Events

Camden ‘Summit’ talks

Mishcon’s Camden forum


Left: Ian Robertson, BBC; Sir Terry Farrell; Rick de Blaby, Dwyer
Right: Ken Dytor, Urban Catalyst; Peter Bishop, Camden Council

Mishcon, as a Camden business for over 40 years, was delighted to be invited by Camden Council to co-host a forum in our series of discussion groups focusing on the property sector. The Camden team included Leader, Councillor Dame Jane Roberts, CEO Moira Gibb, Development Director Peter Bishop and Jacob Keene. Ricky Burdett, architectural adviser to Ken Livingstone, chaired the group, which included many of Camden’s key developers and property advisers. He set the scene by putting Camden into its metropolitan and national context. As the third largest economy in London and the seventh nationally, Camden is an economy with major significance.

There was a presentation by Ken Dytor, CEO of niche, mixed-use developer Urban Catalyst and past head of the Camden Town Business Group. His decision to support Central London Partnership (CLP) came after a television programme identified Camden Town station as one of the worst eyesores in London. This triggered CLP’s interest in improving public realm and the creation of the pilot business improvement districts, including the Holborn Business Partnership, with which Mishcon is engaged. Dytor contended that press reports of Camden’s problem with hooliganism, which had a major adverse effect on businesses, are actually some years behind. Peter Freeman, co-founder of Argent Group, developers of Brindleyplace in Birmingham and a key player in Camden, due to the significance of their £2.5 billion mixed use King’s Cross development, talked about their plans for King’s Cross and some of the important lessons learnt in developing Brindleyplace. He explained that the ‘vision driven and market led’ King’s Cross scheme required a master plan capable of providing the flexibility to accommodate a vibrant community which would be active from 8am in the morning until midnight, with buildings having more than one use over a 24 hour period.

Leader, Jane Roberts summing up for Camden, pointed to its dynamic economy and mixed population whilst acknowledging the challenges. She described property developers as ‘absolutely key’ and referred to the public realm as ‘the glue that holds us all together’. Useful contributions to the discussion were made by the group notably from Ardeshir Nagshineh of Targetfollow, Helen Gordon of Legal & General, Sir Terry Farrell, Jeff Adams of United House, Pat Brown CEO of CLP and David Edwards of the ODPM.

MIPIM

Nice one!

Having hosted a successful pre MIPIM jazz and sushi party back in London, the Mishcon team made its regular MIPIM trip in March. The team included Nick Doffman, Alan Spiers and Matthew Lindsay, as well as our newest property partner Daniel Lipman who joined us at the beginning of the year. Someone is always grounded by pressure of work and this year it was Head of Corporate, Richard Tyler. The team declared this to be one of their most productive MIPIMs yet, and despite initial dire warnings of sub zero temperatures, the sun shone, enhancing the parties and receptions at which we spent time with clients and made new contacts.

For those who still see MIPIM as a jolly, I can report that Alan Spiers spent the whole event attached to his mobile phone and/or in meetings. As the plane touched down in Nice he was summoned to a meeting in Mougins to thrash out the last details of a financing deal. He returned to the Croisette only to pick up an SOS e-mail from our Family department back in London asking if anyone knew of a lawyer in Cannes who could swear a witness statement.

Having established that this was not a joke, he found that, even at MIPIM, there is never a lawyer when you need one! Having bagged his lawyer he thought he may at last have time to get something to eat, when the next call came through with news that documents needed to be sworn urgently on one of his deals and could he find a lawyer to witness them. More frantic phone calls, favours called and a lawyer was found, which enabled that deal to go ahead. A good example of our ‘Cannes Do!’ attitude!