BNP Paribas Real Estate has launched a new leisure team that offers clients full-service transactional and consulting advice.
The new team includes three new appointments with specialised restaurant and pub expertise. Mark Calder joins as a director from niche firm ‘Restaurant Property’ to focus on Central London restaurant leasing, acquisitions and disposals on behalf of landlords and tenants.
Mark’s key landlord involvements include Stanhope, where he advised on the Television Centre and the White City regeneration; CBRE Global Investors for its Angel Central shopping centre in Islington; The Portman Estate, as its appointed restaurant adviser; and Shoreditch Village on its 150,000 sq ft of commercially-led space.
Sally French also joins from Restaurant Property, and will be focussed on tenant representation in the restaurant market, having built relationships with many leading restaurant groups.
And Nick Lyell joins BNP Paribas Real Estate as a director within the leisure team. He previously worked at Savills and specialises in investment and leasing work for pubs and restaurants.
Nigel Ball will head up the leisure team. Nigel has worked with the licensed leisure sector for over 20 years and was previously head of lease advisory at BNP Paribas Real Estate before taking leadership of this new area of business growth.
Nigel Ball, head of leisure at BNP Paribas Real Estate, said: “As a business we’ve had pockets of niche leisure expertise – such as business rates, lease advisory and agency – for years, but as the leisure sector and its importance to real estate grows, so do our client requirements. We have decided to invest in this area of capability in order to offer our important clients full-scale expertise and services across the leisure sector, from rent reviews and rates to investment and leasing and everything in between.
“With restaurants in particular enjoying huge growth, it is great news that Mark and Sally are joining us to widen our capabilities in this area.”
Mark Calder commented: “It is an exciting time to be joining BNP Paribas Real Estate with its growth strategy and investment into leisure in particular. Our restaurant expertise can help add a new dimension to the team at a time when restaurants are becoming increasingly integral to new developments and office schemes across the UK.”
In 2015, the leisure sector was responsible for 14% of all commercial real estate investment, with over £10billion transacted, compared to just 2% in 2009.
