British Council of Shopping Centres - General - BCSC honours Everard Goodman
Date: 04 Oct 2005
Retail property organisation BCSC has honoured property developer Everard Goodman with a lifetime honorary membership for his industry achievements and charitable work. The award was presented by BCSC President Bob De Barr at a BCSC industry luncheon held on 28 September.
Goodman was recognized for his contribution to the UK shopping centre industry and his considerable charity work with a range of UK charities. He built up Tops Estates before selling his holding to Land Securities in May of this year. The portfolio included seven shopping centres with adjacent office properties with centres such as the Victoria Centre in Harrogate, Clayton Square in Liverpool, the award-winning Leeds Shopping Plaza, and the West 12 Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush, London.
Commented BCSC President Bob De Barr, who presented Goodman with a certificate, a BCSC medallion and a pair of opera binoculars to reflect his love of the opera:
"I was personally delighted that the BCSC Executive decided to recognize Everard with a lifetime honorary membership. His career and achievements with Tops Estates are well known in property industry circles. What is not so well known is his tireless work for charity and the fact that he spent much of his early life as a retailer acquiring and building the publicly-listed Collingwood Jewellery Chain which was sold in 1972 to a publicly listed property company. His time as a retailer built and reinforced his belief in customer service which the BCSC recognizes as a key issue in a challenging retail climate."
Goodman, who was born in Yorkshire in 1932, said of his honour:
"I have been fortunate enough to enjoy 25 great years in the shopping centre industry and am delighted to accept this honour from BCSC. I had been an accountant by training but based on the design flaws I saw in the early stages of the shopping centre industry here in the UK I was prompted to move into shopping centre development and ownership. It was a career move that worked well.
"What really concerned me was that architects and developers were not recognizing that the first client they should be designing for is the consumer, then the retailer, then the developer. I decided to do something to remedy that."
Goodman added:
"Now we moving to lifestyle centres with more focus on consumer needs. Shopping centres and other retail destinations are part of the fabric of life and having seen that happen has been quite rewarding."
Goodman's charity work has been important to him. He recalls:
"I started out collecting on Monday evenings in the dark -- in 1943 -- knocking on doors with a collection box for Mrs. Churchill's Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. I guess you could say the charity ethic stuck with me. I have particularly enjoyed supporting medical research projects such as the work going on at St. George's Hospital and I am proud to have provided, amongst other features, the beautiful gardens at the Nightingale House Old Age Home in Wandsorth, amongst my other charity work."
Goodman joins an exclusive group of only seven BCSC Honorary Members named since the organisation was created in 1983. The list includes former BCSC Presidents Peter Spriddell, Harold Couch, Roger Lucas and Ian Northen as well as International Council of Shopping Centres (Europe) founder member Jean Louis-Solal and Albert Sussman, first head of staff for ICSC. Donald Gordon, the chairman of Liberty International, was honoured in 2004.
Everard Goodman (left) receives his lifetime honorary membership badge from BCSC President Bob De Barr (right). He is only the seventh recipient since the retail property organisation was founded in 1983
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