Alex Axiom

Following her schooling in Cambridge at Queen Edith’s, Netherhall and Long Road Alex went to Sheffield to read sociology. She followed this with a Masters degree in politics from Manchester and then went to work with Merrill Lynch. 

Alex’s responsibilities within Kirly Ltd include managing our property development portfolio. Her comments below are taken from the most recent Annual Report.

It has been a very active year again for property development, with the Coldhams Lane project finishing and Chartwell House moving forward. 

Sales in the former have been slower than expected, but the prices realised have been in line with expectations. At the date of this report we have we sold more than half of the apartments and have expressions of interest in a handful more. We are beginning to market the 11 apartments in Chartwell House and hope that we may achieve some sales in 2022. The main financial benefit of these two developments is likely to be in 2023. The current rising interest rate environment does not help.

One significant achievement has been the disposal of 18/20 Paddock Street at a price significantly above its book cost and with almost all the improvements having been funded by the tenant who then bought it.

In 2021 we had rather too many voids for comfort. In 2022 we have let part of the first floor of Richmond House in Cambridge, half the first floor of Pembroke House and much of 53 Barker Street in Norwich and the top floor of Freedom House in St Neots. The warehouse in Northampton is under offer as is the basement in Richmond House but three small Northampton offices and part of the first floor of Richmond House remain vacant.

We are still delighted with the performance of the Aardla Commercial Centre in Tartu, Estonia where the predicted healthy returns continue to be achieved. Alasi Tee, where we have similar terms of participation to Aardla, has continued to perform as expected. Both projects involve us in some gearing and foreign exchange exposure in Euro. These are joint ventures between Kirly Ltd and a specialist property management group in Estonia. 

We also continue to co-operate with Pigeon in several different ways, including a participation in 2022 in a modern warehouse operation in Peterborough where I have become a director.