Opportunities in retail? Now is the time to Invest.
Date & Time: | November 22, 2022 8:00 am | Add to Calendar (.ics) |
Venue: | LandSec |
This event will look at the pros and cons of investing in the retail sector, the current retail market and current deals, and the potential investment return. A lot of commentators are saying now is the time to look at the retail sector again and that values are simply too good to ignore.
We bring together for this panel event an investor , Dominic Williamson of Brookfield, a significant landlord and retail asset manager, Nik Porter of LandSec, a retailer Frances Baker from River Island and a leading retail agent to give market overviews, Charlie Barke of Knight Frank.
The panel will be chaired and the event hosted by Jessica Middleton Pugh – retail correspondent from React News
Jessica Middleton-Pugh
Jessica Middleton-Pugh is a business journalist writing stories across property and regeneration. A King’s College History of Art graduate, for the past decade she has developed a specialism in real estate, as editor of leading regional property publication Place North West, and most recently as the residential & retail correspondent at React News, Europe’s largest subscription-based real estate news service.
Panellists:
Charlie Barke – Partner Knight Frank
Charlie joined Knight Frank as a Partner in 2016 having previously spent 16 years at Cushman & Wakefield, where he ran the Retail Investment team.
Charlie leads the Retail division, managing both the investment and leasing teams. His principal focus is advising clients on shopping centre investments, both acquisitions and disposals.
Increasingly, Charlie and the team are working with alternative sector teams to help re-purpose retail, with residential being a key driver.
Frances Baker – Property Director, River Island
Frances is Property Director at River Island, a privately owned mid-market fashion brand with approximately 8,500 employees in the UK and Ireland.
She has been at the company for over 25 years and holds responsibility for setting and implementing the strategic plan for the store portfolio, which currently numbers around 250 stores in the UK and Ireland. She has been involved with many development and changes in the business, including expansion and contraction of store portfolios in overseas markets, and, most recently helping to navigate the business successfully through the pandemic.
She is also responsible for long-term planning for the head office, including consideration of changes to working patterns over the last two years, and how the company needs to reflect this in their office environment
Frances qualified as a chartered Surveyor via a graduate scheme at Knight Frank, having read Geography at Robinson College, Cambridge.
Nik Porter, Head of Brand Account Management at Landsec
Nik leads the newly created Brand Account Management team at Landsec. The specialist team works across the entire Landsec portfolio, acting as a point of contact for brand partners and helping them to secure strategically relevant spaces in prime locations.
Nik joined Landsec in 2021, bolstering the Group’s in-house retail expertise. With a career in the retail industry spanning 15 years, Nik joined from 7 For All Mankind, having spent three years as Director of Retail Operations. Prior to that he held roles with All Saints and Hackett London.
Dominic Williamson, Senior Vice President, Real Estate, U.K. & Ireland, Brookfield
Dominic Williamson is a Senior Vice President in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group, responsible for all acquisitions of real estate assets, platforms and businesses in the UK and Ireland. Mr. Williamson joined Brookfield in 2017, initially focused on office investments across the UK and Continental Europe before broadening his responsibility to include all real estate sectors within the UK. Prior to joining Brookfield, Mr. Williamson was an investment manager at Gingko Tree Investment, a wholly owned subsidiary of the China State Administration of Foreign Exchange, responsible for acquisition and asset management of real estate throughout Europe. Mr. Williamson is a qualified lawyer and former investment banker, most recently at Morgan Stanley in their European Real Estate Investment Banking team. Mr. Williamson holds a B.Sc in Economics from Nottingham University and a Graduate Diploma in Law from Nottingham Law School.