Jim Yates (Bsc FRICS) is a Consultant to Spectrum.

From 2004 until 2010, Jim held various posts with The Crown Estate including Head of Regional Portfolio, Head of Residential and latterly Head of Development. During this period he was responsible for over £1bn of investment transactions as well as numerous asset management and development schemes all of which made major contributions to the Estate's outstanding performance. Jim remains a consultant to The Crown Estate in respect of their shopping centre in Worcester.
Some of the major schemes that Jim initiated included:

• John Lewis Partnership Warehouse, Milton Keynes – the acquisition of this prime 650,000 sq ft distribution warehouse for over £60m
• Creation of a new Limited Partnership Investment Vehicle with British Land Plc involving almost £800m of retail warehousing
• Sold a fully let office campus in St Albans for £27m
• Acquisition of a prime high street retail investment by the entrance to the Bull Ring scheme in Birmingham for £23m
• Creation of an accepted Masterplan for the future expansion and partial re-development of a 350,000 sq ft shopping centre in the historic heart of Worcester
• Purchase of a newly refurbished 4* Hotel & Restaurant investment opposite Windsor Castle for £26m
• Invested almost £38m into the Lend Lease Retail Limited Partnership – part owners of Bluewater and Touchwood shopping centres.

Prior to his involvement with The Crown Estate, Jim's background was focused on property, asset and fund management, firstly with Royal Sun Alliance Property Investments and then ISIS Property Asset Management (now part of F&C). In particular he was the Director with full responsibility for the discretionary property mandates on two pension funds and one insurance fund – a total of almost £500m of assets throughout the UK. The funds consistently exceeded their benchmarks and were usually in the upper quartile of IPD.

Areas of Expertise:

Development
Fund management
Investment transactions and advice
Complex asset management
Corporate real estate rationalisation