Trophy asset
Doing business in the City becomes ever more challenging as the diversity of investors from emerging and exotic places brings with it new customs and practices. But it’s not a one-way street. Some overseas investors looking to buy into London are keen to make a good impression and have offered up tokens of their own. Indonesian investor Sinar Mas Land presented its entire deal team – including lawyer Mayer Brown, banker LBBW and agent CBRE – with Perspex trophies (known in the investment banking world, where they are more commonly used, as “tombstones”) to mark its £280m acquisition of the Alphabeta building from Resolution Property. Head of mergers and acquisitions Aswin Gunawan (left) modelled one of the trophies just for Diary.
People power raises the Dead
We all know that real estate is one of the biggest users (and wasters) of power, which is why Pavegen’s concept of turning kinetic energy into usable energy for the built environment has got Diary buzzing. And it has got New York buzzing too. Particularly the die-hard Deadheads. The firm has teamed up with the Grateful Dead at their comeback gig at Madison Square Gardens to see if its energy-producing tiles can power the concert. There has never been a better excuse to mosh.
The narrowest of margins
Champagne corks were surely popping this week at Colliers International’s HQ after the Court of Appeal overturned a 2014 ruling which left the agent liable for €32m (£23m) in damages for an overvaluation in 2005. The decision turned on a new valuation carried out by the court which said the true value of the property was around €118m, meaning Colliers’ original €135m valuation was within the required 15% margin of error. But as Hogan Lovells senior associate Paul Tonkin points out, it was a pretty close-run thing. “The difference between being liable for damages of €32m and no liability at all therefore ultimately came down to just €700,000 on a €135m valuation,” he said. “But, as the Court of Appeal commented, a narrow victory is still a victory.”
Workers want a little extra
Shed developers have been receiving an increasing number of requests for “bespoke extras” in their shed designs from industrial firms. Industrial workers don’t have the luxury of Pret or Starbucks next to their office and must often make do with the views of motorway junctions instead. Ideas to make things more interesting for them include outdoor balconies (smoking terraces, then) and climbing walls attached to the outside of the building. Or how about a cheap but innovative fix – paint a picture of a running man on the fire safety track (which must span the perimeter of all sheds) and you have yourself a jogging track for lunchtime. Google, eat your heart out!
Honesty is the best policy
EG has recently been quizzing the great and the good in the North West ahead of this week’s Focus. Sifting through the many, many opinions expressed, Diary was particularly taken with the honesty and brevity of one Manchester office agent’s deadpan take on the northern powerhouse: “It can’t do any harm, but I don’t see it leasing 500,000 sq ft round here in the next two years.” Someone tell George Osborne.
We should be so lucky
The stars were out for the switching on of the Oxford Street lights on Sunday night. They ranged from celebrities so famous that their surnames are redundant – hello Kylie – to one of the stars of musical Matilda and two presenters from Capital Radio. Two other, perhaps less recognisable, figures also graced the stage: Robert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster city council, was one of them. A tieless Davis, more used to dealing with developers in the borough, faced the additional challenge of standing next to the best-dressed person of the night. No, not Kylie, but the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor The Lady Flight, who was in full ceremonial garb.
