“I’m late, I’m sorry. I know. I’m here. Let’s chat. Wendy, wonderful Wendy, good morning. How are you? Today I need, in this order, a banana and one of your legendary cups of black coffee. This is the wonderful Wendy. Have you met?” Just 10 seconds in David Rosen’s world is enough to recalibrate what most people would consider a normal pace of life.
The agent – “one of the most creative in the business”, according to Derwent London boss John Burns – moves at breakneck speed as he sweeps into his office; a vast, wood-panelled room with a ceiling so high that it feels like walking into a cathedral vestry. The walls are covered in art, with more pieces stacked on the floor waiting to be hung.
Almost every surface is strewn or stacked with reading material, from hardback books on design to copies of GQ and books with titles like What would Keith Richards do?
Wonderful Wendy – his PA, and “my original Moneypenny” – rushes in and out with coffee and, just when you think there is nothing more to take in – “Smile and wave, smile and wave,” says Rosen as Derwent London’s Simon Silver and Richard Baldwin sail past the window and off down Savile Row.
Life according to Rosen, 55, is fast, frenetic, pleasantly exhausting – and it needs to have been to have got him to where he is today. Since taking over property consultancy Pilcher Hershman 25 years ago, he has focused on reinventing the role of the traditional agent by remaining fiercely loyal to design and refusing point blank to work with clients who are not.
Here, the self-coined “special agent” reveals what it is that has so many developers, architects and clients singling him out as one of the best in the business, and explains why developers “have really come of age” in terms of embracing design.
Just say no
Rosen specialises in discovering disused spaces, often by roaming the streets of London at all hours, for some of the biggest names in fashion, design and the arts, including both Maurice and Charles Saatchi, Stella McCartney and Condé Nast. Every building he deals with has three non-negotiable attributes: light, volume and character.
And his formula works. Just last week, agents came under attack at the British Council for Offices’ IntelliBuild conference, where they were described as blockers rather than facilitators of good design in development. Rosen was, more than once, named as the exception to the rule.
When asked why he thinks he is being so often positively singled out, he says it is ultimately down to the fact that he is prepared to say no.
“If you have developers who are creating a different sort of building, why shouldn’t you be an agent who says no to developers who won’t embrace good architecture and design? Thirty years ago as an entrepreneurial agent, I thought it would be interesting to say no and see what happened.”
What happened was that Rosen and his business partners, David Jackson, Simon Rinder and David Berko, successfully filled a gap that design-driven developers and architects were desperate to see plugged.
“I was part of the whole 1980s British design explosion,” he says, “so I never really worried that going down this route wouldn’t pay off. All the graphic designers, packaging designers, architectural practices – they were all my mates and I knew what sort of buildings they wanted, so I went out to find old industrial warehouses for them.”
Today, Rosen’s “alternative agent” USP has not only stood the test of time, it has become even more sought after.
His client list has steadily increased over the years, both in terms of volume and calibre, building up to some of the most impressive transactions of his career, including the 50,000sq ft 30 Berkeley Square property deal for world-renowned auctioneers and art dealer Phillips de Puri, and discovering the building that is now home to Charles Saatchi’s Saatchi Gallery.
He describes the latter as the most exciting find of his career – “I instantly saw it and I just knew. It was this 70,000sq ft building sitting empty in the middle of the King’s Road. It was just amazing.
“Walking around like that and finding these buildings after being approached by a client after a certain type of building is my favourite way of working.”
Best in show
He adds that this preferred way of working is built on the foundation of strong relationships with design-conscious developers. Rosen says that now, more than ever, that list is growing and despite financial restraints there is a commitment to invest in good design. “It’s a great time to be working with developers in London. They have woken up to embracing design and have realised what [Sir Stuart] Lipton was banging on about all those years ago – good architecture pays. So often in the past, when times were tough, developers cut back on design and got buildings really badly wrong. I really believe they have learnt from that now.”
The most inspiring, he says, are Derwent London “the top of the tree”; London Buildings “who started the whole movement towards developing alternative buildings”; Londonewcastle, Glebe and Crosstree “part of the younger generation”; and Sir Stuart Lipton “right in the zone”.
Follow the artists
Looking ahead, Rosen is in a prime position to make a call on London’s future boom areas, working with so many creative companies – often first in to an up-and-coming area.
“We work anywhere from Mayfair to Camberwell and Peckham and we don’t want to be pigeonholed,” he says. “But I suppose I look at tough, working-class parts of London a lot. These are the areas that change fast. A few years ago Shoreditch was dead, no one went there. We do look at where the artists go to start up – usually areas that are inexpensive – then the creative businesses follow.”
In that vein, he thinks south-east London; Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham – where Pilcher Hershman is already looking at a building – will be the next key creative hotspots in the capital, plus Kentish Town in north London.
Room for any more?
What Rosen and his team do is almost unique. But he says he is no longer the only one, and names other agents he admires, people who “get it”, such as Charlie Okin at Edward Charles, and Paul Smith at H2SO. They are the difference between being an entrepreneurial agent and a leasing clerk, he says.
With his trademark being the regeneration of the old and disused, what are Rosen’s thoughts on modern development and new build? The Shards and the One Hyde Parks? “Fine. As long as they use great architects who understand good design,” he says. “I think One Hyde Park is great from an architectural perspective. Rogers Stirk Harbour has done a great job there. And Nick and Christian? They remind me of old, entrepreneurial Victorian builders – they were usually pairs of brothers. I admire their old London spirit. I know they have ruffled a few feathers along the way. But I do admire them.”
As the interview draws to a close, a whirlwind of activity starts to build up almost instantaneously. Rosen’s mobile phone, complete with James Bond ringtone, goes off – “My son put that on there, it wasn’t me I can assure you. Though it does go with the Aston [Martin] and the whole special agent thing” – and Wendy is back, this time delivering post and e-mails.
Outside, sales assistants in beautifully cut suits are dashing in and out of designer tailor Ozwald Boateng, preparing for a busy Friday trade.
That’s the other thing about Rosen – on top of the buildings, it would be criminal not to mention the style.
A mod in the 1970s, a regular on the London social scene in the 1980s and a GQ contributing editor who loves a black cashmere polo neck the same way a female counterpart would treasure the perfect little black dress, missing the opportunity to get a comment from Rosen on fashion would be a failure indeed. “By the way,” he says before the subject has even been broached. “You can tell everything you need to know about someone from their shoes. That’s true. And worth remembering. Everyone I work with wears great footwear.” One step ahead right until the end.
emily.wright@estatesgazette.com
