HISTORY

 

On Christmas Day 1938, J. A. Phillips, the sole partner of the agency bearing his name, died impoverished.  Well‑known for his commercial development skills between the wars, he built the BBC in Portland Place.  On New Year’s Day 1939, his two go‑ahead negotiators, the brothers David and Joseph Levy, took over lock, stock and barrel, and changed the name to DE & J Levy, practising in Pall Mall. The prime asset which the brothers inherited was the powerful list of clients.  This included, amongst others, Charles Clore and the Savoy Hotel Group.  These and others were to prove the bedrock of the firm’s business for many years to come.

 

Within months, World War II had started.  Many of the staff joined the Armed Forces or Civil Defence.  Joe Levy was a fire‑fighter during the Blitz, stationed on Albert Embankment.  The estate agency just managed to survive, because every three days the brothers had 48 hours leave, which they used to run the business.

 

However, although values were at rock bottom, there was plenty of business to do.  Charles Clore rightly envisaged that at the end of hostilities there would be a huge dearth of office accommodation, so he instructed the brothers to acquire bombed sites in prime central London locations. Thus started the most prolific London office agency, which at one time could boast 9 million square feet of new office developments on its books.

 

The difficulty after the war was a great shortage of building materials, which required licences.  This meant that there was virtually no speculative development. The Ministry of Works had lost much of their office stock and were in dire straits, so they passed an Act which became known as “The Lessor Scheme”, whereby licences would be granted to developers, provided that the entire office building was leased back to the Government at 6 shillings per sq. ft. (30p), usually for 99 years without breaks!  DE & J Levy had more than a million square feet of such projects under construction.  The largest were Charles House, Kensington (300,000 sq. ft.) and St. George’s Court, New Oxford Street (120,000 sq. ft.).

 

During the post‑war period, the charismatic David Levy established himself as the top development agent, but in 1952, still only 47, he died.  It was generally assumed that, without his forceful leadership, the firm would not survive. How wrong they were. Joseph Levy met the challenge with foresight and tenacity.  Almost at once, he expanded the practice so that the firm became the biggest development agency in the West End.  That same year, Joe bought a small property in Euston Road for £400,000.  The motive behind this modest acquisition was his brilliant conception of the Euston Centre, a mixed development of 1.3m sq. ft.  It required the patient acquisition of 240 interests and a brand new underpass traffic system.   It was completed in 1971 and was then the largest development in central London.

 

It was Joseph who widened the clientele base, none more so than with the building contractors.  They were all keen to become part of the buoyant development scene.  He forged relationships with George Wimpey, Trollope & Colls, Wates, Laings and Higgs & Hill. DE & J Levy would find the sites and they would act as developer/contractor.  Sometimes, these contractors would fund the construction costs in return for the building contracts for large projects with developers such as Stock Conversion, Harry Hyams’s Oldham Estate Company and Felix Fenston, to name but a few.

 

New developments were springing up everywhere and were usually let well before completion.  The firm’s trade mark accompanying these development sites were massive “To Let” boards, designating not only information about the new project but also the names of the development team, the builders and sub‑contractors.  The heading read, “Changing the Face of London”.  Indeed, this was no exaggeration because we celebrated our 21st anniversary in 1960 with a glossy brochure of all the developments under construction and those in the pipeline.  The aggregate office space amounted to a mammoth 6 million sq. ft., which converted into construction costs of £35m and an investment value of £100m!  By 1960, DE & J Levy, having established itself as the leading development agency in the West End, extended its boundaries into the sacrosanct City of London, where it had become jointly associated with Jones Lang Wootton.  The firms also had good connections in Scotland and teamed up in partnership in Glasgow to become the foremost developers there.  DE & J Levy was also involved with major office developers in the suburbs and provinces throughout the UK.

 

By this time, the firm had outgrown its offices at 57/8 Haymarket.  They had redeveloped the Gaumont Cinema, also in Haymarket, with the address at 130 Jermyn Street.  In 1961, they moved into plush offices on the 1st and 2nd floors.  They would remain there until 1998, when the building was redeveloped again.  1961 saw the emergence of two young men who had joined the firm in the 1940s:  Walter Swindon and John Bodie.  Both had just become partners and had established their own client base. The principal client was Harry Hyams of Oldham Estate Company fame, who had originally crafted his skills at our firm as a junior negotiator.  He became one of the leading developers of his generation.  The majority of his vast portfolio was initiated by our firm. It still remains closely connected with us.  Meanwhile, the early 1970s saw the completion of the Euston Centre (1.3m sq. ft.), which was undoubtedly Joe Levy’s “Jewel in the Crown”.  His brilliant idea had taken nearly 20 years to piece together and build.

