KLM Real Estate has hired Nick Sewell to lead and grow its asset management business, CoStar News can reveal.
The move comes as an increasing number of leading advisers in the retail and leisure space add asset management platforms.
Sewell joins from Urbn Partners, a specialist town centre regeneration and development company which he will continue to operate. Prior to that he spent five years as an executive director in CBRE's retail capital markets team and was head of ReShape Retail, liaising across the business to lead on the re-purposing of retail assets that were too large or no-longer fit for purpose. Sewell focused on working with investors to right size and stabilise assets, and strategic acquisition work with local authorities.
Prior to that he spent 10 years with NewRiver REIT as an Executive Director. He joined the REIT at its initial public offering on the AIM market in 2009. At NewRiver he helped establish a market leading real estate investment platform focused on grocery and essential retail.
KLM Real Estate is a specialist retail and leisure agency that recently celebrated 35 years in business. In a recent profile of the company in CoStar News, Mark Bennett, a partner focusing predominantly on the investment and development market and in particular mixed use, high street and leisure assets, said one area the business would focus on more is asset management. "You have seen advisers start moving into this space and we have started to do that over recent years too. We will make a move into it in a bigger way as we have the experience and expertise in house; so why not?"
The profile also reflected on the recovering UK retail markets, particularly retail parks, shopping centres and prime city centre high streets, something that is encouraging businesses to focus on offering asset management advice.
The most notable recent example of a major adviser adding an asset management platform is CBRE with its 2023 acquisition of Sovereign Centros. Other examples of platforms in the space are Blackstar Real Estate, which was set up last year by Sabri Marsaoui, who worked previously for Capital & Regional and Crosstree Real Estate Partners, and Estama Asset Management.