The US property developer who hopes to clean up in Bath

The investment consortium bought the site 18 months ago. It fetched £26 million in 2015 when it previously changed hands. Riordan says they picked it up “at a substantial discount to previous trades”.

William Riordan, left, with Peter Phillips, investors in the redevelopment of Shires Yard. “We want to work in partnership with the tenants to drive their sales,” says Riordan

ED SCHOFIELD

One of 75,000 sq ft space’s anchor tenants had been a Jamie’s Italian, but it closed in 2018. The same space in the development, renamed Shires Yard, will soon be home to a Root restaurant, the third site for a Bristol business that specialises in seasonal produce. Other new tenants across the 23 units range from the Wiltshire skincare brand Bramley to the London tailor Gieves & Hawkes.

Alongside these more established brands are carefully-designed spaces for start-ups, such as the Coret Coffee & Wine café, two art galleries, a sculptor, someone offering cookery lessons, and even one unit where Riordan hopes to house a dog-grooming business, attracting well-heeled locals, as well as the steady flow of tourists. Tenants are charged a base rent that aims to be 25 per cent below the going rate for premium retail in the area, topped up with a turnover-based rent, the idea being that both the tenant and landlord benefit if the tenant succeeds. “We want to work in partnership with the tenant to drive their sales,” says Riordan.

Trading for some of the units has continued during the re-development, such as a Cote restaurant and The Botanist, its grade II listed Octagon Chapel, where Channel 4 has filmed its First Dates series since 2023. Last week Riordan and his partners formally re-opened Shires Yard. There is another line in the sand in November, for the units that are still being fitted out.

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Riordan hails from Massachusetts in the US and carries his navy blazer and deck shoes without socks with ease, walking between the carpenters, builders and gardeners busy bringing his vision to life. His dress sense would not be out of place on a luxury yacht, and as the carrier of a Swiss as well as British and American passport, friends with royals and clients in Swiss property investment, he probably has been on board a few.

But on the day I meet him he is deep in the practical detail of making this space in Bath sing. We pop into a half finished taproom for the Bath microbrewery the Electric Bear Brewing Company. One of its team has discovered an unexpected complication in the ceiling of the bathrooms. Despite the setback, it is still set to open on this Friday, with the first 100 guests offered a free drink.

At lunch in Bosco, a pizzeria, Riordan reflects on the experience of being in business, investing his own cash, and that of others, rather than operating as an employee.

“You have two feelings as an entrepreneur: one that you are absolutely certain of the vision, you can see it in your head and it is almost frustrating because you keep asking why can’t we get there,” he says.

“At the same time, you have some impostor syndrome because you have to be doing every single thing, down to picking the paint colours at the same time as you are doing the financial structuring, the investor relations, talking to the tenants, and going through the minutiae of structural elements. You have to be able to think quickly on your feet.”

Encouragingly, Riordan is not the only one seeing the potential for this part of the city, which sits at the top end of Bath’s retail and hospitality quarter. Across the road from Shires Yard is Jolly’s, a one time House of Fraser department store, which first opened for trade in 1823. With the help of the council, it is being refurbished by Morleys Stores, a £71 million turnover retail group, and will start re-opening next spring.

Standing on the first floor balcony at Root, the view over Bath’s red tiled roofs to a courtyard filled with olive trees is lovely, almost Mediterranean, even though the mural of the moped used by Jamie Oliver on his travels in Italy is long gone from the wall. The travel magazine Conde Nast Traveller has just recognised Bath the UK’s “best city”, and it’s easy to see why.

After working for 12 years for the Value Retail Management founder Scott Malkin, whose projects include the hugely profitable Bicester Village outlet park, Riordan set up Oberland with his business partner Andrew Dean. Focused on hotels, their first, the Arthouse Hotel in Glasgow, should open next spring, with rooms priced at between £99 and £300. Other sites are in development in Europe. Shires Yard involves other investors, but phase two includes the construction of a 35-40 bedroom Oberland hotel. “That is now obsessing me,” admits Riordan. “I wake up at three, four in the morning thinking about it.”

His views on retail were shaped by his time with Malkin and talking with commercial property pioneers in the US. “It is easy to write off retail as a lot of 1980s and 1990s retail malls have not worked. But retail is not dead, bad retail is dead. It has become institutionalised and viewed as a financial product, a spreadsheet in a boardroom rather than a product that people use. If you look at it as a consumable product you create something that is more beneficial for the consumer.

Milsom Street, Bath, in the early years of the 20th century

ALAMY

“The old way of real estate of ‘We will build it, let out two anchor units and then refinance it, forget about it and move on to the next project’, that is no longer relevant. Today it is about operational real estate, bringing skill sets into the business of people that understand retail, food and drink. That way you are creating a product that is more relevant but it is also a lot harder to do.”

He adds: “A lot of tenants do not realise how involved in their business we will become. It is not like renting a store on the high street where you sign a ten-year lease and you don’t hear from the landlord for the next nine and a half years. For us it is day-to-day, speak to the tenants, understand what customers are coming in so you can cross-pollinate and be involved in the micro detail. That to me is what operational real estate is and it is the future of real estate. ”

Toby Gibbs, the owner of Coret Coffee & Wine, seems to think they are on to something. A trickle of customers when they opened last November has turned into a steady flow, drawn by the sound of beans being ground, Pipp & Co doughnuts dunked, and his four-strong team’s efforts with evening events. A silent book club launched last month; there’s a singles night next week and a “Flight Club” tasting will showcase English wines in November. It is his first venture and has been a lot of work, covering shifts seven days a week, but Gibbs appears happy with the progress so far. “I have no regrets,” he says, smiling.

The property agent’s view

Bath is an outlier in terms of retail centres, says Chris O’Mahony, director in retail and leisure at Savills office in Bristol: “It is not a typical city. It is a bit of a bubble with the tourists. Rents are relatively high.”

Retailers can expect to pay a prime town-centre rent of around £170 per sq ft, above the national average for a regional town of about £150 per sq ft. Heritage restrictions can also make fit-outs challenging for tenants. O’Mahony said he had 20 live searches for Bath from well-known retailers and food sellers looking for units from 300 sq ft up to more than 10,000 sq ft.

“Retailers are navigating a challenging economic backdrop, but Bath continues to attract strong interest from brands. The visibility and engagement Bath offers can be a real differentiator — it’s certainly one that can’t be replicated online.”