24 | PEOPLE Movers & Shakers
Century 21 senior VP of operations FRANCHISE CENTURY 21 has appointed a new senior vice president of operations. Mark Foreman has been a Realtor for 23 years, served as president of the Connecticut Association of REALTORS® in 2006 and on several NAR committees. “Mark Foreman brings signifi cant real estate experience and depth, which will help us to continue to position the CENTURY 21® brand for smart and strategic growth,” said Rick Davidson, president and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate.
Karma Royal new business manager SHARED OWNERSHIP specialist Robin Mills has joined Asia-based developer Karma Royal Group in the new role manager of new business opportunities in Europe and the Americas. Mills has experience as group sales director of exchange fi rm Interval International and is currently a board member of Europe’s Resort Development Organisation. Karma Royal developers shared ownership resorts in India, Thailand and Indonesia and is now looking to expand is operations.
New franchises for RE/MAX India RE/MAX INDIA, which was purchased by Samir Chopra in 2009 as a master franchise has been divided into 32 regions and investors have now purchased 20 of those regions and have several offi ces open for business. The company has also sold a new franchise in Southern Africa – back to its previous owners. Peter Gilmour and his wife Val bought and built up the original franchise and then sold the region back to RE/MAX, LLC. Now, they are again owners of the region, which comprises several countries in Southern Africa.
OPP expands its team of writers with Adam Hill and Andrew Brown TWO NEW journalists are joining OPP this month with Adam Hill taking over as news editor and Andrew Brown as online editor. Both are highly knowledgeable business writers with a wealth of experience behind them. Adam Hill has worked for The Sunday Times (covering business news,) PRWeek, Commercial Motor and the Teletext service on UK TV channels ITV1 and Channel 4. Adam is also a regular news writer on the Evening Standard website. Recently he has been writing profi les and features for Public Aff airs News on the lobbying sector and profi les for HR Magazine on human resource management. Adam was also editor of the General Medical Council magazine GMCtoday. Andrew Brown is the former editor of International Management, Media International, Motor Trader and What to Buy for Business. He has spent many years covering complex international B2B sectors and originally trained with the Mirror Group Newspapers Editorial Training scheme. This included working for three years on local and regional newspapers in the south west UK as well as stints on The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror. Andrew also spent several years covering the
social care sector working on titles like Community Care and Nursing Mirror.
www.opp.org.uk | JUNE 2010
Movers & shakers Maverick Investor Group goes international
LAS VEGAS-BASED referral agency Maverick Investor Group, LLC, has decided that the time is ripe to move into Nicaragua where it will be working with investors and a private network of agents to sell the Seaside Mariana Spa & Golf
Resort at, it says, “prices and terms that will never be offered to the public.”
Why now? “Over the last two years Maverick has
been reviewing real estate projects in Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Central America,” says partner Matthew Bowles (above centre.) “In our opinion Nicaragua is going to be one of the premiere emerging markets on the world stage. In Central America, Panama and Costa Rica have already had economic growth, tourism explosions and an explosion in property values over the last 15 years.”
Maverick can see the same lifestyle at a lower
cost in Nicaragua and it says it has found a “perfect storm” of Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, good beach frontages, and the country’s fi rst 5-Star Resort at Mariana.
New directions This will be a different challenge for Maverick. “Most of our deals up to this point have been located within the US,” says Bowles. But now “we are making a full-blown move into the international arena looking to build relationships with international agents and buyers. Bowles is keen to point out that Maverick is not in a formal “partnership” with Grupo Mariana and will only be paid a referral fee from the seller when a full sales transaction takes place. “We introduce people to buying opportunities for freehold real property only,” he says. “Maverick does not offer any securities, nor does it pool multiple buyers money together. And does not handle the buyers money.”
New fund drives investor traffi c
New opportunities in the car-parking sector are opening up this month with the launch of a distributing yield fund from the UK-based Best Group.
The scheme is aimed at private investors looking to buy registered leases on individual spaces in commercial car parks ... a market that has not been easy to access in such a way up to now.
“High-occupancy-rate car parks are an excellent asset class” said Best Group chief executive Brad Lincoln (pictured right,) “and there is increasing interest in them all around the world. Warren Buff et, for instance, has recently become a fan of investing in car parks.”
Best has prepared a list of the world’s top 50 car park destinations where demand is high and space limited. “Intelligent property investors know that you have to look for investments with a good business rationale and strong underlying funda- mentals,” said Lincoln, “and the right car park in the right place will have all of that in place.”
Look for a supporting commercial contract- Best will be concentrating on commercial parking developments where a local offi ce block or large corporate occupier has taken a block of spaces on a contractual basis. The revenue is regular and guaranteed in such situations and, more impor- tantly, easy to collect.
Demand will remain strong said Lincoln, pointing
to an individual car parking space in London’s Mayfair district, which is currently on the wmarket for more than £300k. “Our reliance on the motor car is not going to go away,” he said. “Emerging economies like India and China are seeing car ownership rates grow rapidly.”
The Best Group will allow investors to have a lease per space registered in their name with a completely fl exible exit policy. “To give investors comfort,” said Lincoln, “we will put any space returned to us straight back on to the availability list and we will also off er a full 5-year backstop guarantee … if you are not happy after 5 years we will buy back your car parking space for the same price you paid for it in the fi rst place.”
PEOPLE
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