"We're now in 18 other European markets and in every one we're in the top three developers," he explains. "In the UK a top five position is achievable and manageable."

Multi is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and given that the UK is one of the biggest European shopping centre markets, why did it take the company so long to get here? "We didn't do it before because we considered it to be a mature market," Sargent explains. "But when we had a closer look we found the market wasn't as cutting-edge as we'd thought. We thought we could add a point of difference and we've found that the growing emphasis in the planning system on regeneration fits well with our approach."

The first UK scheme was the Paradise Project in Liverpool, where Multi was shortlisted. And at the same time it bid in Chester. And it was shortlisted again in Sheffield. "We were very ambitious," remembers Sargent. "None of those schemes were under 600,000 sq ft."

And then it was fourth time lucky. Multi was selected for the Victoria Square site in Belfast. The city was keen to use retail as a catalyst for regeneration, and Sargent believes this is what helped the company win the project. "Now everyone's selling regeneration even if they've never done it," he says. "But it's what we do. It's in our blood.

"Once we'd won Belfast we focused all our energies on it." That even meant relocating the company's whole UK operation to the city. "We're now Belfast-based and we'll continue to be based here once Victoria Square is finished," he says.

But it's been quite a culture shock. "I'd lived in Portugal since I was a child. My wife's Portuguese and everyone speaks Portuguese at home, so to up sticks was a big deal. It's been quite a learning curve."

Sargent cut his property teeth in Portugal as well as his real ones. As a surveyor in Donaldsons' Lisbon office he advised Sonae on some of its award-winning shopping centre projects like Vasco da Gama in Lisbon's docklands; Colombo, beside the Benfica football stadium, and Viacaterina in Porto.

Then the poacher turned gamekeeper and he joined Multi as it moved into shopping centre development in Portugal. "We did eight schemes in eight years - now we have as many shopping centres in Portugal as Sonae has," he says.

But now, perched in his eyrie-like office overlooking his adopted city, for Sargent the disruption is beginning to look worthwhile. Dominating the view from Multi's offices is the massive dome that is the centrepiece of the 750,000-sq ft Victoria Square project.

"We've now fixed the opening date: 6 March 2008," says Sargent.

"We dug a huge hole for two levels of underground parking with 1,000 spaces. That alone cost us £35m"

Underground parking has been part of Multi's way of doing things since it built its first shopping centre, Beursplein in Rotterdam, which won an ICSC award in 1997. "A lot of other UK developers are still resisting it but we do underground parking because it's better-quality," Sargent says. "We think we can do it and still be competitive in the market."

But apart from the parking issue Sargent insists there isn't a standard Multi Development template. "We are free to look at whatever we consider to be the best opportunities," he says. "And we can do anything from a quarter of a million up to a million sq ft. In fact we're now building a 1.5m-sq ft scheme in Istanbul." The only other unifying factor is the involvement of the in-house architectural practice T+T.

"The fact that we have three schemes now shows that we can make the numbers stack up in the UK," he says. And bringing strong partners on board is key to Multi's approach to this market. Victoria Square has been funded by the German fund Commerz Grundbesitz Invest. And Bath is a joint venture with Morley Fund Management. Wolverhampton is currently 100 per cent owned by Multi, but Sargent says the intention will be to sell a 50 per cent stake once the planning hurdles have been overcome. "In the UK the lot sizes are so big joint ventures are the only way to go," he says. "Our average lot size here is E600m. In Turkey that'd buy us three projects."

Last year Multi was taken private by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds. The new owner wants to grow a E10bn portfolio, primarily formed by buying in Multi's completed developments. "My job is to provide the investment arm with product. We have 119 projects at the moment where we've either acquired the site, designed a scheme, are building or are about to open, and we'll deliver 20 projects this year so that's roughly one per country per year."

Given the timescales for development in the UK and Ireland that is a tough target, but Sargent is actively looking for more schemes. In Edinburgh Multi has a joint venture with the city council that's looking at ways of modernising the Princes Street retail offer. Progress is slow but Sargent remains hopeful that a solution can be found. And he's just bid for the Ceannt Station site in Galway and the livestock market site in Hereford, even though he prefers to win schemes out of competition.

With Belfast opening in 2008, Bath will be the project for 2009. Morley had an existing consent but since Multi came on board the scheme has been reworked and a year shaved off the construction programme, meaning that it will now open in phases between spring 2009 and autumn 2010. "Originally the plan was to build a new bus station on-site before any of the retail could begin. But now the council's agreed to let us build a temporary bus station off-site which allows us to save a whole year."

Wolverhampton, currently going through its public inquiry, will follow in 2011. "We aim to have one in the wardrobe, one on and one in the wash," is how Sargent describes the Multi approach to its development pipeline.

So apart from financial muscle what does Multi, with its wide European experience, bring to the UK market? "The European attitude - with generally shorter leases - is to align the developers' interests much more closely with the retailers," Sargent says. "We generally have turnover rents and we're looking to do that in the UK wherever possible. That means we get access to sales data from every retailer every day. We believe we have to know their business if we're to deliver what they want.

"And we think shorter leases would be beneficial in the UK too. I don't want to be tied to Marks & Spencer or Bhs for 25 years. Who knows what will happen to them over that period?"

Another point he highlights is mixed-use development, which has been commonplace in the Netherlands for a quarter of a century. "We're doing 480 apartments across our three schemes. Hereford could have 1,000 and Galway 800. But the UK has been institutionally-driven for so long. Shopping centres didn't have any resi because investors didn't like complex ownership structures," he observes. "That's all changed now, though. Developers are less reliant on institutional investors and that's allowed them to become more entrepreneurial and creative."

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