 

 

Joe Levy’s reign as both an outstanding senior partner and a giant in our profession became legendary.  It ended upon his retirement in September 1973, which was marked by a dinner in his honour in the Dorchester ballroom.  When John Bodie took over as the firm’s third senior partner, the property market still flourished, but there was deep political unrest under the Heath government, remembered for the “three day week” and the secondary banking crisis.  The profession was in turmoil; property companies were made bankrupt, estate agencies closed or lost their identity, and chartered surveyors joined the queues at Job Centres.  DE & J Levy were more fortunate.  Our clients were securely funded and loyal; indeed, the firm saw this as buying opportunity for its clients.  Many investments were bought at fire sale prices.  This culminated in 1977 with acquisition of the Ellerman Estate for just over £2m; soon afterwards, we resold the estate for £7.6m.  Had our client held on, it is estimated that the estate would now be worth £1 billion!  Our proudest achievement during these difficult years was not only to retain all the firm’s staff, but in 1974 we recruited Roger Sharpley from Cambridge, who became the fourth senior partner in 1999.

 

The early 1980s were again difficult times for the profession, but all our departments continued to flourish, especially with our new Partners, Peter Levy, Richard Strachan and Michael Croydon.  Over the years, John Bodie established a close friendship with Lord Samuel, the Chairman of Land Securities, and his successor, Ian Henderson.  They entrusted DE & J Levy with the agency of Devonshire House, Piccadilly, followed by most of their central London agency and rent review work.  Without doubt, our most prestigious appointment was Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, which was let to Enterprise Oil in 1990, with our office agency partner at the time, Ken Cohen handling the transaction.

 

It was perhaps fortuitous that we were able to establish such a successful partnership with Land Securities, because in 1986 the firm suffered a double blow.  Our two long-standing and valuable clients were taken over.  First, Stock Conversion & Investment Trust fell to P&O and, in quick succession, Harry Hyams’s  Oldham Estate Company was clandestinely taken over by MEPC.  These were worrying times for the firm for, although we continued as letting agents, it left a big hole in our Management Department. Nevertheless, the firm showed itself to be resolute and very quickly began a concerted effort to replace our lost business.  This was not easy because clients of 50 years standing do not come about overnight.  Nevertheless, our reputation was held in such esteem that new clients such as Hambros Plc, N M Rothschild and the Palumbo family more than kept us busy.

 

Our oldest client, the Savoy Hotel Group, for whom we had built the Berkeley Hotel in 1971, proved to be extremely important for the firm.  In 1981, the late Lord Forte, Chairman of Trust House Forte, tried to take over the Savoy Group of hotels; it was a bitter and unpleasant battle, which received huge publicity.  We were entrusted by the Savoy Group with the valuation of all their hotels – for just £82m!  The Savoy won.  Thereafter flowed much business, including substantial development work for the Savoy and Claridge’s, and the sales of more than 40 surplus properties.  As a result, our reputation soared as “experts” in the luxury hotel field.  We were appointed the valuers to Trafalgar House, which owned the Ritz, Stafford and Dukes hotels.  We valued the Dorchester following a major refurbishment.  We advised the Savoy when it was bought by Blackstone in 1996 for over £600m.

 

Although the start of the 1990s was very difficult for the industry, our clients continued to support us most loyally and, once again, DE & J Levy took pride in retaining all our staff.  New Partners in 1990 such as Paul Krendel, who had formed our Professional Department in the early 1980’s, were forging  new high profile client connections such as Derwent London, and in the summer of 1998, the firm moved to its existing base at Dukes Court, 32 Duke Street, St James’s.  We were also fortuitous in that our major developments were let before the recession took hold.  In the mid-1990s, the market improved and our new development stock began to sprout once again.  This culminated with our joint appointment by Development Securities as letting agent for One Curzon Street, at 212,000 sq. ft. the largest post-war office development in the West End.  The 20th Century ended on a high note of prosperity for DE & J Levy.

 

In our new offices, following Roger Sharpley’s appointment as Senior Partner in 1999, Simon Heilpern was appointed as Equity Partner to head our Investment Department and he was successful in transacting a massive proportion of the West End’s volume of investment transactions in 2005/6, representing some 30% of the total investment stock.  He was joined by Simon Higgins, as Equity Partner leading our Industrial Department and he was particularly successful in East London and south of the river, with a range of activities culminating in the sale of the site which will accommodate the new home for the American Embassy when they move from Grosvenor Square in 2015.  Finally, in March of this year, Simon Tann joined the firm as Equity Partner from CB Richard Ellis, to lead our West End Office Agency department.

 

The maxim passed down from Jack Phillips to his staff was, “If you can't make a living within 3 miles of Piccadilly Circus, you’d better pack up your bags and go home”.  Although we live in a world of globalisation, Phillips’s advice still holds good for DE & J Levy LLP – 70 years later.