THE office occupational market is quiet. Office supply in Edinburgh and Glasgow is low anyway. The credit crunch has brought about a dramatic slow-down in property investment. So how are the property professionals going to bring in those fees?
The answer is asset management and they are all turning to it with greater emphasis. Asset management is all about giving clients advice on how to make more money from their assets – refurbishment, redesigning internally, adding facilities, anything
that will persuade tenants to pay higher rents.
Some might suggest that this is what they should have been doing for clients anyway but did not give it much attention while they were enjoying a buoyant market.
Sally Gandon does not argue. She says: "I am not saying people don't manage their assets but they do so more actively when the market is quieter. You derive value out of the property by working the assets. People start focusing on the property management side when there are tougher times than when the market is buoyant."
Gandon is a specialist working in a specialist area, and she knows a thing or two about asset management. She has been hired by CB Richard Ellis to take over a new senior role to drive forward its asset management business. Her job title is head of asset management (Scotland) and she brings with her 25 years of experience in commercial property, with impressive names like Drivers Jonas and Savills on her CV.
She has amassed her impressive commercial property experience in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London and not always working for somebody else; she has had her own niche property company twice before deciding to get back into the hurly-burly of the sector and when CBRE came calling she had no hesitation.
Gandon arrived with a team of 12 in place in Glasgow. She has shifted two of them to Edinburgh and is now looking for an experienced asset manager in Aberdeen, a target growth area for CBRE which bought the Paul Gee consultancy in the city earlier this year.
Good asset managers are thin on the ground and you do not become one overnight but Gandon says it is more about common sense than anything else.
She explains: "I am quite often astounded at the meal people can make out of providing basic fundamental services. Property management is all about being well organised, showing common sense with good communication skills.
"You are delivering a service to people and it is amazing how badly some people do it. It seems quite difficult to get it wrong but a lot of people do so – it is like factoring. A lot of people in the sector see the agency side as being the sexy side, doing deals, wheeling and dealing as opposed to the property management side which has been referred to as the Cinderella of the business."
Away from the office Gandon enjoys tennis and works hard at her golf – sport being a family pursuit with her daughter Sarah doing sports management at Edinburgh University.
She has what she calls a sideline – she owns a number of holiday cottages in Arran. All carefully asset managed, of course.
CHANCERY SYNDICATE BUYS OCHIL HOUSE FOR £33MA CHANCERY Partnership investor syndicate has bought the 80,000sq ft Ochil House in Hamilton International Park for £33 million. The building will be completed in summer 2009. Chancery last year bought two other buildings there, the 24,000sq ft Fenick House and the 39,000sq ft Fintry House, for £26m. DTZ, Lambert Smith Hampton and Cushman & Wakefield are retained letting agents for Hamilton International Park.
KATHELLAN has leased a 15,000sq ft restaurant/café at Kelty to the Baxters FoodGroup (Ryden acting) for 15 years at an annual rent of £143,000. It is part of a 25 acre site on which Kathellan plans further development. Graham & Sibbald acted for Kathellan, Edinburgh-based commercial lawyers Davidson Chalmers provided legal advice.
CITY of Stirling Business Parks, the joint venture between Valad and Stirling Council, has secured two new lettings on the final development phase at Castle Business Park in Stirling. House builder Manorlane has acquired 8,068sq ft on a ten-year lease at £15.50 per sq ft and construction group Rok has taken 4,450sq ft for ten years at £15.75 per sq ft. Montagu Evans acted for CSBP, with Jones Lang LaSalle joint letting agent.
THREE new lettings at Palace Grounds Retail Park, Hamilton. The former Powerhouse unit has been extended to 20,000sq ft and sub-divided into three units let to Argos (10,000sq ft, £200,000 a year), Maplin and Homestyle (both 5,000sq ft at £105,000). Jones Lang LaSalle with BTW Shields acted for the landlord, Hamilton Trustees. Coates & Co represented Argos, Robert Bebington Maplin and Whitelaw Baikie Figes for Homestyle.
RENEWABLE energy consultant SgurrEnergy is taking 7,715sq ft at 225 Bath Street, Glasgow. Since the building's £1.5m refurbishment, Warner Estate has let 36,500sq ft to engineering consultants Faber Maunsell, WA Fairhurst, and now SgurrEnergy. CB Richard Ellis acted for Warner, Jones Lang LaSalle for SgurrEnergy.
AFTER 39 years in the ownership of the Irvine family the Summer Isles Hotel at Achiltibuie near Ullapool has been sold to Berkshire-based Terry Mackay in his third Scottish hotel purchase. Agent Colliers Robert Barry confirms the sale was for more than the asking price of £1.56m.
• Send deals details to jimdow@lumison.co.uk
The full article contains 920 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
