UK: Curlew Capital has made four hires to its UK Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) team.
Curlew is aiming to deliver around 5,000 new beds over the next three years from its current 14 schemes in established university cities.
David Allwood joins as deputy fund manager from British Land, where he spent three years as lead development analyst, advising on acquisitions, development projects and wider regeneration schemes. He will focus on investment strategy, analysis and underwriting for Curlew’s expanding investment and development programme.
Kristian Mills, formerly head of south-east operations at CRM Students, joins in the newly created role of director of asset management. Mills will oversee the asset management function across Curlew’s current PBSA portfolio, working closely with property manager Fresh Student Living. He has previously worked at Unite Group, Prodigy Living, iQ and Tipi.
New director of operations Nigel Mogridge will work alongside senior management with responsibility for coordinating all operational aspects of the Curlew business, including marketing, HR, IT and compliance.
Emma Lander has joined as operations assistant. She joins Curlew from Seven Dials Fund Management, where she was financial assistant.
Paul Oliver, chief executive of Curlew Capital, said: “This is a very exciting time for our business and by investing in new, specialist talent, we are able to augment our existing capabilities and put ourselves in a strong position to ensure we continue on our upward trajectory. The real estate sector is facing an unprecedented set of challenges as a result of Covid-19, but the long-term drivers underpinning the UK student housing market are overwhelmingly positive, which gives us the confidence as we embark on this next stage of growth.”
Having launched a first fund, Curlew Student Trust, in 2014, followed by CST2 in 2018, both of which were backed by clients of CBRE Global Investment Partners, the firm has committed more than £1 billion to the PBSA sector, representing more than 10,000 beds across 34 schemes in 22 major university markets, across a range of direct developments, refurbishment and forward fundings.
