Insider Media Limited

GVA Grimley and King Sturge were crowned top property agents at the Insider West Midlands Property Awards 2010 last night at a glittering awards ceremony at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel at the NEC. Around 600 property professionals attended the event, which has become a key date in the commercial property sector's calendar and which this year was celebrating its tenth anniversary. They saw GVA Grimley pick up the best office agency team award whilst King Sturge came out on top in the best industrial agency team category. Developer winners on the night were Stoford in the sustainability category, Chord Developments in the residential developer category and St Modwen, which was crowned commercial developer of the year. Elsewhere, Fargo Partnership won out in the regeneration category whilst BDP was voted architecture practice of the year. Property Personality of the Year was Rider Levett Bucknall chairman David Bucknall, whilst Savills won the deal of the year award for its work on the redevelopment of Edgbaston Cricket Ground. DLA Piper was voted property law firm of the year whilst Mace walked off with the construction project of the year award for its work on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre redevelopment. EC Harris was crowned project management team of the year.

The winners

Property Personality of the Year

Winner: David Bucknall, chairman of Rider Levett Bucknall.

Legendary local property figure David Bucknall was the popular choice amongst the judges who pointed to the work he has done in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands over an extended period of time. He is the man behind the transformation and development of Bucknall Austin from a small local firm of quantity surveyors in the 1960s into the international property and construction practice that Rider Levett Bucknall is today. Bucknall was at the heart of the local firm’s 2007 merger with Rider Hunt Levett and Bailey, a leading Australian quantity surveying firm whose past contracts included the Sydney Opera House, the Melbourne Cricket ground and the Sydney Olympics.

Sponsored by: Business Birmingham

Property Deal of the Year

Winner: Savills, for the redevelopment of Edgbaston Cricket Ground.

Savills was instrumental in assisting Warwickshire County Cricket Club (WCCC) in its plans to redevelop Edgbaston Cricket ground. It provided consultancy advice, secured a development partner and generated funding through a complex package of site sale, Advantage West Midlands funding, borrowing through Birmingham City Council and retained development rights.

Shortlisted: Jones Lang LaSalle - the sale of One Snowhill, Birmingham (commended); DTZ/Jones Lang LaSalle - Legal Ombudsman letting at Baskerville House, Birmingham

Sponsored by: PSP

Office Agency Team of the Year

Winner: GVA Grimley

The Brindleyplace-based office team has had a good year with 80,000 sq ft of letting between July 2009 and June 2010 at Colmore Plaza in Birmingham, an achievement highlighted by the judges. It let 46,000 sq ft to support services company Amey - which subsequently took another 6,000 sq ft - 17,000 sq ft to Omega Business Centres and a total of 11,000 to stockbroking firm Williams de Broe and architect Aedas at Birmingham’s peak headline rent of £27.50 per sq ft.

Shortlisted: GBR Phoenix Beard

Sponsored by: Mace Group

Industrial Agency Team of the Year

Winner: King Sturge

The Birmingham-based team has had a busy time of things as the industrial/distribution market came back with a vengeance. Its self selected highlight of the period was the letting of a 230,000 sq ft speculative unit to retailer Gap at Prologis Park, Stafford but it also let a 142,000 sq ft distribution unit at Centurion Park, Tamworth, another 128,000 unit at Prologis Park to Wedgwood and a 99,000 sq ft sale at The Depot in Aldridge to the Wernick Group.

Shortlisted: DTZ, Jones Lang LaSalle

Sponsored by: Opus Land

Regeneration Award

Winner: Fargo Partnership for Far Gosford Street

The Far Gosford Partnership is made up of Complex Development Projects, Coventry City Council and Advantage West Midlands. Its plan is to turn a run down edge of Coventry city centre into a thriving area of creative businesses and alternative retail/leisure. The plan is extremely complex and the judges were impressed by the level and depth of cooperation shown by the partnership members.

Shortlisted: Birmingham City Council for Lifford House, CSJ Brooke Smith for Glebe Road social housing project.

Sponsored by: Cobbetts

Architectural Firm of the Year

Winner: BDP

BDP triumphed for its work on major local projects including the new Queen Elizabeth ‘super hospital’ in Birmingham which part opened this year. BDP was responsible for the design of the site masterplan and the 1,246 bed acute teaching hospital on the site. The scheme will create world class teaching, training and research centres. BDP has also been successful in picking up key large scale regeneration briefs.

Shortlisted: 3DReid

Sponsored by: Insider

Residential Developer of the Year

Winner: Chord Developments

Jewellery Quarter-based Chord seems to be single-handedly trying to revive the fortunes of the historic area of Birmingham in which it is based. Its award here is based on its St Paul’s Place development, a £35m, residential-led scheme comprising 148 apartments. A regeneration project, it is a redevelopment of the former Thomas Walker buckle making factory.

Shortlisted: Crest Nicholson

Sponsored by: Barclays Corporate

Construction Project of the Year

Winner: Mace, for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre redevelopment

Mace’s work on the redevelopment of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford found favour with our judges, not least of all because it has been such a complex project. There were 2,500 design changes incorporated during the lifetime of the scheme. Challenges included remodelling the original proscenium arch theatre into a 1,000 seat thrust stage auditorium and turning the building architecture around so that it no longer turns its back on the town.

Shortlisted: Stoford - Severn Trent Water Coventry operations centre; Elias Topping Wilkes - 6-7 Newhall Square, Birmingham

Sponsored by: Anthony Collins Solicitors

Project Management Team of the Year

Winner: EC Harris

A busy year for EC Harris has seen it act as lead consultant on the Severn Trent operations centre scheme in Coventry and play a key role in the construction of the new Queen Elizabeth ‘super hospital’ in Birmingham. On the Severn Trent scheme it developed innovative and cost effective solutions to minimise the project’s impact on the environment, helping the building to achieve its BREEAM Excellent certificate. And on the QE Hospital scheme it provided programme management and consultancy services across a number of aspects of the project.

Shortlisted: Mace; Rider Levett Bucknall

Sponsored by: Overbury

Commercial Developer of the Year

Winner: St Modwen

Birmingham’s St Modwen has enjoyed another active year. Its plans for the regeneration of the Longbridge area continue to move forward. The £1bn, 468 acre scheme is a long-term project but some buildings are already complete and the new 250,000 sq ft Bournville College is well underway. A project St Modwen completed this year was the construction of the new Warwickshire College in Rugby.

Shortlisted: Opus Land

Sponsored by: Challinors Solicitors

Sustainability Award

Winner: Stoford - for the Severn Trent operations centre in Coventry.

Regeneration specialist Stoford impressed the judges with this £60m BREEAM Excellent-rated headquarters development which opened in September. The seven-storey office building will have one of the lowest carbon footprints in the UK through the use of thermal adaptive cooling, photovoltaic and solar panels, biomass boilers and rainwater harvesting.

Shortlisted: RO St Bernards - Work on Newhall Square, Birmingham

Sponsored by: Thomas Vale Construction

Property Law Firm of the Year

Winner: DLA Piper

DLA Piper has acted on large scale and prestigious regeneration projects such as advising Birmingham City Council on the redevelopment of New Street Station and advising Centro on claims arising from the redevelopment of Snow Hill station. The total value of DLA Piper’s significant property transactions from 1 July 2009 - 30 June 2010 was £1.37bn.

Shortlisted: Martineau

Sponsored by: Santander Corporate Banking