyle: Hiking, beachcombing and political debate
