Commercial Development Manager

HS2
Job Description

Salary: £36,300 pa to £45,350 pa depending on skills and experience. In addition, we offer flexible benefits fund of 15% which is paid on top base salary and is fully pensionable, as well as a range of competitive benefits – check them out in the Benefits section on our website.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential. In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

As a Commercial Development Manager at HS2 you will take day to day responsibility for managing the property leaseback transactions to be entered into by HS2 at Interchange station. This relates to a potential multi-storey car park solution to help facilitate 6.25m sq ft of development in the vicinity through a series of complex property arrangements requiring strong stakeholder management skills and a solid, all round, property knowledge.

In addition to the Interchange role, the CDM will be assisting the Senior Commercial Development Managers on the seven sites for the Commercial Development Team at Curzon Street (5 sites) and Washwood Heath (2 sites) totalling in excess of 100 acres in Birmingham.

The role will encompass helping the ComDev team to take the development sites from the current, early, master-planning stage through internal and external governance to revenue realisation facilitating mixed use developments currently by others.

About the role:

• Under the guidance of the Head of Commercial Development to oversee the day-to-day implementation of the legally binding arrangements entered into by HS2 at Interchange station and the adjoining Triangle site and to help facilitate long term development of the area in parallel with delivery of the railway. This will involve becoming conversant with several legal agreements and stakeholder management of multiple teams both within and external to HS2.
• Support the Head of Commercial Development to manage various contracts. Key tasks under this role will include, but are not limited to: –
• Support delivery of the CD department plans and annual budgets, producing cost, value, and risk projections to inform them, and well-structured and reasoned financial analysis and board papers in support of measuring performance of the CD targets against the business plans, with support from the Finance Business Partners and Delivery Team colleagues.
• Implement the delivery of the approved project business plans, comprising: administration of contracts; monitoring and securing internal and external approvals for the preparation of the development business plans and development of masterplan options; monitoring and securing internal approvals for the preparation of any outline planning applications; agreeing any draw-down conditions for development phase overages with site purchasers and obtaining the necessary internal approvals; and monitoring the construction and sale/letting of the development phases to capture latent value .
• Lead financial due diligence and appraisal analysis with consultants to identify individual projects and options to allow informed decision making, clearly differentiating those assets that are better to develop with third party overages and/or dispose from those to hold/invest in for income.
• Undertake 3rd party supplier management and contractor management for specialist skillsets (e.g. architects, town planning, technical, commercial, legal and property valuation advisers)
• Interface regularly with key stakeholders, landowners, Department for Transport (DfT), Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, the Urban Growth Company & Network Rail (NR), to drive the development programme forward.
• Interface with town planning specialists and ensure delivery of appropriate Local Plan lobbying, planning applications and consents that are fit for purpose and aligned with the business plan and wider strategic plans.
• Prepare necessary plans, business cases and financial reports to support identification of suitable delivery mechanisms (e.g. disposals, revenue share and profit share mechanisms) to deliver approved property development projects subject to future governance.
• Where relevant, work closely with the appointed partners for schemes, ensuring delivery against defined contractual and business plan requirements.
• Help support the development of any support staff allocated to this role including external secondees and graduates.
• Actively promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work, and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

About You

Skills:

• Financial, property asset management, development, investment, and project management skills to help manage substantial project budgets and milestones whilst overseeing sensitivity testing, risk management, etc.

• Ability to develop and maintain a wide network of internal and external relationships, and act as ambassador for HS2 Ltd, and the Commercial Development team where appropriate.

• Ability to work with and win the confidence of multiple internal and external stakeholders, including the HS2 delivery teams.

• IT and financial appraisal skills commensurate with experience encompassing both standard business desktop packages and ideally property specific packages such as ‘Argus Developer’ and the preparation and interrogation of development appraisals and discounted cash flows using Microsoft Excel

. • Ability to present confidently and communicate to a variety of stakeholders

Knowledge:

• MRICS or MRTPI professional qualification ideally or currently enrolled on the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) route.

• Knowledge of the Birmingham and wider regional property markets and best in class practices in relation to preparation of sites to take to market.

• Understanding of core property development concepts and delivery techniques, inter alia; town planning, property law (development agreements, building agreements, investment leases, planning and GDV overage deeds) construction and engineering principles, procurement, project management etc.

• Knowledge of core property valuation, asset management and development appraisal techniques and able to undertake robust evaluations, financial modelling, and risk evaluation studies in conjunction with senior members of the team.

• Commercial legal knowledge to help instruct solicitors in relation to disposals, structuring overages, joint ventures subject to governance, development agreements, timely and correct service of notices, leases, sub-letting, assignments, acquisitions, etc

Type of experience:

• Experience of developing rapport and influencing across a diverse range of stakeholders.

• Monitoring and managing live project development accounts

• Experience of overcoming constraints and multi-disciplinary organisational complexity to deliver results.

• Experience in supporting procurement and implementation of development agreements & variations, lease and building agreements, effective contract management and budget management experience, including risk management and continuous focus on business direction.

• Experience of reporting, presenting information and gaining formal approvals at senior management level

• Experience of negotiating and delivering property development projects and transactions from inception to completion without day-to-day supervision.About Us

High Speed 2 (HS2 Ltd) will be the UK’s new high speed rail network. As well as improving capacity, the new scheme will shorten journey times between a number of Britain’s major population centres, boost the economy and create thousands of jobs.

HS2 Ltd will create a skills legacy and develop a diverse range of talent. We aim to be a leader in EDI practice by creating a safe & inclusive working environment for all our staff – living our values of Safety, Respect, Integrity and Leadership.

In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

HS2 Ltd is also a safety-critical organisation. Employees are required to ensure reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety by taking personal responsibility for working to our ‘Safe at Heart’ programme principles and following safe working procedures at all times.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential.