Zoe Preston

RivingtonHark has recently been on its annual conference.  This year to Valencia.

As well as the usual activities of business review, corporate strategy and best practice we took full advantage of Valencia’s wonderful attributes to study place making, architecture, markets, public realm, culture, sustainable transport and naturally the best food and beverage the city had to offer.

A great trip of team bonding in a place filled with exemplars of what we strive for in our work.

Along with many of our investor partners RivingtonHark, is putting a lot of thought and effort into ways that ensure we are making the biggest difference possible through our ESG activities.

As part of our commitment to measuring how we are doing we have recently been evaluated by Ecovadis, a leading sustainability rating agency, and are delighted to have achieved a Bronze Medal from the assessment this year.

“10 years ago I sat at my dining table with a blank sheet of A3 paper thinking how to set up a business – the outcome was Rivington Land.  Fast forward 10 years and that business has evolved into RivingtonHark a successful development and asset management business at the forefront of reinventing and repurposing our town centres.  We are active in 16 towns and cities via a portfolio of investment portfolio and development projects with a combined value in excess of £1Bn, including 10 shopping centres under management, 6 major mixed use regeneration schemes and several strategic advisory roles for major shopping centre owners.

It has been an incredible journey filled with amazing people, influential clients, and incredible projects. Thanks to John Laker my former boss and mentor who helped me set up Rivington in the early days; Mark Williams and David Henderson-Williams of Hark for identifying the benefits of combining shopping centre asset management and specialist development management to create the RivingtonHark of today, and importantly, all the valued team members that have worked with me at Rivington.

A developer at heart, I am pleased to say we have been privileged in the last 10 years to have delivered Chester Northgate and Copr Bay Swansea whilst also making significant contributions towards the delivery of Ikon at the O2 and St James’ Edinburgh. I cannot mention the last 10 years without a special mention to our clients at both Cheshire West and Chester and Swansea Councils, with whom we have worked very closely and navigated some of the most challenging economic circumstances that can be thrown at any development.

Growing and guiding this business over the last decade has been one of my proudest achievements, yet I remain equally excited about the next 10 years. I am often heard saying that having spent over 20 years building retail property I am about to spend the remainder of my career knocking it down. There is an element of truth to this given the inherent oversupply of space. However, I still believe that retail is a vital component to any vibrant town centre. Fortunately, it appears I am not alone in this sentiment as is being demonstrated via the footfall growth we are seeing across our portfolio. Our objective therefore is simple (!!) “rightsize” and improve the retail offer whilst delivering a much broader spectrum of uses within better and more attractive environments. Easy!

So many towns and cities still need to reinvent, repurpose, and regenerate themselves in the aftermath of retail structural change (growth of online) and changing consumer behaviour accelerated by a global pandemic. Places once dominated by retail need to adapt. Our business’ understanding of retail and leisure environments, our experience in managing successful assets, combined with the ability to imagine and deliver meaningful change, in my view (and yes I am biased!), puts us in a great position and points to another busy decade.”