because they are using their own capital from their existing portfolio, “so we don’t really have to ask other people for permission to do something – we can be pretty nimble and pretty quick.” Often, he says the opportunities are “random” and hard to predict. He cites the project they are looking at doing in France as an example. That came about because they retained the office buildings that Jean-Louis purchased in Montpellier back in the 1990s. They have wanted to a mixed-use light industrial project there for a while, but the land was really hard to get and is mostly controlled by the regional district. It just so happened that one of their buildings was next to a 30-hectare IBM tech park, which is currently being repositioned into a mixed use residential district. To change the zoning to residential, however, they needed permission from the owners of the nearby office buildings, as there are mutual co-restrictions and covenants on the land titles prohibiting residential development in the sector “So the district came to us and said, ‘Hey, look, if you remove that charge off your title, we’ll give you first priority on a parcel of land to develop,” Robin says. “So all of a sudden next year, we might be building something in the south of France – which was completely unpredictable a year ago.” “The truth is you really don’t know what’s going to happen,” he adds. “You just have to be open to the markets you’re in.” JUNE 2025
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