Hawskmoor made a splash with their new opening in Wood Wharf this month!

The new, eco friendly floating restaurant has brought a whole new dynamic to the Canary Wharf estate.

The restaurant is Hawksmoor’s most ambitious restaurant yet, split across three floors with a 150 cover restaurant and 120 bar ‘The Low Back’.

Rupert Bentley-Smith acted on behalf of our client Canary Wharf Group and Charlie Catterall, of Etch acted on behalf of Hawksmoor.

One of the first of its kind, this eco friendly restaurant is part of a trend that’s about to take on a whole new level.

For all Canary Wharf and Wood Wharf please speak to Rupert Bentley-Smith and Dominic Tixerant.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten” Tony Robbins

This episode of #BGPConnects @hcodyowen speaks to Mark Bourgeois on his time as MD of UK and Ireland for @hammerson_plc. They discussed the future of retail as well as Mark’s journey into the industry.

Now available across spotify applemusic and amazonmusicuk

Link below

This month we welcome two new members to the team, Alex Todd & Euan Anderson. Both join as graduate surveyors following completion of their property degrees and will then go on to sit their professional assessment to become Chartered surveyors.

Our MD, Tracey Pollard commented “As we celebrate our 10th year, it’s great to welcome two more additions to our ever growing business. The events of the last 18 months means we are working closer than ever with our clients to maximise their values, reposition buildings and future proof their assets. Alex and Euan’s energy & enthusiasm for retail will help bring a different perspective to the business and our clients and we are delighted to welcome them into the BGP team”.

Daniella Draper is a British, multi award winning jewellery brand who recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary. Daniella graduated with a degree in jewellery design from central St Martin’s in 2009 and returned to her home roots of Lincolnshire to start her business. Daniella, Della & Holly are a tight knit family working together to build the brand while maintaining its values and handcrafted charm.

It is great to work with an independent and family run business and we are extremely excited to work with them to secure their first store.

For further information please contact Lucy Cope

As part of our 10th birthday celebrations we asked some of our team what Bruce Gillingham Pollard meant to them, these are some words used to express our business.

Some liked the energy, ambition, passion and drive to collaborate and innovate.

Others mentioned the incredible talent found within the business, and welcomed the ability to be part of a team who were changing places and enhancing retail environments.

Our long standing trusted relationships were valued by many, both within our team and beyond, mentioning partnerships with clients, retailers and restaurateurs.

New graduates valued our blind faith and trust in them to get on with the job and highlighted the world class projects they were working on, despite their young age.

Many mentioned the feeling of family and the joy of sharing in major life celebrations and the strength of the team when things were tough.

All these things make up our business, we are passionate about what we do and throw 100% energy into every project, with impressive results. It’s what we do.

Don’t just listen to me, but it seems the streaming vs movie “battle” has found its equilibrium. Paramount Pictures CEO Jim Gianopulos and Disney CEO Bob Chapek have both recently stated that you can’t have one without the other. Big screen drives big franchises, which in turn drives streaming features and spinoff series. We can live in hope therefore, that come 17th May (when hopefully UK cinemas can once again draw back the curtain), that we will once again have a thriving movie industry.

Our own COVID experience at BGP, is that most cinema operators have taken the opportunity to agree rent reductions, rent free periods and/or rent deferment with their landlords, who in turn have been rewarded with longer leases. We have been indirectly involved with at least 7 such re-gears, which have resulted in an average lease extension of 5 years with a resultant cap rate (valuation) improvement of c25 bps. We also anticipate that the cinemas of tomorrow may need to offer a greater customer experience, and perhaps work in harmony with the more flexible working habits, such as co-working space and event-hosting.

Now is probably not the time to be selling cinema-anchored, multi-let leisure schemes, but you can certainly be doing the prep. Any buyer will want to understand the payment history, the plan for recovery and the joint investment these schemes will need to ensure that the customer feels super safe to return. My colleagues are still up to their eyes in new lettings, especially from “competitive socialising” and leisure brands who see this as a golden opportunity to acquire space they might not have dreamt of – who would have thought an 80,000 sq ft department store in south west London would be a “family entertainment centre”. I’m sure Gravity have learned from the previous incarnations, such as Dave n Busters, but they never had the chance to trade out of Wandsworth!

If the great British public still have the appetite to be entertained once all this is over, the leisure scheme/park of tomorrow may actually be an improvement on pre-COVID. Less “average” operators, peddling a poor quality offer to an ever discerning customer – several well-known restaurant brands spring to mind. From an investment point of view, in theory, only the best operators will have survived, probably on re-based/affordable rents, with even longer lease terms if the landlord and tenant have got their heads together.

Fingers crossed for a bumper H2 2021…..

One of the key strengths of Bruce Gillingham Pollard, is our range of clients and the diversity of the projects we work on. These instructions stretch from standalone shops and restaurant units, to large development projects nationwide. We work on established shopping centres, as well as successful Estates and our portfolio of projects stretch right the way from Zone 1 prime luxury districts, to market towns and key national cities such as Edinburgh and Cardiff.

This strength has become even more pronounced and relevant during the last 12 months, as many City Centres have seen the impact of office workers remaining at home and a lack of international tourists. In the meantime we have seen neighbourhood villages, market towns and out of town parks often thrive, as people are keen to eat and shop local. As a direct result of our range of instructions, we have been able to continue engagement access to the narrow band of tenants who remain active in the market and ensure there is cross fertilisation of ideas and relationships throughout our team which has benefited all of our instructions.

As we start the beginning of a New Year, we continue to see strong interest from tenants, looking to capitalise on the changes in consumer behaviour, with strong interest from food stores, fitness and wellness concepts and restaurants seeking to open in neighbourhood locations such as St Johns Wood, Dulwich Village, Queens Park, Ealing, Notting Hill and Brixton. One trend which has been interesting to observe, is the shift in locations being sought be restaurant operators. Many pre Covid wanted central West End locations, but have now reassessed their priorities and appreciate the relevance of residential deliveries and a local neighbourhood customer.

Our ability to reach potential tenants and share contacts and ideas across our team, is an important element of the success of our business and allows us to provide sound and relevant advice to both our leasing clients and our investment colleagues, allowing them to target locations which are vibrant and sustainable for the long term on behalf of  their investment clients.