Nick Rock joins Avison Young in UK’s London

Avison Young Principal and Managing Director Nick Cook has announced that leading office agency sales and leasing specialist Nick Rock has joined the firm in London. Nick Rock becomes a Principal of Avison Young with a mandate to boost Avison Young's Central London market expansion efforts. Based in the firm's London West End office, he will continue to focus on his specialty of agency sales and leasing in the West End submarket. Rock brings more than 25 years of experience in the Central London property market to Avison Young. He was most recently head of West End office agency leasing at BNP Paribas Real Estate. "In Avison Young's drive to grow its business in Central London and the key regions across the U.K., our strategy has been to identify top companies and top people who truly embrace our collegial and collaborative way of working - not only internally, but with our clients. Nick Rock's track record as a team player, a business builder and a client-focused professional is clear. We are delighted to welcome him aboard," Cook said. Cook further added, "Nick is very well known in the Central London office sector and highly regarded for the detailed market knowledge and insight that he has accumulated over his career. Furthermore, his comprehensive industry experience and transaction services expertise will benefit our clients. This appointment is a reflection of our determination to continue to recruit high quality real estate professionals in order to become one of the top property advisors in the U.K." During his career, Rock has acted for a wide range of clients such as institutions, funds, developers, public bodies, private clients and occupiers on a variety of projects, including acquisitions, disposals and development consultancy. Past and current clients include- DTZ Investors, LaSalle Investment Management, UKTV, City of London Corporation, the Crown Estate, Hermes Real Estate, Standard Life, Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity and Coach Stores. Notable recent projects include the acquisition of 95,000 square feet (sf) at 39 Victoria Street, SW1 for Parliamentary Estates, which ranked as the largest letting in Victoria in 2015; the acquisition of 35,000 sf at 10 Hammersmith Grove, W6 for the new headquarters of UKTV; and the letting of a 365,000-sf scheme at 6 Pancras Square, N1 to Google. Rock is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). "I am very excited to be joining Avison Young at a key time in its expansion in the U.K. and Europe," says Rock. "Avison Young is a full-service real estate provider with a unique, Principal-led approach, which will enable me to provide the best solutions to my clients. I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues across the company and leveraging Avison Young's vast array of resources to meet my clients' property needs and business goals." The announcement comes on the heels of Avison Young acquiring North Rae Sanders and opening a new office in Coventry, U.K. on January 11, 2016. In addition to Rock's appointment, Martin Rymer also joins the firm from Eddisons Commercial as Director of Avison Young's expanding U.K. building consultancy and project management team; Damian Congdon joins as business development manager in London; and Jamie Low joins as a capital markets specialist in London. Over the past seven years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 75 offices and from 300 to more than 2,100 real estate professionals in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Europe. Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 2,100 real estate professionals in 75 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-family properties.