We catch up with Nick Coombes who left Savills London Commercial Development Team to go client side at LandSec
"I am extremely grateful for my time at Savills"
Arriving at Savills in 2018 with a background in commercial investment brokerage, it was a bit of a baptism of fire getting up to speed with the relative complexity of the development market. I joined the London commercial development team headed by Ollie Fursdon, and being able to lean on both my direct colleagues but also the seemingly endless expertise across the business helped to cushion the somewhat hard landing.
I spent the next three years focusing my energy on the acquisition and disposal of commercial property development opportunities across Central London.
Whilst due to Covid some of my time at Savills was spent working from a makeshift desk in my spare bedroom, despite turbulent market conditions I was involved in the sale and/or acquisition of opportunities with a GDV in excess of £2bn.
Particular highlights for me were my involvement in the sale of a consented 1.2m sq ft mixed use development site at the gateway to the wider Canada Water regeneration area, and the sale of an island site of heritage buildings in Covent Garden which had consent for redevelopment into a best-in-class HQ office building.
I am extremely grateful for my time at Savills. The expertise, experience and personalities, its culture of supporting an entrepreneurial mindset and the trust that it places in its individuals to innovate really made it a fantastic place to work. I can’t talk about the business without mentioning the great socials and fun had along the way (Manchester springs to mind).
So it was with great sadness that I made the difficult decision to seek pastures new and jump the fence into the world of the client, joining Landsec as an investment manager in September 2021.
My day-to-day role carries responsibility for maximising the performance of the portfolio through the management of acquisitions, divestment and other capital investments. While this is currently mainly focused on Central London, I have been lucky enough to also have had involvement in the urban regeneration part of the business.
Projects include those that form part of our c.1m sq ft development pipeline in Southbank, the redevelopment of Portland House in Victoria, development of 55 Old Broad Street in the City and our urban regeneration projects at Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, Mayfield in Manchester and O2 Finchley Road and Lewisham Shopping Centre. It certainly is exciting even in these uncertain times, especially given the business’s drive to continue delivering best-in-class assets but also to lead from the front in terms of sustainable development/NZC.
Landsec works very closely with Savills, with recent acquisitions (acting on the buyside) of Media City and the sale of 21 Moorfields being two key highlights (albeit I must admit my role in each has been very limited as the foundations were laid some time before I arrived!).
I look forward to continuing our collaboration with both colleagues past and up-and-coming faces in the future.
Y O U M I G H T A L S O B E I N T E R E S T E D I N . . .
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