MANAGEMENT

Greater London Enterprise was jointly owned by London Boroughs. It invests in companies and property in London to support enterprise and to create employment. I was M.D. of GLE (Properties) from 1985 to 89 and built it from a loss making embarrassment into a profitable and significant force in industrial and commercial development. I was also a Director of GLE companies specialising in venture and development capital investment, Chairman of The Business Village Ltd, a founding Director of GLE-Rosehaugh Developments plc, and a director of Southbank Technopark. 

PROJECTS

• Formed and ran GLE-Rosehaugh Developments plc with Rosehaugh to fund regeneration schemes. Projects included the relocation of Plessey Controls from Lewisham Town Centre to a new 70,000 sq ft facility in Deptford, and the development of 45,000 sq ft speculative industrial units on 3 acres at Devons Road, Bow.

• Formed partnership with Estates & General PLC which renovated and developed Victorian warehouses and develop 160,000 sq offices and workshops on Grand Junction Canal site behind Kings Cross, L.B.Islington.

• Through The Business Village Ltd, developed and managed two large 'business centres' providing small business units in Wandsworth (100,000 sq ft, the former Rediffusion Works); and Croydon (45,000 sq ft, formerly Slazenger office & warehouse)

• Industrial and warehouse developments on old railway sidings in Milkwood Road, Brixton. (70,000 sq ft) and at Devons Road, Bow, targeting companies relocating from Docklands.

• Grant funded renovations of space for small businesses in North Kensington and North Westminster. One scheme was constructed by a training scheme using ex-offender trainees and subsequently targeted at ethnic minority start up companies.

• Invested in and supervised the creative management of a substantial and mixed portfolio of commercial / industrial investment properties in inner London including holdings in Southwark, Wandsworth, Lewisham, Newham, Haringey, Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, Islington, Hackney, Richmond, Camden, Hounslow , Southwark, and Tower Hamlets. (Finance provided by Charterhouse, Royal Bank of Scotland and Co-operative Bank)

SOUTHBANK TECHNOPARK LTD

Director of Southbank Technopark, which managed an 80,000 sq ft modern multi-storey 'nursery centre' for small hi-tech companies. This was funded by Prudential/Prutech who ran it in partnership with Southbank University and British Technology Group.

Click here to see a 'Chartered Surveyor Weekly' article on the GLE programme.