Michael Verona

Michael Verona

Michael Verona joined aspireDM in January 2019 as a Development Manager. Michael has over 9 years’ experience working within the property industry, having previously worked for JLL as a Development Surveyor, where he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in May 2017. He has worked for a variety of private and public sector clients providing both consultancy and marketing advice on development assets. He has experience in working with prospective schemes across asset classes, including residential, retail, office, data centre and industrial. Michael has a degree in Urban and Regional Planning (MSc.) from the London School of Economics specialising in urban policy and regeneration.

Michael has been advising masterplan developer Cloud Wing for a number of years on their land interests held in Bedfordshire, managing various project teams with the objective of achieving. This has involved promoting both residential and employment led schemes through various stages of planning, alongside advising on and executing marketing strategies to select plot developers to enable sites to be delivered. He has been providing strategic advice to the project in terms of unlocking technical constraints on brownfield sites, along with preparing a wider infrastructure delivery strategy to enable plot development.

Michael is currently advising Columbia Threadneedle on a number of their assets held within pension funds under their
management.

This has included a Data Centre led redevelopment of a Business Park near Slough. After undertaking a feasibility exercise to determine best value use, Michael led the development of a masterplan, with the objective of allowing maximum flexibility to suit a range of design specifications an incoming developer may require. The masterplan can allow for up to 1 million sq ft of Data Centre development. A suitable outline application was progressed through
production, submission and determination with planning approved. The site was then successfully marketed with the benefit of the consent, allowing the fund to realise a substantial uplift in land value.

Michael is in the initial stages of advising on the repositioning of an under performing town-centre retail park in the South East of England. Michael is working with agents to determine best value for the site through assessing a number of development options. The project has also involved liaison with a local public private development partnership to consult locally on proposed future uses.

Michael has been responsible on a number of projects for setting up and managing development appraisals on behalf of clients, using them as a tool to monitor project performance against investment criteria. This role includes liaising with consultancies and agents to obtain the latest market facing data for the appraisal, along with taking part in meetings with the project team to establish cost saving and value enhancement initiatives to enhance project
viability.

In advising John Lewis, Michael has worked on the development appraisal for the 428 unit Build-to-Rent led scheme in West Ealing ensuring that the project meets key investment criteria as the design has evolved throughout the pre-planning stages. This has included a role in meetings with the cost consultant and appointed contractor to ensure cost overruns were mitigated. The development appraisal was used as a key source of information informing the affordable housing provision for the scheme, and used extensively in negotiations with the local authority.

For TfL, Michael led on the appraisal work for the Bank over-station development scheme, a package of development