Marcus Meijer, CEO of Meyer Bergman joined John Hitchcox, founder of design studio YOO and chairman of YOO Capital, on a podcast hosted by Blackstock Consulting founder Andrew Teacher, as part of a series on the regeneration of cities and the impacts of Covid-19 for Property Week. You can listen to this and other episodes in the series here. 

Despite the economic downturn, both Meijer and Hitchcox were optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead.

“I think it is a great time to build, it’s a great time to discuss your building prices, it’s a great time to design, it’s a great time to get planning, and it’s a great time for these unique projects,” said Hitchcox on YOO Capital’s planned redevelopment for the 130-year old exhibition centre, Olympia.

Meanwhile, Meijer believes that the current struggles in the retail sector will create new opportunities for repositioning and diversifying retail assets, such as introducing new uses within buildings.

Meyer Bergman has already diversified into other sectors such as residential, offices and most recently, last-mile logistics through its Crossbay platform, which is targeting €2 billion of single-tenant distribution centres across Europe.

The company remains confident that as many European cities emerge from lockdown, there is certainly a positive outlook for the future.

“I don’t think there’s a huge difference to be honest with you between central Madrid, central Milan, central Berlin, central Paris, central London, central Stockholm, Amsterdam,” Meijer says, “I think those are all places that will continue to thrive and have strong interest from tenants for offices and residential, and retail in the right places, but also from institutional investors.”