We catch up with John Maddison, Quadrant Estates on his long term friendships and subsequent deals with Savills since being an alumnus
"I’m fairly sure Savills will be a big part of the journey over the next 20 years, working with old faces and new ones."
A young lad with bright red braces, I arrived at what was then FPD Savills just before my 20th birthday to work in the property management team at Grosvenor Hill, and loved the place and the ethos from the start.
Little did I know that my time at Savills would be relatively short, as I left to join my then client Henderson Global Investors over in the City in October 2003 after just over two years.
My memories of Grosvenor Hill are fond. I didn’t want to leave, but luckily the solid advice of my immediate colleagues saw me make the right decision to take that opportunity. This also became the point at which my relationship with Savills truly blossomed.
The nicest part is that I’ve worked with my former colleagues in the Manchester property management team ever since, so have been a client of theirs in every role over the last 20 years. I used to sit opposite Charlie Mocatta and Nick Taylor at Grosvenor Hill and we had mutual clients, so again, I’ve worked with them at Henderson, British Land and Quadrant extensively.
I recall Jaime Dunster selling The Forge, Glasgow back in 2006 for us at Henderson and, somehow, I’ve got it back at Quadrant now working with Tristan Capital; history may even repeat itself.
I have also had the pleasure of working with Dom Rodbourne, from giving him his first British Land leasing instruction back in 2008 after purchasing Queens Retail Park, Stafford (the first of many) to today at Quadrant across several of our schemes. That transaction was bought by James Gulliford (Gully) for HUT, who has been on the journey with me too, as has James Hurst who is currently selling Star City, Birmingham for us.
With Sam Foyle we did the UK’s largest retail transaction of the year and bought 312 short-leased Boots pharmacies at end of 2018. The rest is history. That transaction introduced me to Jonathan Stott amongst others who we’ve worked with extensively since.
I’ve been an out-of-town retail specialist for over two decades, but Quadrant has allowed me to pivot and we’re opportunistic within our wider sector specialisms. That includes leisure where we’ve been working with Carlene Hughes for some time now, as well as Sian Tunney and the wider team.
I must thank a good number of Savills senior personnel for their support and assistance in my life after British Land; I’ve been truly overwhelmed by it.
Being an equity partner in a smaller business is different. Quadrant is our baby, it can be harder, but it is also much more focused and fun. I’m fairly sure Savills will be a big part of the journey over the next 20 years as we look to conviction sectors around senior living, as well as our staples: central London and retail warehousing. Savills has some great emerging talent like Jess Hill in leisure and Callum White from the fantastic apprentice scheme. Above all else, we’ll have fun doing it. Work hard, play hard.
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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The new Alumni initiative led by Maddy Maguire, Tom Fazakerley and Helen Gregory
The group will be an addition to the wider Savills Alumni Programme with the primary focus of creating a network of “Future Leaders” connected by their Savills backgrounds, whilst collectively bringing together the next generation of Savills alumni.
