We all know at least one person who acquired a new dog during the pandemic – ideal company when working from home. But now that more and more people are returning to the office, for at least some of the time, it’s going to come as a bit of a shock to those up-until-now pampered pooches.
According to premium raw pet food company, Bella & Duke, 80% of office workers can’t take their pet to work (which, incredibly, means one fifth of us can, and are somehow failing to act on that) while a third of Brits are spending more than £5,000 a year on pet day care. And, though something about those figures looks off to Diary, we’re not going to dispute Bella & Duke’s answer to the problem, as it has unveiled “the UK’s most pet-friendly office” – in Rosyth, Scotland. In collaboration with the build and design team at Space Solutions, Bella & Duke’s office provides, for the benefit of staff and their four-legged friends, an on-site dog behaviourist, a full-time Pet & People “Park Ranger”, cosy kennels, pet-friendly plants and decor, a pet sensory garden, agility courses, toys, snuffle mats and library books on pet care (that last one, we think, is for the humans). But it’s not just dogs – Bella & Duke has 130 employees with more than 60 pets between them, including cats, ferrets and snakes, so it sought to make sure its new office space was “adaptable to meet our employee needs as well as their companions”.
According to the firm’s chief executive, Mark Scott: “Our pets have always been right by us, even more so during lockdown, so we felt it was time we did right by them. We hear of companies talking about being pet friendly, but with pet wellbeing at the core of what our company does, we wanted to take it one step further and create the UK’s most pet-friendly office.” Consider that a gauntlet thrown down – are there any others out there who want to claim the title?
Sizing up
When Native Land started work on its £2.5bn Bankside Yards regeneration project, near Tate Modern, it faced a petition signed by nearly 6,000 people calling for a gay club on the site, XXL, to be saved. While the developer ultimately bulldozed the iconic venue, it promised back in 2019 that a new “LGBTQ+ space” would form part of the scheme, under the historic railway arches, albeit operated by a new company. Now, Native Land has promised to increase the size of that venue by more than 30% from the original plans, bringing it to 5,952 sq ft. That may not be XXL – but at least it’s something.
And the award for best advice goes to…
While we’re all talking about the Oscars (and that slap), how about a blockbuster of a movie metaphor? Last week, General Projects founder Jacob Loftus received the Urban Land Institute’s inaugural young leaders talent award at its annual dinner. In his acceptance speech, Loftus shared some advice that esteemed agent David Rosen gave him back in the early 2010s when he was starting his career with Resolution Property. After a “car crash” of a meeting over an asset refurbishment in which a young Loftus had tried to manage every aspect, Rosen took him aside and offered him some pearls of wisdom. “The property development industry is a bit like making a movie,” Loftus recalls him saying. “Your job is the movie producer. The producer doesn’t have to hold the camera for every shot. You don’t have to act in every scene. But you’ve got to find great actors and a brilliant scriptwriter, and make sure you have the vision at the outset and that you do whatever it takes to get everything over the line to finish the movie and make it a commercial success.” Loftus tells EG it was “the best advice”. Maybe that ULI award should have been for best producer instead?
Pedersen’s latest port of call
If you’ve made a career for yourself running ports, it stands to reason that you should be well travelled. But even given his calling, Associated British Ports chief executive Henrik Pedersen has seen the sights. Pedersen, who is currently overseeing an ambitious scheme to free up 1,000 acres across ABP’s portfolio for development (check out p21 for more), arrived in the UK in 2018 after two decades with Maersk’s APM Terminals. He’d only been to London five times before, as a tourist, but being thrown in at the deep end – maybe not the best turn of phrase, given the industry – is nothing new for him. After building a life with his wife in the US, they moved to Shanghai, where they had their twin daughters; then to Panama, where Pedersen ran port development across Latin America; then back to Asia; then to the Netherlands, where he became chief financial officer. And now to the UK. Pedersen is enjoying the new challenge – but he also knows it’s not his view that really counts. “My wife and kids absolutely love it here,” he tells us. From such global travellers, that’s high praise indeed.
