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KLX Real Estate Partners
Global experience, sustainable performance.
About us
Fresh, unencumbered thinking backed with unrivalled experience is key to delivering value in the UK and Ireland markets.
For KLX Real Estate Partners, this comes from deep and direct experience in international markets. To achieve change, the nature of the occupier and investor conversation needs to be adjusted. Lease structures, lending discussions and valuation approaches need a wider perspective.
A Partner who understands your real estate vision
Experience
KLX Real Estate Partners has long and detailed experience not only in our core markets, but globally in Australasia, South Africa, Continental Europe, the Americas, Scandinavia and India at the highest levels within globally recognised firms. Each partner brings experience, contacts and understanding of leasing, banking, valuation and legal knowledge that is required to effect change in the UK and Ireland.
Understanding
We understand, and are intensely focussed on, the operational performance of individual occupiers' data rather than the rental level of their next-door neighbour.
The Future
Whilst initial acquisitions might be opportunistic, KLX Real Estate Partners strives to create a sustainable and predictable platform for long term investors.
Meet our team
JOHN STRACHAN, Chairman
Operational management and strategy / Market Contacts / Placemaking / International Experience
John is one of the most experienced and well-known retail real estate executives globally. He began his career at Healey & Baker during the 1970s, helping major retailers rationalise their estates and assisting growing brands with expansion. From small shop deals, he moved intomodernising and expanding major UK retail stores, building foundational industry relationships.
In the 1980s, John was at the forefront of shopping centre development, while the 1990s recession tested his skills in handling mass closures and rising vacancies. As head of UK & European Business, he helped launch global brands like The Gap and led cross-border efforts for internationaland luxury retailers.
Following H&B’s 2000 merger with Cushman & Wakefield, John became Global Head of Retail, overseeing 1,000 professionals and $250m in annual revenue. Over the next 15 years, he led key global projects, including Xanadu in Madrid, Sands in Macao, and Apple’s first stores in Paris and London. He supported major brand expansions—Primark, H&M, and others—and drove C&W’s growth in India and China, cementing its globalleadership.
In 2015, John joined the board of Intu plc, becoming Chairman in 2016. Despite initial growth, the company was ultimately placed intoAdministration due to COVID-related valuation collapses.
His pro-bono work spans school boards and charities, including the John Lyon Charity. He now holds several advisory roles, bringing deepexperience, integrity, and sound judgement to the industry.
EAMONN DUIGNAN, Chief Executive
Strategy / Project Delivery and management / Investment / Capital Markets
Eamonn has been involved in the Real Estate industry as a principal for just over 35 years.
He has operated and carried out a wide range of real estate developments over his career including office and residential developments – both new build and refurbishment – from the early 1990s and has specialised in retail since 1995, when he acquired Navan Shopping Centre in Ireland. Eamonn was also involved in the development, construction, acquisition, ownership and management of several centres during this time in Ireland and the UK.
He also assembled a pipeline of retail development sites. All these sites were identified working with Pennys/Primark, on the basis that Pennys would occupy space in resulting schemes.
Over the years Eamonn has successfully created and managed an income producing commercial /retail property portfolio, maintained relationships with key retailers. He also successfully negotiated a path in dealing with the consequences of the GFC.
In 2021, Eamonn and James Turner established KLX Real Estate Partners to concentrate on value quality retail real estate in the UK and Ireland. They were later joined by Spiro Noussis, and John Strachan.
JAMES TURNER, Managing Director
Operational management and strategy / Restructuring / Investment / capital markets / Corporate strategy and delivery / International experience
James’ long career in real estate and real estate finance with specific experience in retail and hospitality spans 36 years. James has worked in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada, culminating in him co-establishing Westfield’s operations in the UK in 1998.
Directly involved in over 6m sq m of real estate across all disciplines, James, a qualified accountant, has acquired, developed, managed and leased and exited a significant number of shopping centres across his career.
