East Midlands teams head to MIPIM with a Cannes-do attitude

Teams from across the East Midlands are in the south of France today (Monday March 14) as MIPIM, the global real estate conference in Cannes kicks off.

More than £2bn of investment opportunities throughout Derby and Derbyshire are set to be showcased to international investors.

The team will go armed with a recently updated Derby Investment Prospectus, which showcases 16 key investment opportunities across the city, worth £1.2bn.

A key project being promoted is the University of Derby’s City Hub Masterplan, which focuses on the development of the area around One Friar Gate Square, Ford Street, Bridge Street, Agard Street and Nuns Street, in Derby.

With a new business school representing the first phase, the overall ambition is to create two distinct but linked areas in the city: an Academic Zone, centred around the university’s current Sir Peter Hilton Court site, and an Enterprise Zone, based around the Princess Alice Court halls of residence and Enterprise Centre area.

The event will also see the unveiling of a brand-new Derbyshire Investment Prospectus – the first of its kind for the county – to an international audience.

In total, 23 projects are featured, spanning the length and breadth of the county.

Team Leicester is a public/private partnership made up of organisations who have joined together to collectively champion Leicester and Leicestershire’s property and construction sector, inward investment message and to showcase the exciting range of projects and opportunities in the area.

Rob McGuinn from property consultants, MDA is chair of the Team Leicester. He said, “Although the pandemic has caused the industry to slow down on a global scale, Leicester and Leicestershire have in fact, weathered the storm well. Our businesses are resilient; our people are tough; and consequently, our region has emerged with a degree of optimism – and this resonates in the continuation of the large volume of new developments that are there for all to see.”

Matthew Wallace, director of estates and building services at Leicester City Council said: “MIPIM brings about the chance to have meaningful conversations away from the day-to-day environment – people attend because they want to return with tangible and realistic outcomes.

“Leicester City Council has many sites and locations in our portfolio, and we have recently received substantial funding to progress many new projects such as Pilot House and Leicester Railway Station to name but two. We are particularly interested in speaking to housing developers, investors, corporate real estate occupiers and the supply chain who can help to deliver on these projects.

“We are not just flying the flag as a public sector body. We are also championing private sector developments from the likes of our university partners, our Space Park, the Science Park at Loughborough and Charnwood campus – all of which also have developmental propositions and add greatly to the team spirit and focus that we will be going to MIPIM with.”

Meanwhile, some 13 partner organisations from across the Nottinghamshire property sector will be leading Team Nottingham at MIPIM.

Liz Cartwright of Cartwright Communications worked closely with Lorraine Baggs of Invest in Nottingham, to bring the team together.

She said: “Over the past few years, Nottingham has succeeded in establishing a recognisable presence at MIPIM It’s been a challenging couple of years in terms of Covid but we wanted to maintain a presence at MIPIM until next year when Nottingham City Council and Invest in Nottingham will be there in force.”

“The private sector partners involved in this year’s delegation to MIPIM had no difficulty making a business case for being there. We have opportunities to market, requirements to compete for and we wanted to make sure that the Team Nottingham brand was out there and visible at the biggest event on Europe’s property and investment calendar.”

Baggs added: “Invest in Nottingham has had to take a very difficult decision not to have an official presence at MIPIM this year.

“However, we very strongly believe that it is absolutely right to sell the city to potential inward investors because that represents a key plan of our efforts to grow the city economy and create new jobs and new opportunities for people.”