Place-making and the London estates: land ownership and the built environment

ABSTRACT

In inner London many real estate companies own and manage ownership clusters ‒ spatially concentrated property portfolios or landed estates. The literature has framed this feature of the London property market as the renewed interest in the estate model of development. Drawing on empirical research in London, this research examines ownership clusters, exploring their investment and management strategies. Research findings suggest that cluster managers employ a curatorial form of place-making in their relevant neighbourhoods, selecting the mix of uses and users, unit placement, and investing in public space in order to increase footfall, consumer circulation, dwell time and spending to maximize real estate returns.

Notes

1. Between 2006 and 2010 the company that owned the Covent Garden cluster was Liberty International. Capco was one of the two Liberty International operating divisions, the one that managed their Covent Garden portfolio, and who kept it after demerging from Liberty International in 2010. Therefore, for simplicity, the Covent Garden cluster is referred to here as belonging to Capco since 2006.

2. This includes Shaftesbury holdings in Seven Dials and in St Martins Courtyard. Shaftesbury refers to these holdings as their Covent Garden portfolio. In this research, however, to distinguish these holdings from Capco’s Covent Garden cluster, these holdings are referred to as Shaftesbury’s Seven Dials cluster.