Concern has become crisis. What Leeds agents had been playfully calling a merry-go-round has become a more serious game for Atisreal’s office in the city. Stunned by the loss of its head of office Jeff Pearey to rival Jones Lang LaSalle in March, it then saw director of agency and development Stephen Tonkin and investment director Peter Hague walk out. By the end of April, three more resignations had cut its 20-strong workforce to 15.
Tonkin has since joined CB Richard Ellis, as head of industrial agency while Hague has joined Pearey at Jones Lang LaSalle to lead the professional services division.
So, just one year after the purchase of Chesterton signalled Atis’s entrance to the Leeds market, is there trouble at t’mill?
The depletions mean 37-year-old building surveyor Stephen Macey is in charge at Leeds. Atis, however, prefers London-based board member Peter Sudell to comment. “You could say we’ve had a bit of a change in that we’ve lost many of our agents,” he says. He also admits that losing Pearey was a blow, adding: “JLL was hunting and Jeff took the bait. That’s left us light at the senior level.”
Need to rebuild
Of course, the practice of poaching, plundering and purchasing is nothing new, but things haven’t been completely right in the Leeds agency market for a while.
Pearey was himself appointed by JLL as the first step towards rebuilding its battered Leeds office since an exodus at the end of last year. The global firm is a national heavyweight, but has practically fallen off the radar in the Yorkshire capital — failing to make the top 10 of the city’s agents league table. Turnover at JLL’s Leeds office contributes just a few per cent to the group’s UK figure.
Last December, JLL parted company with Alistair Russell, European director and head of its Leeds office. Russell, who could not be reached for comment, is believed to be interested in setting up his own practice.
JLL Leeds directors James Pitt and Nigel Friskney, respectively the former heads of offices and retail, both quit for the client side. Pitt signed up at the end of last year with business park developer Akeler, as leasing manager, while Friskney went to local developer Oakgate as acquisitions director in January.
Now Yorkshire-born Pearey is expected to lead JLL Leeds to recovery — and fast. Pearey is keen to convey that he was not looking for a new job. “I was approached in November by JLL and I had mixed feelings. I asked Mark Jagger [the head of JLL’s Manchester office] if the Leeds team was on its knees and he said ‘absolutely not’ — it became totally clear that they weren’t on my first day in the office.”
Recruitment, which had been all but frozen in the past, is now back on the agenda. JLL has secured six appointments in the past month, with a view to a strength of 40 over the medium term. The objective is for Pearey to double turnover over the next three years.
Things are gradually dropping into place, with Hague as director of professional services, Mathew Atkinson returning from Donaldsons as associate director of investment, and another defector from Atis, business park specialist Tom Brammeld, who worked under Pearey in office agency and will be surveyor, national offices.
Pearey adds: “It was never my intention that my leaving should destabilise Atis — I want to see it succeed. Yes, more people have left Atis to join us since then — but they would have left anyway.
“With the resources of BNP Paribas behind the firm, it is an exciting time for Atis, and there is no way it will fail to make a mark in any regional market that it decides it wants.”
Nevertheless, it is clear that the defections have left Atis Leeds with a tough selling job to do. It is now desperate to rebuild its workforce in Leeds from the current 15 to 30, and, according to Sudell, one task is finding a Yorkshireman to head the office.
Alan Syers, portfolio director of Leeds- based developer Evans, says: “Losing Jeff Pearey must have been a huge disappointment for Atis, because he’s very highly regarded.
“The relationship between clients and agents is all about personalities and whom you trust. You wouldn’t necessarily break off agreements with a company if one person left — but you have to ask if the level of service came from the individual or the corporation.”
Purchase of expertise
Atis’s recruitment drive has set tongues wagging. Given it is backed by the deep pockets of BNP Paribas, many think it will opt to buy in that expertise by swallowing up a smaller firm, rather than by slowly building up a presence. “Atis has not exactly been a massive force in the market and if it is prepared to throw money at the problem it may help,” says one local agent.
Local agent Hill Woolhouse has been mooted as a candidate for takeover, but speculation has lately been linking this niche firm with Cushman & Wakefield’s growing Leeds empire. Other sources suggest Atis will consider a tie-up with Fox Lloyd Jones, a niche practice set up by local trio Paul Fox, Steve Jones and Simon Lloyd. All three worked together at Sanderson Weatheralls.
Many think this would be a good fit. Andrew Gent, of Leeds-based niche industrial practice Gent Visick, says: “Founding director Paul Fox of Fox Lloyd Jones would do Atis a lot of good. He’s very well respected and a great bread winner, and taking over the firm would also give it a plant and machinery division. This would give Atis a well-balanced team and some presence — but you’ve got to ask what the incentive is for FLJ.”
Atis’s Sudell denies that any takeovers are in mind with either FLJ or Hill Woolhouse, but does say: “We’re trying to rebuild the full service in Leeds, and in the UK generally. We’re not going to achieve that solely through organic growth — but I’m not saying we will buy a firm in Leeds.”
Sudell agrees there is a lot of rebuilding to do. “We had zero in Leeds a year ago; we’ll have more there next year. It’s the merry -go-round: Jones Lang LaSalle was hit eight months ago — we all do it to each other.”
