黑洞社区

Hair-raising tale

To the 黑洞社区 Awards, where one of my fresher-faced hacks had trouble getting into our own event. Turning up at the Grosvenor House hotel on London鈥檚 Park Lane last week, he was asked for ID by security in order to be allowed in. Happening to have his passport to hand, he was duly waved through 鈥� but with the advice that maybe he should 鈥済row a beard鈥� to avoid the same fate next year. Thing is, he鈥檚 not sure he can.

Divided loyalties

Mace鈥檚 Mark Reynolds may be slogging away to get Spurs鈥� stadium finished on time 鈥� or, rather, for the latest revised completion date, whenever that is now, but when it comes to the beautiful game itself, his heart lies away from N17. No, Reynolds isn鈥檛 an Arsenal fan 鈥� despite what some of my more mischievous acquaintances suggest. His club is Watford, a love he shares with superfan Elton John and, more bizarrely, Friends actress Jennifer Aniston.  

Easy money

Who will be the new top boss at Persimmon now Jeff Fairburn has, in the words of Cenkos analyst Kevin Cammack, 鈥渂een asked to leave with his wheelbarrow of fifties鈥�? That鈥檚 a reference, of course, to the 拢100m bonus 鈥� later cut to 拢75m 鈥� he trousered last year, the controversy around which refuses to go away. As other top brass are tarred by the same bonus scheme 鈥� Fairburn鈥檚 interim replacement Dave Jenkinson landed 拢38m and CFO Mike Killoran 拢24m 鈥� that rules them out, thinks Cammack, making the options a relative unknown already at the firm or a 鈥減atsy external candidate for a couple of years鈥�. Cammack adds: 鈥淣othing needs fixing.鈥� So, with that in mind, I鈥檓 throwing my hat into the ring.

It鈥檚 playback time 

Interviewing Tony Lenehan, boss of newly-branded Extentia Group, which owns fit-out firm Styles & Wood, my hack was told some public sector clients go to quite some lengths to ensure firms do what they promised. Filming interviews, for one thing. As Lenehan explains: 鈥淪o much is said and committed to and clarified you can鈥檛 write it all down. But if you鈥檝e been filmed saying it and something goes wrong, what do they do? They put you in a room and play it back to you and say 鈥榞otcha鈥�.鈥� It鈥檚 as if partnering and all those reports from yesteryear about making the industry less adversarial never happened.

Pass the tissues

Lenehan went on to tell my hack that the idea for the newly-branded Extentia Group, which provides property services from design to facilities management, came during a meal he had with the company鈥檚 backer, Leeds-based tycoon Steve Parkin. Lenehan said: 鈥淗e [Parkin] has an Italian restaurant, so over pizza and a Peroni we scribbled a [business] model on the back of a napkin and, as they say, the rest is history.鈥� I鈥檓 reminded of the dinner between Shard developer Irvine Sellar and architect Renzo Piano, which apparently ended with Piano scrawling the original design for the iconic building on a serviette. It seems all these big ideas get scrawled on the back of a napkin 鈥� I鈥檇 better stop using mine to wipe up smears of tomato ketchup.

A good grilling

Last week鈥檚 cover star, Lee Polisano of 22 Bishopsgate architect PLP, could swap his pen for tongs, reckons Peter Rees. The former City of London planning chief was invited for dinner with Polisano and his wife at their garden flat in Chelsea. An impressed Rees said: 鈥淗e鈥檚 a dab hand at the barbecue 鈥� his steaks are very good.鈥� Given Polisano鈥檚 wife is from Texas, I guess it could be a marriage-breaker if they weren鈥檛.