After 5 years in the hotel business (Hyatt Group) in Australia, James joined Westfield in 1993 and was rapidly moved across functional divisions before moving to the UK in 1998. Having built the team from 2 people to 350, and after the successful acquisition of 10 properties and the key sites of Westfield London and Stratford, James left in 2003 to establish Balmain Asset Management.
Focussed on the UK market at the outset, Balmain expanded into CEE then Germany and now is Poland's 2nd largest manager of retail real estates assets. In 2019, Balmain formed a 50/50 corporate JV with Sonae Sierra, and international manager / developer to form Sierra Balmain.
In 2021, Eamonn Duignan and James established KLX Real Estate Partners to concentrate on value quality retail real estate in the UK and Ireland. They were later joined by Spiro Noussis, John Strachan and are supported by Balmain directors (notably Paul Cawood) and its resources.
SPIRO NOUSSIS, Portfolio Director
Operational management and strategy / Building teams / M&A / Success in founding and exiting businesses / Investment / capital markets / Corporate strategy and delivery of long term alignment / International Experience
Spiro is a seasoned CEO with over 20 years of leadership experience, including 18 years in the property sector across retail, logistics, residential, and office assets, and 5 years at the helm of listed real estate firms. He has a strong track record in founding property ventures, leading M&A activity, designing operating models, and building high-performing teams with long-term shareholder alignment.
He has lived and worked in South Africa and the UK, and helped establish property operations in countries including Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Mauritius. A Chartered Accountant, he began his career in South Africa managing office and residential developments, forging long-term banking relationships that enabled future capital raising.
In 2010, he founded Lodestone Property Company, focusing on retail and logistics assets. He built a €125m portfolio, took it public on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange with a €150m market cap, and later sold it to a larger REIT.
As CEO of Rockcastle Global Real Estate from 2014, he led its shift from a REIT investor to a major retail owner and developer in Central and Eastern Europe, growing it to over €2bn in value. In 2017, Spiro played a key role in merging Rockcastle with NEPI, forming the region’s largestretail property company with €5bn in assets across 9 countries.
After the merger, Spiro founded Credence Capital UK Ltd, a UK-based real estate firm managing grocery-anchored convenience centres. He alsoserves on the board of Hyprop Investments, a listed REIT.
PAUL CAWOOD, Portfolio Director
Occupier deals and strategy / Development / reconfiguration planning / M&A experience / Team building
Paul has 44 years of experience in retail and leisure leasing, asset management and development, 22 of these in the UK. His occupier contacts and direct leasing experience are extensive. He has been personally involved in leasing over 100 shopping centres with notable success in weak market conditions. He has a strong track record in creative occupier-led added value and recovery strategy, including redesign, refurbishment and repurposing.
Starting his career at Knight Frank in 1982, Paul moved in 1986 to leading shopping centre agency, Shearer Harris, which via various takeovers eventually became LSH, where he was head of the retail team. This period included leasing new developments as shopping centre provision boomed in the UK during the 1980’s, and leasing space during the early 1990’s recession.
Paul joined James Turner at Balmain Asset Management in April 2004. Balmain has focused primarily on Poland and the Czech markets for the last 20 years during which Paul has built one of the most respected leasing teams in CEE. He has a wealth of market knowledge and contacts.
In 1985 Paul founded the UK Shop Agents (now Retail and Leisure Agents) Society, which he chaired for 7 years.
He is co-founder and chairman of The Elifar Foundation which was established in 1998 to provide life-changing specialist equipment for disabled children and young adults. Elifar enjoys significant support from the UK property industry, runs on low-zero cost and in its 26 years has funded grants of over £3m helping around 2500 individuals.
Paul is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.
Contact
KLX Group
Hyde Park House, 5 Manfred Road,
London SW15 2RS
United Kingdom
+44 77 88 921 977
Hayes House, Hayes, Navan,
Co. Meath, C15 EA0
Republic of Ireland
+353 87 910 9101