North West Business Briefs: Liverpool Place Partnership; Legal & General; Burnley FC; Vistry Partnerships; SoMar Marketing

The collective of businesses who represent Liverpool at the annual global property conference MIPIM has rebranded to the Liverpool Place Partnership, to reflect its new direction.

The Liverpool at MIPIM partnership was developed to support MIPIM in London and Cannes primarily, as well as support other national and international property events. Since eight companies first joined forces to attend in 2013, it has grown each year and in 2019 more than 40 businesses from the city region were part of the delegation.

Over recent years the partnership has moved from being just about MIPIM to having an ongoing dialogue across the private and public sectors and being a force for good – advocating change, supporting best practice in the industry and acting as a critical friend to the public sector. This has been a welcome approach from partners with many joining for an ongoing 12 months of activity and networking.

The partnership will showcase the Liverpool City Region and aim to deliver investment through events, networking, promotional opportunities and collaborative working. While MIPIM remains a big part of the activity, the new name reflects the group’s expanded scope.

The Chair will be Stephen Cowperthwaite, principal and managing director – Liverpool for Avison Young, who said: “We are not just about one week at MIPIM but about working as a collective throughout the year to showcase Liverpool City Region as a place to invest, across multiple national and international platforms. Events remain integral to our work but the partnership has also proven to be a key and valuable sounding board and consultation base for the city and city region leadership, so rebranding to Liverpool Place Partnership reflects what we do more accurately.”

Chris Brown, director of Marketing Liverpool, said: “Over the last eight years the Liverpool presence at events like MIPIM has continued to grow, which is the surest sign of success for the companies that have wanted to be involved. The pandemic has, however, created the need for a much wider discourse than just events. It has evolved to the point where MIPIM is only one of the things the partnership may do and this name change reflects that more fully.”

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Chris Oglesby

Legal & General will fund and deliver a new innovation district with the University of Oxford, extending Oxford’s existing Begbroke Science Park across an adjacent 14-hectare site. The first phase of the scheme will bring forward new teaching facilities for the university’s Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences departments, as well as providing space to incubate spin-out companies. Future phases will also seek to develop 2,000 new homes, with a mix of affordable tenures and subsidised key worker accommodation.

The new Begbroke innovation district forms part of Legal & General’s £4bn partnership with the University of Oxford, Oxford University Development (OUD). By building out a network of high quality research and innovation facilities, alongside affordable homes to accommodate students and teachers, the partnership is seeking to retain talent in the city, boost the economy and support spin out and scale up businesses. The wider masterplan for Begbroke will create a ‘live/study/work’ environment, with ambitions to include a hotel, restaurant, bars, cafes, shops, educational, community and sports facilities.

Stepping up its commitment to invest in the UK life sciences sector, Legal & General, which works with Manchdster-based property group Bruntwood, has brought forward projects, in partnership with world leading universities, worth £2bn this year alone. This has included its scheme with Manchester University, ID Manchester, and its first development for the OUD partnership, the new Life and Mind Building.

Nigel Wilson, chief executive at Legal & General, said: “We are extremely proud of our partnership with the University of Oxford, which in the wake of COVID-19 will help retain talent in the city, whilst driving essential inward investment and providing opportunities for world leading innovation, as well as much needed housing for key workers. Investments such as this are creating virtuous cycle whereby pensions and savings are used to create positive social, environmental and economic outcomes which are in line with our commitment to inclusive capitalism.”

Chris Oglesby, executive chair, Bruntwood SciTech, said: “The development of Begbroke Science Park into a major new science and innovation district will provide much needed, additional research and innovation facilities for some of the UK’s most exciting life science businesses and support the creation of new high value, highly skilled jobs for the sector. Our reputation for working in partnership with public, private, academic and clinical institutions to create world class science and tech clusters, that fuel innovation and foster collaboration, is why we’re well placed to help bring this ambitious vision to life.”

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Chelsea take their dug out seats

Football fans have a unique opportunity to own a piece of football history later this month, when the dugouts and hand made seats from Burnley’s Turf Moor ground are auctioned for the club’s community charity. The move follows major renovations at the club’s famous stadium this summer and will give bidders globally the chance to secure rare pieces of Premier League football memorabilia.

