A former director of Clyde Regeneration for Scottish Enterprise has been appointed by a leading development and investment company to mastermind its expansion drive north of the border.
Steven McGarva is moving from his position as a partner with Graham + Sibbald where he was in charge of its asset management and planning and development team, to take up his Glasgow-based post with Ashfield Land. He has also served as board director at Elphinstone Properties.
Ashfield, which has a UK-wide £500m property portfolio, has a number of projects underway across Scotland’s central belt. “These range from housing-led regeneration to major mixed-use retail and leisure developments,” explained McGarva, who concentrated during his time with the economic development agency on Edinburgh and the Lothians.
“The company believes the market is returning in a significant and sustained way in Scotland, and it will be my job to build on what is already here and grow our presence in an even more substantial way,” he added.
Andrew Fisher is managing director of Bristol-headquartered Ashfield Land. “We are seeing strong signs that the market is growing in strength and confidence in Scotland,” he said. “We already have significant holdings across our eight sites, but we see a great deal of potential for future growth and we believe Steven is the right man to help us realise that.”
Prompted by growing international interest in the heavily-discounted Irish commercial property market, Kevin Donohue, a senior executive with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in London, is moving to Dublin to take over as head of investment with DTZ Sherry FitzGerald.
A native of Galway, he is currently a national director of JLL specialising in shopping centre investment and asset management. Donohue has been involved in a number of high-profile shopping centre and retail transactions in the UK.
His 20 years’ experience includes working with UK listed REITs, British and international institutions, private property companies, overseas investors and high net worth individuals. He has also guided several prestige shopping centre transactions across the UK and, in the last year alone, has advised on more than £100m worth of deals.
Wiltshire-based chartered surveyors Kavanaghs has appointed Alison Williams to its commercial team.
Taking over as head of Kavanagh’s commercial offices in Melksham and Trowbridge, Williams — who has moved from property consultants Alder King — will be in charge of managing commercial lettings, disposals and acquisitions in the Wiltshire, Bath and East Somerset areas.
The law firm of Clough & Willis has expanded its commercial property team by appointing Olivia Hepworth as an assistant solicitor.
Hepworth, who is joining the Bury practice from the Manchester office of Squire Sanders, will focus on sales and purchases of land and property, development work as well as landlord and tenant cases.
Story: Cliff Goodwin
Photo: Neil Bird
