"As a property developer, you need experience and intuition, but you also require a youthful vigour and a positive attitude," says John. "Developers have to be bold, as otherwise nothing would ever get done, and we're certainly bold, though you must balance that ambition with the discipline of creating financially viable buildings that are set right for the area."

Working with Urban Infill Architects, John has a vision for 2 million square feet of new offices. John's lifelong "passion for property" stems from being "a people person", and from wanting to reflect how people wish to work and live, and this is the most ambitious project of its type in the United Kingdom. Under John's direction, The Commercial Parks Group has already acquired £20 million of property outside London, in Crawley, Haywards Heath and Bromley.

Among John's landmark projects was the development of 25 Hanover Square in London's West End, which was the first building to break the £100 per square foot threshold. Other major projects in the city of his birth have included rejuvenating the iconic Burlington Arcade in Mayfair, redeveloping the Prada building on Bond Street, which included incorporating a new penthouse, and developing the first barristers' chambers outside the Inns of Court. Walking down any street in West End, John will identity at least one property that he has bought, developed or advised on.