GCW is celebrating 35 years in business as one of the UK's key niche advisers in retail, leisure and town centre real estate. CoStar News caught up with its managing partners to reflect on a period that has seen radical change but also an increasing return to many of the market fundamentals in place at the company's inception.
The company, now based at 50 Great Marlborough Street in London's West End, began life as a tenant representative business advising the retailers that were increasingly dominating town centre buildings. Along the way it has evolved to add the full gamut of advisory services including landlord and investment teams, as well as more recently beginning to describe itself as a town centre adviser.
Simon Morris, managing partner, says in some ways over the 35 years, retail and town centre real estate has come full circle in the face of the shocks of online shopping, financial crises and global pandemics.
"In the 80s the chain retailers took off but prior to that town centres were multiuse and purpose-built in part for people to live in. The increase in car ownership helped the dramatic rise of retail in town centres. Landlords became very focused on covenant and they started to provide bigger box units for the retailers and that removed other town centre uses and rebalanced town centres towards retail. Often now it is about bringing the previous uses back with a more holistic offer. Retail now is often not the primary reason to go to a town centre. It is schools and education, homes and doctor's surgeries and work."
Morris says the rise in diagnostics centres in town and shopping centres is a case in point. There have been many constants throughout the changes too. "Planning guidance is almost always retrospective, it seems. And what is always the case is the private sector is always vital to finding a route forwards."
The company launched on 17 July 1989 at 20 Welbeck Street in London as Gooch, Cunliffe and Whale and on the same day landed a first instruction that rocket-propelled the business.
“We never, just never dreamt we would get an instruction from Next, certainly not early doors. But that was our first, and it was a big high-profile sale that got us a lot of coverage and through it, we met a lot of people,” says David Gooch, who co-founded the company with Stuart Cunliffe and Keith Whale. Gooch credits established connections with the retailer for helping a new company get its foot in the door.
In 1991, GCW moved to 2-3 Woodstock Street, where Gooch, Cunliffe Whale, and Nikki Robinson, the first staff member, were joined in 1992 by new partner Clive Gillingwater.
In 1993 the business secured its first shopping centre instruction, the Peacocks Centre in Woking, while in 1994 current managing partner Duncan Kite became part of the team.
Kite and Morris point out that 1996 was a critical year in terms of adopting technology: the business received its first email and launched its first website. In the decade that followed, its work repurposing 27 Woolworths stores was a key instruction, before the business collapsed into administration in the UK.
“Our strengths have always lain around understanding that every location has an individual challenge,” says Morris. “There is not a one-solution-fits-all, but we see only opportunities for clients, even in the most difficult situations.”
Then in 2018, as shoppers’ habits began to change, the company took note of the desire for more leisure, food and beverage and interactive entertainment and "got ahead of the game" by branching into the alternative sectors and pivoting the business towards town centre uses.
“We saw it was time to build on our many years of heritage as a retail agency, broadening our experience to take advantage of new and emerging sectors,” says Kite.
Kite says there are clear challenges in making town centres work: "It is true that it is competitive between towns and authorities, while the fractured ownership of town centre property can be a problem. What is needed always is a progressive political approach. But access to capital is the biggest hindrance to successful rejuvenation of town centres."
Morris says the time is coming when a real estate investment trust or a large institutional investor will take full ownership of a town centre and pioneer best practice. "It would be something like Quintain has done in Wembley, where the commercial can be used to adjust the rent in the residential. We are seeing something like this with Canary Wharf being turned into a major retail destination."
"The idea is not to be working in silos. GCW advises across town centre masterplans."
Morris explains that GCW has always adapted to the market and its evolutions. "The legacy started with the business as an adviser to retailers and then owners saw how much the business knew and it naturally led us to widen the service. Now we are 26 people. In the end we were the first company adviser to say we are a town centre specialist and that we advise across that whole piece."
To do that, Morris says GCW focuses on people and how they use a place.
"The question should be why should a person come here? We are advising at 40 town centre projects including major developments in Enfield and at Edmonton Green. We also advise on mall leasing as well as challenged assets that need repurposing. We are continually looking at living and the ingredients for a successful place."
The business has kept growing. Notably, in March, GCW appointed James Waldock as investment director, covering the shopping centre, out- of-town and broader retail capital markets.
He has two decades of experience, having worked at JLL where he led transactional advice as senior director in the retail capital market division. GCW said he had advised clients on close to £4 billion of assets.
"James is an example of a person that just fits in. He brings a new intensity for investors," says Morris.
Philippe Micheal was promoted to equity partner in March too, as reported, demonstrating the philosophy of GCW in nurturing careers, the duo say. Michael joined the company 10 years ago as surveyor and has risen through the ranks, working at every level of the business.
He is also spearheading another key aspect of the company’s strategy, its first Sustainability Action Plan, unveiled in January.
Morris says despite the evolving nature of its work, occupiers and retailers are "still at the core of what we do".
"That is taking them into new areas and working on how a brand extension involves the bricks and mortar. We are advising everyone from Pureseoul, a Korean beauty retailer, to high street stalwarts too."
This work includes advising on the expansion of Empowered Brands, the parent of Energie Fitness and UBX fitness chains, as well as helping sports retailer Decathlon unlock excess unit space.
Looking forward, Kite says: "We are very upbeat about the potential for growth and demand in our sectors in the UK going forwards."
A particular area of pride has been its charitable work supporting The Elifar Challenge, the retail industry charity that supports children and young adults with severe disabilities, and their families, that GCW was instrumental in setting up close to 20 years ago.
"It shows GCW has always had a strong sport and fun bias, alongside the hard work," Morris says.