Rapleys has appointed Pippa Harrison from Avison Young to head up a new hospitality team.
Harrison, who was head of hotels and PBSA capital markets at Avison Young, specialises in acquisitions and disposals, development funding, income strips, ground rents, sale and leasebacks and strategic capital markets advisory.
She has more than 25 years’ experience of hospitality and operational real estate and previously served as a director at CBRE and an associate director at Savills after starting her career at Christie & Co.
Robert Clarke, senior partner at Rapleys, said: “Our business strategy over the last three years has been focused on diversified growth and our commercial division has benefited from significant investment in new people and, thereby, enhanced client offers. Pippa’s appointment is the continuation of this journey, and she will lead a new team, within our commercial division, dealing with the hospitality sector and related assets. This will complement our strong sectoral teams, elsewhere in the division, advising in the automotive/roadside/future fuels, retail and office space.
“We are extremely happy to have Pippa on board, with other appointments to follow (in the hospitality team) in due course. We are looking forward to our commercial teams working closely together and linking in with the other divisions of the practice (building consultancy, planning and residential) to deliver joined-up services and innovative solutions for our broadening client base – which is a key part of the Rapleys culture. We will continue to add great people, teams and services in line with our existing growth plan over the coming months.”
Harrison added: “I am delighted to be joining Rapleys at this exciting time of strategic growth in their commercial business, bringing my 25 years of specialist expertise and client base to strengthen the sector specific advice we can offer our clients. As we enter another phase of the investment cycle, experience and business astuteness will offer our clients the advice and support they require to successfully navigate these times.
“There has been a huge influx of capital seeking to enter hotels and other operational real estate markets, especially in the form of long income. We are identifying much more complex but flexible structuring of product, and I look forward to advising our clients on these types of investments.”
