Property People: LCP appoints asset manager for shopping centre portfolio; Harris Lamb adds to building consultancy team; and more

LCP, the national commercial property and investment company, has appointed an asset manager to help grow its shopping centre portfolio.

Harriet Moloney joins the West Midlands-based company from LaSalle Investment Management in London, where she was retail asset manager and joint fund manager for a global pension fund client.

She is tasked with looking at ways of increasing occupancy and introducing alternative opportunities at the Wulfrun Centre in Wolverhampton, the Churchill Centre in Dudley, and the Arcadian Centre in Birmingham.

“Most of my experience has been in the shopping centre sector, which has involved both acquisitions and disposals as well as the day to day asset management of centres,” she said. “LCP has a great reputation within the market and is one of the few buyers still acquiring within the convenience end of the retail market.

“My main goal will be to drive value through reducing vacancy rates, renewing existing leases and future-proofing these local, convenience-led schemes by investigating alternative use opportunities whether it be food and beverage, residential or leisure.”

Andrew Barrett, LCP retail director, said: “LCP’s retail investment continues to grow and to ensure that we are able to manage our tenants to the best of our ability and to look creatively at how we utilise those spaces we own and manage, we wanted to appoint an asset manager with significant retail experience. Harriet’s expertise in this specialist sector is the ideal complement to our LCP retail team.”
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Property consultancy Harris Lamb has bolstered its building consultancy team with the appointment of a surveyor to assist with its expanding workload.

Hsu-Chiu Lau joins the business as associate director, bringing more than 12 years’ post qualification experience of providing a wide range of building surveying services and advice for various owners, occupiers, institutions and investors in the commercial sector to the team.

Lau joins Harris Lamb from Colliers International, where he spent 11 years, and his extensive experience in dilapidations for landlords and tenants, due diligence, building surveys, project management, fund monitoring and reinstatement insurance cost valuations will prove a valuable asset to the six-strong team.

Paul Wells, director, said: “We have such a high level of new instructions and ongoing work within the building consultancy team that we’re always keen to hear from experienced surveyors who can work with us to service an extensive client portfolio.

“Hsu-Chiu’s experience and enthusiasm makes him a very welcome addition to our department.”

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Coventry and Warwickshire’s hot property market has created a number of new vacancies at one of the city’s law firms.

Band Hatton Button, which is based on Warwick Road, has three vacancies in its commercial property department and two in the residential property department.

The vacancies on offer in Band Hatton Button’s residential property department include a lawyer and a paralegal, while the roles in commercial property are for two lawyers and a paralegal.

Band Hatton Button – which has an annual budget of £4.5m – is also recruiting for a lawyer to bolster the firm’s family department.

Mark Moseley, managing director at Band Hatton Button, said: “Coventry is very much a city on the up and it has fast become an attractive destination for studying, working and visiting which is something we feel is going to build as we get closer to UK City of Culture in 2021, and with innovations such as driverless cars being developed on our doorstep.

“It’s for this reason that we have decided to inject long-term investment into our property departments.

“The property markets, particularly in the West Midlands, are bucking the wider national trend of slower property prices which is undoubtedly being driven by increasing demand for property in Coventry and Warwickshire.

“Band Hatton Button has gradually grown its workforce and has seen its team increase by approximately 30% in recent years, many of whom are long-serving and, by the New Year, we hope to have seen our workforce grow by another ten per cent which is very much in line with our future growth plans.”