Used by Burnley manager Sean Dyche and a host of Clarets’ players, a plethora of world-class stars, including Harry Kane, Paul Pogba, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, David Silva and Mo Salah have all used the ergonomically-designed leather seats, hand made in Burnley’s iconic claret and blue colours by luxury salon equipment manufacturer REM, which is based just a few miles from the ground in Nelson.

Proceeds from the online auction, which also includes other ground fixtures that fans of the club will be able to bid for, will go directly to support Burnley FC in the Community, the charitable arm of the Lancashire club. The charity, one of the largest in the UK operated by a football club, employs more than 150 staff and operates a foodbank, community resources and leisure facilities as well as inclusive education initiatives and social outreach in and around Burnley.

Burnley FC in the Community CEO, Sara Ward, said: “For football fans anywhere, this is a unique opportunity to pick up a real piece of footballing memorabilia that has been seen on TV around the world every week or so during Burnley’s last 10 seasons in the Premier League and Championship, and to really help the community into the bargain. With over 250 top-flight games played here during the last 10 years, many of the biggest names in world football have sat in these seats, and we’ve already had a lot of enquiries about the auction.”

Other items in the auction, that closes at midnight, Sunday, August 1, include directors’ stadium seats with Burnley FC branding, COVID-19 seat banner covers, as well as match-worn signed shirts and boots from Burnley FC first team players.

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The Wirral development

Regeneration specialist Vistry Partnerships has finished construction of an affordable retirement building in Saughall Massie, Wirral, and has handed over the completed development to housing association Alpha Living.

The completed building, known as Poppyfields, will soon open its doors to residents. As part of their work, Vistry Partnership built 60 one-bed and 18 two bed apartments, which will be available for affordable rent for people over the age of 55. The developers also built a vibrant mix of facilities designed to stimulate social interaction, such as a bistro, hair salon, spa and wellbeing suite, plus a communal lounge accessible to residents.

Vistry Partnerships’ managing director for the North West, Ian Hilliker, said: “We pride ourselves on working with others to achieve the highest quality, and the Poppyfields project is another fantastic example of this. It has been a pleasure to work alongside Homes England and Alpha Living on the scheme, and we wish every happiness to all the residents looking forward to moving into the completed facility.”

The scheme also saw the creation of a new head office for Alpha Living, which will offer 24-hour care and support services on site. Graeme Foster, Alpha Living chief executive, said: “Vistry have helped us to deliver an exciting development that will help meet the needs of Wirral residents for generations to come. It’s been an exceptional partnership and we look forward to working with Vistry in the future.”

Overall, the scheme took 24 months to complete and was part-funded by Homes England.

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Jonathan Gale

A 22-year-old entrepreneur from Lancaster has yet to graduate from university but is already forging ahead with his business career.

Jonathan Gale is due to graduate with a degree in Management and Marketing from Edgehill University this summer, and is now poised to focus full-time on his business SoMar Marketing, which offers a range of services including social media page management and content creation. The enterprising student launched the business in 2019, and from small beginnings with a single client he is now ready to make it his full time occupation after completing his studies.

Jonathan said: “The inspiration to start SoMar Marketing came from a guest lecture at university. We had a lecture from a media company owner who told us that having a job isn’t security and that it’s better to start your own thing. Two months later, after a bit of brainstorming, I launched the business.”

The 22-year-old studied for his A-levels at Kendal College where he was identified as having dyslexia and academic staff helped him to develop learning techniques that paved the way for him go to university. He said: “Up until the first year of sixth form I’d always excelled at education. After Kendal College recognised my dyslexia things fell back into place for me, and one of the reasons I chose to go to Edgehill University is that they have really good learning support.”

University tutor, Dr Giles P McClelland, said: “I had the opportunity to work closely with Jonathan as his dissertation supervisor and recognised some traits in him that will be transferred into a career in commerce. He has energy, drive, is personable and creative but mainly, what impressed me most about Jonathan, is his ability to engage in evidence-based decision making. I am really pleased Jonathan is going to pursue his entrepreneurial instincts.”

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