In the competition for attention at MIPIM it helps to have a little star power. So, when delegates from Nottingham Forest Football Club and architect Benoy announced their new stadium plans in Cannes last week, they called in a local legend – none other than Robin Hood himself. What the man who famously robbed the rich to give to the poor would make of modern football, the commercial property sector or indeed the city of Cannes is anyone’s guess, but fair play to him for smiling in the photo. And, in case you can’t make out which one he is, the PR folks handily included perhaps the greatest photo caption Diary has ever seen: “(L-R) Tom Cartledge, CEO of Benoy, Robin Hood, Cllr Jon Collins, leader of Nottingham City Council, and Ioannis Vrentzos, CEO of Nottingham Forest.”
A MIPIM masterpiece
There are few things public speakers fear more (apart from saying something ridiculous, of course) than the near universal curse of the unflattering, mid-sentence panel photograph. But it seems this rule does not apply to CEO of Donati Immobiliare Group and Concrete venture partner Angelica Donati. This shot, of Donati in action at Cannes, is so striking that the photographer Nicolas Gavet has decided to use it in his upcoming exhibition. This has never, ever happened to Diary.
Mike Ashley or Al Pacino?
Diary doesn’t usually get its film news from Bloomberg, but this week was the exception. Well, kind of. The finance experts revealed a fascinating nugget in a piece on Mike Ashley’s battle for control of Debenhams: he’s using the codename Project Serpico. The reference to the 1973 Al Pacino crime movie (about one honest cop exposing corruption in the police force) is, Bloomberg explains, due to the retail magnate’s “effort… to expose what he says is an insider plot to steer the iconic company into the clutches of foreign hedge funds”. Does Ashley fancy himself as a latter-day Pacino? “The most dangerous man alive” (to borrow a few words from the poster)? Or, to paraphrase the most famous line from Serpico, perhaps his motto is: “They say, ‘If you love the department store of a man, you got to love the man’.”
Fear the bogey man
Apparently, an e-mail has been circulated by HR to all male employees of LaSalle Investment Management – including its chief executive and finance director – with the just-crying-out-to-be-opened subject line “Bogies”. Inside, the missive contains a cease-and-desist instruction to whoever is wiping said bogies on the back of the male toilet cubicle door. Has Fungus the Bogeyman got himself a new career in property investment?
Ferry exciting
Homes England was the most popular organisation by a distance at MIPIM. With UK commercial investment activity somewhat, ahem, thin on the ground, all eyes were on residential opportunities. The Homes England team spoke at more than 100 events and were pursued by resi developers and advisers seeking support at all times in between. But it’s not all work and no play at the agency; the team knows how to let its hair down too. Diary hears that, on a recent board visit to the North West, the Liverpool team pulled out all the stops to impress, even including wrangling an opportunity for chairman Sir Edward Lister to steer a ferry across the Mersey. A dream come true, surely.
Midnight User
To the Mayfair Hotel, where “Midnight User” was celebrating his retirement after 34 years at Westminster Council. Midnight User was present in the e-mail address often used by John Walker during his long spell as director of planning at the borough. Sir Stuart Lipton disclosed Walker’s nom de plume (as well as his parallel career as a TV football reporter) while heaping deserved praise on someone who has helped oversee the West End’s transformation in recent decades. But it was Walker who had the last word. Whether it was on a late-night e-mail or at an early-morning meeting, Lipton would always refer to himself as the “Philistine Developer”.
Awards with a Boom
News just in – and “amazing news” at that, according to the e-mail from the Central and Eastern European Real Estate Quality Awards (always a highlight in Diary’s calendar). For this year’s CEEQA Gala, they have booked none other than… the Boomtown Rats! Get yourself to Warsaw on Wednesday 15 May to enjoy a blast from the past with Bob Geldof and the rest of the band. Rumours that they had to move the event from 13 May because the Rats don’t like Mondays are completely made up.
