Legal & General's LGIM Real Assets has appointed Denizer Ibrahim into the new role of head of retail and futuring, to examine and address the evolution of the retail industry.
According to LGIM data, since 2000, e-commerce has grown from 0.2% of retail sales to just below 20%; average lease lengths have shrunk from over 12 years to seven and 'the churn in retail business launches and failures has increased by 29% over the past five years'.
Ibrahim will report to Michael Barrie, head of fund management, who commented: 'As owners we need to adopt a brave new approach to retail, curating environments which re-connect people with place.
'We must move from being the ‘librarians’ of space; collecting rent, letting shops and property managing, to doing this but also taking up the role of the ‘editor’ to ensure the content is relevant and responding to the changing consumer expectations of tomorrow.
'The process of creating great retail places today goes far beyond the physicality of real estate and architecture. Denz joins a great team of individuals keen to embrace this challenge.'
Ibrahim has extensive experience in retail and rebuilding the urban environment for the future. He was most recently director, head of commercial placemaking and masterplanning at BNP Paribas Real Estate, prior to that he was at Appear Here and the London School of Economics Cities Programme.
'Denz is an energetic and imaginative individual and we are very excited to be welcoming him to the team to apply his insight into placemaking to our strategy. We aim to be the owner of choice, with a key vision to enhance and maximise the experience of our customer occupiers whilst continuing to maximise the performance of our investment funds,' Barrie concluded.
