David Pepper, the founder of agency Morgan Pepper, has died from cancer at the age of 83.
Paying tribute, developer Sir Stuart Lipton said Pepper would be “sorely missed by the property world”, describing him as “a highly experienced, knowledgeable property surveyor of many skills and great charm with whom I had a lifelong friendship and respect”.
In the mid-1970s, Pepper was a partner at Edward Erdman, now part of Colliers, where he led the City office. In 1987, he set up Morgan Pepper with Trevor Morgan.
Morgan, now managing partner at investment and development firm Morgan Capital, said Pepper was “the ultimate supreme adviser” and shared an anecdote from the late 1980s that he said showed his “utmost professional capabilities”.
“We bought Ashdown House on Victoria Street for circa £100m, a sizeable transaction at that time,” Morgan said. “We acted for a major Japanese company which was run and owned by its chairman. When the chairman decided to visit us in London, David assiduously and comprehensively rehearsed everything about the building and the location. He stood up with a professional translator and proceeded to deliver a superb presentation.
“Five minutes into the presentation, the chairman stopped the proceedings and asked only to know everything about Canary Wharf. At that time, almost nobody knew much about this subject, but David did and proceeded to talk about Canary Wharf for 20 minutes. The chairman was happy and returned immediately to Japan.
“David, forever the most competent professional.”
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