Associate - Senior Associate Town Centre Asset Management in London

• Overview
• THE FIRM

Montagu Evans is a UK property consultancy that helps clients unlock value from complexity, because that’s where the most meaningful opportunities live.

Our purpose is to bring clarity, creativity, and conviction to the complex.

We are experts who collaborate to create value, not just preserve it and our team is built for impact, not oversight.

We specialise in high-value, complex assets across the property lifecycle, where political, technical or commercial challenges demand a joined-up approach.

THE TEAM/DEPARTMENT

Our Asset and Investment Advisory team provides specialist, strategic, investment and asset management advice to a range of clients.

We have a particular strength working with local authorities and private sector investors for whom the relationship with the local council is vital to their success.

We have four primary workstreams

i) Town Centre Asset Management – managing shopping centre and other town centre assets to maximise income and value, but with a recognition of the social and economic value that thriving places provide; ii) Portfolio Asset Management – active management of investment assets and portfolios to maximise value and income in the context of the owners’ investment objectives; iii) Development Asset Management – working closely with our land assembly and rating teams, we proactively manage assets and development sites to vacant possession to derisk and enable major development; and iv) Investment Strategy – helping clients set objectives, identify opportunities and create a deliverable investment strategy.

Client includes

• English Cities Fund • Multiple London Boroughs • Legal & General • Shropshire Council

ROLE OVERVIEW

We’re looking for a talented and ambitious person to join our highly successful Town Centre Asset Management Team, working closely alongside our wider team of experts in urban regeneration.

Montagu Evans has a great reputation in the Town Centre and Regeneration space that we’re looking to build on with the right hire as part of our growth ambitions.

Our team is at the centre of our business, working closely with Development, Investment, Agency, Planning, Valuation, Rating and Strategic Advisory teams across the firm.

Our Town Centre Asset Management team works primarily with local authorities and other property-owning bodies for whom property is not the primary purpose of the owner, but who need to create impactful places and extract value from challenged assets and portfolios.

In particular, we help shape major strategies and interventions in their urban areas.

Typically, this is in more socially and economically challenged parts of the country, or where there has been hollowing out of the local retail scene by the structural changes in the market.

We also have a development-orientated product which prepares sites for vacant possession on behalf of developers or the public sector delivering regeneration and redevelopment.

Your role will encompass

• Managing projects in urban centres, in conjunction with both senior and junior staff, to provide high quality advice to clients;
• Taking the day-to-day lead on asset management activities
• Developing and delivering strategic business plans
• Managing the financial and economic performance of the assets you’re working on
• Managing and directing teams including property management, centre management and agents
• Acting in a client capacity, making the highest quality recommendations to our clients to help deliver their objectives
• Grow your reputation in the market through high quality work, network and reputation-building
• Support the business development activities of the team and the firm.

We are open to considering people from a variety of experience backgrounds: asset manager, strategic leasing, government, policy, strategic adviser, councils, economic development, etc.

However, we would expect you to be highly literate in retail, leisure, community and general town centre knowledge.

Ideally, you will have a relevant qualification such as MRICS or, if not, be highly literate across presentation, excel and financial modelling, programme management & consultancy.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Delivery & Governance
• Be the day-to-day lead, supporting the strategic lead, on the delivery of asset management mandates across a varied portfolio of retail-led, community schemes and locations.
• Maintain robust reporting standards for each asset, preparing high-quality quarterly reporting packs, annual reviews, strategic asset management plans, and client presentations.
• Monitor key governance milestones, risks and asset-level KPIs, ensuring that all decisions are properly evidenced and documented.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of the asset management methodology, enhancing the existing framework to promote consistency, rigour and best practice across the portfolio.
• Leasing & Asset Performance
• Oversee leasing activity across assets, ensuring it is delivered to maximise outcomes and deliver on the business plan.
• Coordinate with leasing agents to attract and retain target occupiers, regear leases, and curate tenant mixes that enhance vibrancy and commercial performance.
• Collaborate with legal teams to progress transactions through to completion, ensuring lease events and obligations are accurately captured and recorded.
• Manage the performance of the wider team of property managers, agents and solicitors including, as appropriate, running competitive processes.
• Operational Oversight
• Liaise with managing agents to monitor estate operations, service charge performance, statutory compliance, and occupier engagement.
• Maintain active oversight of void costs, arrears, health and safety compliance, and operational risk registers.
• Support the implementation of planned preventative maintenance programmes, capital expenditure priorities and ESG interventions across relevant schemes.
• Drive efficiencies and challenge conventions in order to improve outcomes and performance.
• Embed social value and sustainability commitments into operational activity and long-term asset planning.
• Reporting
• Use data and key performance indicators (e. g. net operating income, estimated rental value, leasing pipeline, footfall, CACI data) to inform asset strategy and benchmark performance.
• Take day-to-day charge of development and delivery of the business plan and leasing strategy
• Manage the financial models, dashboards and reporting templates to maintain and enhance competitive advantage over peers.
• Manage and deliver high quality business planning and progress reports suitable for various audiences using our house style
• Provide leadership on formal reporting and presentation to clients and stakeholders.
• Market
• Lead and support tenant and stakeholder engagement to ensure asset management strategies align with local objectives.
• Continually develop your knowledge of the market, trends, opportunities and threats, immersing yourself inhow to continually improve a place.

Qualifications

• Strong communicator – able to write clearly, present concisely and engage effectively with diverse
• stakeholders.
• Experience in asset management, investment, relevant policy, economic development, valuation, property management or property advisory is desirable, particularly if that includes retail, leisure and/or town centre trends.
• A mixture of strategic and analytical mindset – you will need to be over the detail but be able to articulate the bigger picture.
• Analytical mindset with strong written, numeric and presentation skills – comfortable with Excel and interpreting NOI, ERV, footfall and performance data.
• Organised and proactive, with a proven ability to manage workstreams, prioritise tasks and meet deadlines.
• Possess an interest in regeneration and the role town centre assets play in the making of a place.
• Educated to degree level or equivalent (or with commensurate relevant experience) and MRICS or equivalent.