(LONDON) – Hines, the international real estate firm, has expanded its global Conceptual Construction Group into Europe. As part of the expansion, Simon Baxter joins the team as Managing Director, Conceptual Construction in the firm’s European Regional Headquarters office in London and will lead the offering across Europe.
Pioneered by the late Gerald D. Hines, an icon in property development, the Conceptual Construction Group at Hines has been operational for more than three decades and has grown to a team of 30 experts. Performing well beyond what is thought of as the “pre-construction” function, the group covers market analysis, competitive benchmarking, architect and consultant selection, design coordination, bidding, contracting, and management of every aspect of a construction project to employ global best practices, build to budget, reduce risk for ownership and deliver long-term investment value, providing building operational feedback and system performance data throughout. In addition, the team serves as a research and development function testing new technologies for potential inclusion.
Since inception in the U.S., the service has analysed and refined the pre-construction phase of projects resulting in an approach to development that has been tested and proven on hundreds of buildings around the world. To date, the conceptual construction team has worked on 258 million sq ft of developments globally, of which, 41 million sq ft is in industrial and logistics, and 30 million sq ft spans the living sector. The group participated in the original formation of the LEED® rating system and has been involved with green building and sustainability initiatives across the globe.
Simon Baxter, an expert in project setup and execution across a broad cross section of asset classes and mixed-use projects, joins Hines from Great Eagle, an international developer where he was Managing Director for Development and Project Management of the Groups’ projects located in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to this, Simon was a Partner and Regional Director with the design and consultancy group Arcadis, successfully leading projects and teams in Europe and Asia for over 20 years.
Lars Huber, CEO – Europe, at Hines, commented:
“We’re actively involved in dozens of construction projects in 13 countries across the European region in all major product types, with many more in the pipeline. This, alongside our ongoing growth, marks an opportune time to build out our highly successful global conceptual construction team into Europe, complementing our already strong local construction management teams. Our aim is to ensure we continue to deliver cutting-edge projects that are fundamentally user-oriented, environmentally friendly, driven by innovation, and underpinned by long-term investor value.”
Andy Trowbridge, Executive Vice President, Conceptual Construction Group, at Hines:
“At Hines, we have a unique in-house approach to conceptual construction with a global team focused on risk mitigation and delivering long-term investor value during the construction lifecycle. We work as a truly global team connecting with colleagues in our development, construction, innovation, project and property management, and mechanical and electrical engineering teams, to consistently produce high quality, on-budget, on schedule and risk managed projects for clients and investors alike. We welcome Simon on board and look forward to delivering great new long-term projects across Europe.”
Simon Baxter, Managing Director – Conceptual Construction Group, at Hines:
“Hines has an exceptional reputation for development, investment expertise, quality and innovation, and I am thrilled to join the Conceptual Construction team to expand our proposition, and work closely with our European teams on the ground in 13 countries. We will focus on sharing best practice and the crafting of blueprints and standards to match the needs and subtleties of all our markets across Europe.”
About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 225 cities in 25 countries. Hines has approximately $144.1 billion¹ of assets under management, including $75.5 billion for which Hines serves as investment manager, including non-real estate assets, and $68.6 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has 165 developments currently underway around the world. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,426 properties, totaling over 472 million square feet. The firm’s current property and asset management portfolio includes 576 properties, representing over 246 million square feet. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world. ¹AUM includes both the global Hines organization as well as RIA AUM.
Since entering Europe in 1991, Hines has grown its European platform to include offices in 16 cities as well as a presence in 55 cities in 13 countries, with €22.7 billion of assets under management, including €19.8 billion for which Hines serves as an investment manager and €2.9 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services, in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Visit www.hines.com for more information.
