Property’s pin-up
It is no secret that the future of the lowly business card hangs in the balance. Why clutter up your desk/pocket/handbag with half a forest’s worth of contact details on stacks of embossed cardboard when a digital swap will do? But if you want something a little more personal, why not just replicate yourself in miniature à la Steve Edge? The branding guru, known for his flamboyant dress sense and a wardrobe that includes a pair of diamond-encrusted shoes, now hands out these mini golden Steves crafted into lapel pins complete with contact details and the tagline: “Now you can have your creative guru wherever you go…” Could this be the latest property fashion accessory du jour?
Hoofing it in the East End
Speaking of Mr Edge, aka Lord Shoreditch, anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting the most eccentric man in property (we are calling it – any pretenders to the throne, make yourselves known) will know that 10 minutes in his company would be enough to fill EG’s Diary page for a month. We have one spot here, so hopefully have cherry-picked wisely. Back before he became the creative adviser he is today, Edge worked for a certain George Lucas. Apart from helping design the Millennium Falcon and working on the set of Raiders of the Lost Ark as a monkey trainer, Edge used his first pay cheque wisely by going to an East End market and buying a horse. “I called her Queenie,” he says. “I rode her bareback to my parents’ house in Bethnal Green. We kept her in the garden, rode her to work every day and parked her alongside the Mercedes and Aston Martins.”
Anatomy of an admin
Unless you’re Tim Peake (and he probably knows too), you will have seen that the (once) great British institution that was BHS collapsed into administration this week. And it collapsed in almost record time after implementing a CVA, a rescue measure that was meant to buy the company more time to put itself on an even keel by slashing rents across its portfolio. When the CVA was voted through last month, most of the real estate observers Diary spoke to were taken aback at the high level of acceptances. How the BHS did that happen? It seems even the greatest of minds struggle to comprehend. At an Estates Gazette Retail Talks event discussing the use of CVAs, PwC partner Mike Jervis helped make us all feel a little less dense. “The voting system is very, very hard to follow,” he assured us, “even for an accountant and insolvency practitioner.”
Knowing me, knowing you…
You might have thought that the days of Norwich being associated with Alan Partridge were over, but you would be wrong. Fans of Steve Coogan’s inept, Abba-loving radio presenter were more than happy to hear their local celebrity mentioned at EG’s City Talks event – albeit as an example of the inward-looking mindset that Norwich business owners should try to avoid. Perhaps the Norwich property industry could take a leaf out of poor Alan’s shameless self-promotion and shout “Aha!” a little louder to the world.
Pooling your resources
Agents are always wanting to make a splash, but it is not always the best way to go about things. When going to his gym one day, an unlucky-in-love agent had his attention grabbed by a lady heading to the swimming pool and decided he must seize the moment and go in to talk to her. With said lady already swimming lengths, he stood at the end of the pool and waited for her to look up. Finally catching her eye, fully suited and booted, the maverick agent said: “Hello. I bet I can beat you to the other end.” The object of the agent’s attraction was doubtful but he proved her wrong by jumping, fully clothed, into the pool and flailing his way to the other side. Diary understands it did not have the desired effect and no date was secured. What a damp squib.
Dance fans do the twitterbug
A British electronic musician has a novel solution to the demise of the clubbing landscape in London. Following recent news of Dance Tunnel closing in Dalston, E8, and Peckham music venue Bussey Building, SE15, being under threat from residential developers, he wants to turn the Trocadero in Piccadilly, W1, into a nightclub, which he thinks could be the UK equivalent of Berlin’s most famous club, Berghain. He put a call-out on Twitter, asking: “If you have nuff money and want to help then please get in touch.” A new hashtag has started trending in response: #helpfourtetbuythetrocaderoandturnitintoaclub. Party property people, get in touch.
