Series of exits from Deloitte Real Estate
A partner and two associates have moved from Deloitte Real Estate to Gerald Eve in Manchester, while an assistant director has been hired by Allied London, the latest in a line of departures of long-term DRE staff.
Callum Robertson, Leo Nicholson and Tom Shepherd have transferred as part of Gerald Eve’s acquisition of DRE’s national investment team, confirmed last month. In total 36 people from Deloitte have moved to Gerald Eve across the country.
Robertson worked at Deloitte Real Estate, and predecessor Drivers Jonas, since 2007.
At the same time, former assistant director in the development team at DRE, James Sidlow, has moved client-side to become project director at Allied London. Sidlow has been at DRE since 2008.
At Allied London he will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of 600 private rented sector homes at the St John’s neighbourhood in Manchester.
This year has also seen the departure of two other senior staff members from Deloitte Real Estate; in April, head of the Manchester office and planning director Michele Steel moved to Select Property Group, while last week planning consultancy Euan Kellie Property Solutions announced that it had hired Ellie Philcox as associate director. Steel was another long-term DRE employee, having worked at the company for 16 years. Philcox had been at DRE since 2005.
According to Sean Beech, head of Deloitte in the North West, despite the departures the number of people in the real estate team, largely based in Manchester, has remained consistent at around 70 members of staff.
“We’re investing in the business, just in narrower areas,” he told Place North West. “The national review earlier this year looked at all parts of the business, and we made the decision to focus on areas with the most strength and depth, where we are first or second in the markets in which we operate.
“We made the decision to get rid of the investment and agency functions at a national level, and this mainly affected the London office, it wasn’t a locally specific decision.”
Although senior staff have left Deloitte’s planning function, Beech said that they had strengthened the team by promoting director John Cooper to partner, announced last week, and by hiring two assistant directors. Rachel Poole has moved to Manchester from Deloitte’s London office, while Ed Britton has joined from GL Hearn. In total there are 20 people in the planning department in the North West.
Beech said Deloitte Real Estate would also be hiring six graduates in September, three of which are expected to work in the planning department.
Deloitte Real Estate in the North West is led by five partners; Peter Wilkinson in construction, Simon Bedford in development, John Cooper in planning, Richard Pike in project assurance, and Sean Beech, partner in tax and head of the region.