Clad in tight leather knickers and bra, the dominatrix simulates a whipping while, nearby, her fellow artistes are playing with needles and swallowing razor blades.
Agents’ eyes flicker from one act to another. A mix of amusement, disbelief and terror sweeps over their faces as performers weave their way around the tables. Meanwhile, lunchtime starters are being served.
Welcome to another Bee Bee Developments launch party. This one, for Exchange Place, EC1, two years ago, was a typical Bee Bee extravaganza, and cost a substantial chunk of that year’s marketing budget. Considering its theme, letting the 90,000 sq ft building to Save the Children Fund is an irony that makes Craig Best, one half of Bee Bee, smile.
Meeting Best at the company’s Clerkenwell office in London is a surprise, considering what the Bee Bee launch parties are all about. He is quiet and well-spoken – not one you would think likely to book a dominatrix. “Ah, well that is more Alfie,” says Best in a soft northern Irish accent, referring to his more flamboyant business partner and fellow Ulsterman, Alfred Buller.
But Best adds that the launch parties are very much part of the company’s ethos – to do things differently. Standing out from the crowd and taking risks on off-market sites is what the two men are famous for, with their London developments in Clerkenwell, EC1, and Midtown, WC1.
Their aim is to regenerate sites, but the business side is never forgotten. As the company’s publicity states: “It seeks to maximise gearing to produce high returns on equity, and manage a substantial investment portfolio.” In the past three months alone, the company has sold in value terms around £100m of property – a lot of it to Irish investors. “It’s a good time to be selling to investors,” says Best, who is facing EG alone because Buller is unavailable.
It is also a good time for new challenges, namely the company’s latest joint venture operation, in Dublin.
Off-market opportunities
The forming of Bee Bee Developments (Ireland) last year is the company’s first foray on to Irish soil. The jv, with property investor Ciaran Larkin, aims to “exploit off-market opportunities in and around Dublin” – just as Bee Bee has done in London.
The Irish arm is starting with a bang. Planning permission will be lodged in early October for a 12.5m sq ft mixed-use scheme at Players Square in the heart of Dublin’s city centre. “We want to create a new live-work area in Dublin,” says Best.
Creating new areas is what Bee Bee has been about since the company was born in 1992 when first cousins Best and Buller started working together. Watching the UK’s office market recover with such force after the early 1980s recession, chartered surveyor Best, and Buller, who were both running their own businesses, decided to take a chance on London rather than the smaller Northern Ireland market. Dublin had yet to be bitten by the Celtic Tiger.
Starting out in Mayfair, the company bought and managed buildings from the Grosvenor Estate. “We let them out, but kept space for ourselves,” says Best.
But 1995 was Buller and Best’s turning point, when the opportunity arose to buy the 300-year-old, 900,000 sq ft Clerkenwell estate, which was being sold off by the Old Charter House Hospital Trustees. At the time, Clerkenwell was not prime pitch. “We were attracted by the idea of regenerating a whole area,” says Best.
Funding came from bank debt and private equity backers to help buy the site in its entirety. “This gave us the opportunity to drive the image of the area,” adds Best. “We spent as much time trying to improve the area through infrastructure as we did in physical development. Some schemes we designed, built and sold, and some we designed and sold on to other developers to build out. But we still retain the core of the estate. Our logic is, if we are going to improve an area, we should retain as much property as we can to enhance values.”
Development is still ongoing in Clerkenwell, but for Bee Bee the time was right to move on to other pastures. And following in the Clerkenwell tradition, Best and Buller eyed up the less than attractive Midtown area around Holborn, centring on Procter Street.
From 2000 to 2004, Bee Bee finished 14 mixed-use schemes totalling 650,000 sq ft. It includes the 110,000 sq ft The Eye, which is EG’s new home. Best brushes off criticism that the scheme took a long time to let because of its L-shape. “We have always tried to be slightly different. We want to create spaces with character,” he says.
Dublin is now about to experience Bee Bee’s individualism. “Our interest in Dublin is urban regeneration, and we will be using our experience with the Clerkenwell estate in terms of city-centre development and urban regeneration,” says Best.
Players Square in the Irish capital’s centre, which incorporates the former John Player factory site, is a development that Bee Bee describes as a “significant urban regeneration project”.
“We got the site in a joint venture with an approved housing body [the National Association of Building operatives],” says Best. The 12-acre site was assembled by acquisition, and will be turned into a mixed-use scheme of around 12.5m sq ft. It will include neighbourhood shopping, offices aimed at small companies, and 850 residential units, which Best says will be affordable housing.
Even though the company is drawing from its UK experience, it will use Irish-based companies. One of Ireland’s top construction companies – PJ Walls – is on board, along with Dublin-based architect Gerry Cahill Associates.
“We took the view that, as we are both from Northern Ireland, we would be very keen to use local expertise.” If the planning application is approved, Bee Bee hopes to be on site within 12 months.
Dublin agents have welcomed the development, and many believe it will be the start of Bee Bee’s love affair with the Republic.
But, says Best: “We will move slowly in Ireland and try to locate off-pitch. We’re not trying to break any records. We bought Players Square off-pitch, and we like to identify those types of sites. And, yes, it’s also cheaper to do it that way.”
Government decentralisation
More work will also be done in the UK – but it won’t be offices, rather residential. “Office occupiers haven’t really come back since 11 September, and it has yet to be seen what affect government decentralisation will have. At the moment, we are very focused on the government’s residential plan.
“We believe in the philosophy of building houses, and if government demands are going to be met they will need to be built on greenfield as well as brownfield sites.” Bee Bee intends to concentrate on its sites in Northamptonshire. Best calls them “potential substantial urban extensions”.
As marketing residential sites is not quite the same as marketing central London offices, it is unlikely that agents will be invited to any glamorous launch parties. So Dublin’s property agents may be waiting in vain for the next dominatrix party.
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1992 Bee Bee Developments set up by Alfred Buller and Craig Best. One of its first deals is to buy and manage two Grosvenor Estate properties 1995 Purchase of the 300-year-old, 900,000 sq ft Clerkenwell estate. Deal included the freehold interest in 7 acres, comprising 45 buildings 1999 Bought 1,250 acres (known as Priors Hall and Stanion Lane) in Corby 2000 Started acquiring and developing property in London’s Midtown area, which includes Holborn 2003 Bee Bee Developments (Ireland) set up, in a joint venture with Ciaran Larkin. The jv started acquiring Players Square, Dublin 2004 Bought 2,090 acres at Kettering, Northampton Oct 2004 Planning application put in for Players Square, Dublin |
