Cushmans must be doing something. That’s been the industry refrain for months now. This week it finally did. And it took everyone by surprise.
Let’s not get it out of proportion: it’s not a King Sturge, nor is it an ING – deals that transformed Jones Lang LaSalle and CBRE last year – but it is significant nonetheless. Poaching Digby Flower from CBRE is a big deal. Installing him as head of London markets is a signal of intent.
With Andrew Parker, Flower moves to Cushmans after 17 years at CBRE, where he advised on many of the capital’s most significant occupational and leasing deals of recent years, from the preletting of New Street Square to Deloitte and Taylor Wessing to leasing 99 Bishopsgate and 125 Old Broad Street for Hammerson.
The appointment will see Cushmans bring together its agency, investment and development functions under one leader, under one roof. “We are well positioned to ensure Cushman & Wakefield becomes the leading real estate adviser in London,” said EMEA chief executive Paul Bacon.
If this implies weakness on Cushman’s part in the capital, that’s intentional, despite it already holding instructions totalling 6.5m sq ft from Westfield Stratford City to Battersea, where it is advising the US Department of State on the development of its new US Embassy at Nine Elms. The firm has long been considered underweight in the capital. That should now begin to change.
Bacon was enjoying being back on the front foot this week. “London remains a priority,” he insisted, reminding the market of his ambition to double the firm’s UK turnover within five years.
To do this the firm will have to deliver on its promise. A global business like Cushmans should be leveraging its international footprint, cross-selling services across markets and regions. For turnover to double, that has to happen to a more significant degree, as Bacon concedes: “We’ll try to get the interplay between New York and London working as effectively as we would like,” he said.
For now, corporate deals are not in Bacon’s sites, but other teams and individuals may well be.
He acknowledges that it has taken to longer for the business to address London than he would have liked, but he is confident that the right team, the right strategy and the necessary firepower are now in place. Meanwhile, a strategy to grow in Asia to a similar degree is also in place.
So Cushmans has done something. What might it do next?
MIPIM 2012
Estates Gazette is gearing up for MIPIM and is sending a 12-strong team of journalists to bring you the best coverage of the event, whether you are striding the Croisette or sat behind your desk.
Some 19,000 delegates are registered this year and, with more than 4,000 investors expected, a number that’s up on last year, there is an appetite and an expectation to get business done.
We will be producing daily digital editions once again, with all the news and comment from the show. And for the first time these will be available on iPad.
We are also staging two live web seminars that will offer the audience in Cannes, the UK and beyond the opportunity to quiz panellists.
At Tuesday’s Future of London debate (1200 GMT), quiz London First’s Faraz Baber, new Hines UK MD Ross Blair, GVA executive chairman Stephen Brown and David Marks, co-managing partner of Brockton Capital and junior vice-president of the British Property Federation.
At Thursday’s Olympic legacy event (0930GMT), you can put your questions to sports minister Hugh Robertson, Olympic Park Legacy Company chair Baroness Ford, Lend Lease head of offices development Kevin Chapman and Savills director of London residential development Dominic Grace.
Register and find out more at www.estatesgazette.com/mipim2012
