Yorkshire grit WSB Property Consultants
PROPERTY WEEK
07.05.10
Fortune Favours the Brave
By Richard Heap
Setting up on your own in the midst of a financial crisis is a daunting prospect. Richard Heap meets the young guns that went for it,
WSB partner Duncan Senior’s Yorkshire accent bristles with confidence: “We have no support staff, no secretaries. We don’t need them. In terms of billing, report writing and PR, we do it ourselves.”
Senior, 32, is former head of office agency and development at CB Richard Ellis in Leeds and a founding partner of WSB, which launched on 12 April 2009 and had its full team in place by July. The other partners are David Watson, 32, former head of investment at Lambert Smith Hampton in Leeds; Robin Beagley, 37, former head of office agency at LSH in Leeds; Carl Smith, 35, valuer at Christie & Co, who focuses on professional work; and David Smith, 44, founding partner of Dresler Smith, who focuses on industrial.
The company is based in Leeds, from where the office team covers Yorkshire and the north, and the retail team is to cover the Yorkshire area. The professional team’s coverage is UK-wide.
It was Beagley’s idea initially to start WSB: “He felt it was now or never,” explains Senior. “Most niche firms in Leeds bought in the boom, so the other partners were keen too.”
WSB has already worked on some sizeable transactions. In December, Yorkshire Water concluded the largest letting in Leeds for five years, when it took 57,000 sq ft at GE Capital Real Estate’s Livingstone House, Clarence Dock, on a 10-year lease. The quoting rent was £19.50/sq ft, and WSB and CB Richard Ellis were the letting agents.
In June, it is expected to reveal a new retail appointment in the form of Adam Mobley, King Sturge partner in the Leeds office.
Senior says to set up, you need a clear plan and a good idea of your collective skill set, but that setting up itself is relatively easy, before adding, with that trademark confidence: “In hindsight, there’s no question that it’s absolutely the right thing to do.”
