Place 100, 2009
In association with Halliwells and Roland Dransfield PR
Contents
►Place 100, 2009: 1 to 15
►Place 100, 2009: 16 to 30
►Place 100, 2009: 31 to 100 A-E
►Place 100, 2009: 31 to 100 F-L
►Place 100, 2009: 31 to 100 M-Z
Welcome to Place 100, the first comprehensive ranking of private sector power and influence in the property and regeneration worlds of the North West.
The elite of the region’s property people are ranked from 1 to 30 in order of power and current success, as gauged by our judges. This is a timely list about the outcomes of 2009 and the top 30 reflects who has had the best year as much as their enduring power.
Rules of engagement: We could have had an interesting Place 250 or Place 500 but we have been ruthless in our first Place power list and whittled it down to 100. Here’s how…
Firstly, the few hard-and-fast rules: strictly private sector, no civil servants, no politicians, be based in the region or extremely prominent and dedicated to doing business here, no public-private partnership quangocrats, and no more than one person per organisation, which means the boss or regional director.
Compiling such lists is not a science or an art and we will no doubt face criticism – and hopefully some praise – for our choices. An informal panel of judges was consulted from a cross-section of disciplines and it was agreed a criteria would be devised along a ‘food chain’ theory about where projects originate. Developers, banks and landowners are at the top of the chain, then there are the surveyors/agents whose influence on the occupier market and identifying development and investment opportunities, introducing parties on both sides and site assembly is crucial. We have the top property lawyers from Manchester and Liverpool as identified in Legal 500, as well as the region’s big architects, who literally shape the world around us. Influential planning consultants, whose brains and hard work are responsible for the all-important consents, are here too. The leading contractors, who get to build the region’s largest developments, and in turn feed so much work to sub-contractors, are included.
However, on this basis, sadly many other suppliers and consultants that are wealth generators and large companies in their own right didn’t get much of a look in this year.
Beyond the ‘food chain’ fundamental, power was felt by the judges to be lots of things: wealth, asset size and quality, ability to move markets, impact on the ‘face’ of the North West, employment levels, rent rolls, current activity,…
Not surprisingly there are very few financers and even fewer house-builders on the list this year. But the resilience of those that do feature is testament to the quality of the property community in the region, which deserves to be mapped and recognised in this way.
I hope you enjoy the list and the stories contained within.
Paul Unger, Editor
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I’m surprised there is no mention of Canning O’Neill in this list. We have been established in Manchester over 12 years and certainly punch above our weight. We have a higher profile in office agency in Manchester than many of the larger, national firms and the 3 Directors, Mark Canning, Conrad O’Neill and James Dickinson have more combined experience in office agency than most of our competitors. We are also involved in some very high profile developments/instructions – Exchange Quay, Metro, Towers Business Park, Sunlight House, Universal Square to name but a few. We have not had to make any redundancies during the recession and are well know and respected for the quality of advice we provide to our clients. Perhaps our only failing is that we do not shout about ourselves or appear in the press every 5 minutes like some of our competitors. Why? Because we are getting on and doing the deals!
By Conrad O'Neill
Conrad O’Neill…stop blowing your own trumpet whilst stating that your only failing is lack of self-publicity. Ask Santa for some self-awareness.
By John
Canning: Sounds to me like you answered your own question. You cant moan about not being included on a if you have no profile and dont let people know what your doing. Simples
By outside inside
mmmmmm….if they are “punching above their weight” then they must have gone on significant diets!!!
By anon
Are there so few talented females in the NW working in these areas or do they just not “play the corporate game” well enough? A handful in 100 people chosen – shameful in 2009!
By female reader
i agree. observations…michelle taylor and christine hanson are as senior as it gets and prove it can be done. it can seem a very macho world, property, at times and maybe puts girls off. how many are doing estate management degrees in the first place? be interesting to know. lastly, do the men at the top top promote more men than women more often?
By john squire