Stuart Kearney

Name

Stuart Kearney

Department

Commercial

I joined Savills in August 2006 having completed an undergraduate degree at The University of The West of England in Property Management and Investment and have spent the last two years building experience in different types of work within the retail sector.

Our team is about 20 strong and our patch generally covers the South West and South Wales patch but occasionally extends as far as Yorkshire. My work is mostly split between agency and landlord and tenant (L&T).

Most of the L&T instructions I handle are for tenants which is great experience because each job takes you to a different centre so it's a great way to build up your local market knowledge and learn "who's who" in each town. I also deal with shopping centres on behalf of landlords where your objective is to move the scheme forward in terms of income by carrying out lettings, rent reviews and lease renewals. There is an added asset management perspective of evolving the tenant mix and attracting retailers who bring something new to add to the overall theme and draw in footfall.

For the last year or so I have been working with two directors on an instruction for The Bristol Alliance who are delivering the £500 million Cabot Circus shopping centre of around 120 new shop units. Within the same ownership is their existing holding of over 70 shops, and we have been working towards enhancing the quality of the retail offer to make it complement the new scheme it will sit alongside.

In taking the APC with Savills I have found the level of support to be excellent in there being many senior, very experienced surveyors who are happy to offer advice and market knowledge. There are also many aspects of the job to enjoy - site inspections, daily interaction with wide ranging types of organisation in the market place, after work drinks and networking events and importantly you get ample time off to pursue other interests which for me are skiing, cooking, festivals and water sports.