Guildhouse has formed a 20-year partnership with Aylesbury Vale District Council to invest in and manage a mixed portfolio of properties, with asset management services being provided by Akeman Management LLP, a joint venture between Guildhouse and Philip Ingman of Strutt and Parker Real Estate Financial Services/Ingman and Day. The deal, the first of its type in the UK, was closed on 12th October 2009 following a comprehensive procurement process by the Council to select an ideal partner.

The JV vehicle is a Limited Liability Partnership, Aylesbury Vale Estates LLP (AVE), and represents, for Guildhouse, an opportunity to invest, alongside a Unitary Council (i.e. a combined district and local council), in a large mixed use portfolio of industrial, commercial and retail properties. For the Council this joint venture arrangement enables the public sector to benefit from private sector investment management and development expertise. Although 50% of the ownership of AVE will vest in a public body, it is a private sector entity. Akeman will develop and manage the portfolio in accordance with normal commercial good practice. The aim is to generate the maximum income stream in a difficult economic climate and to take advantage of development opportunities as and when they arise for providing more modern industrial, commercial and residential space.

This under-rented portfolio, totalling hundreds of thousands of square feet and with 300 tenants, has low vacancy and significant low risk development potential. It incorporates a very wide range of different types of properties, from major manufacturing plants to small properties occupied by one-man enterprises. The portfolio includes industrial premises, town centre sites, surface car parks, shops, sports grounds and facilities, community buildings and operational properties such as waste recycling yards - even the listed Old Gaol at Buckingham.

The Aylesbury region is a designated growth zone for residential development. It is anticipated that there will be opportunities for portions of the portfolio to be developed as residential areas for private and affordable homes.

Aylesbury Vale Estates has been carefully set up in such a way that other public sector agencies (for example adjoining local authorities and primary care trusts) can subsequently join the partnership without the original lengthy and complex procurement process. Guildhouse sees this as a prototype for the way forward for public partnerships with the private sector. It is one of the first examples where such a partnership is responsible not only for managing an existing portfolio, but also for developing it.

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