Former chief of well-known property firm joins development and investment company
The former chief executive of one of the West Midlands’ best-known commercial property companies has joined development and investment company Goold Estates.
Tony Green, who led the restoration and redevelopment of Birmingham’s historic Grand Hotel by Hortons’ Estate, is joining West Midlands-based Goold Estates in a non-executive capacity.
Goold Estates is a commercial property management, investment and development company based in Oldbury, specialising in office and industrial redevelopment and asset management across West Midlands. In the past six months alone it has bought and sold more than £20m of commercial property.
Green, a director of the Colmore BID, said: “I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to help Dominic Goold and the team. I hope that my knowledge and experience can help drive the business forward during an important period of growth.
“Goold Estates has done extremely well so far and I hope that I can help them to go on and achieve significant success. I am very optimistic about the future. This is a very ambitious company and the challenge is the same as any business that experiences growth.
“Perhaps the biggest challenge is that the market that Goold Estates has done business in in the last few years, the industrial and logistics sector, has seen prices become very hot. Therefore, buying more property to expand, and getting long-term value for money, presents a genuine challenge.
“You need to stick to your principles and development criteria – that is very important. We need to be ready to make the most of opportunities when they appear.”
Green was at Birmingham-based regeneration and development specialist St Modwen for 12 years, joining as an accountant before becoming group financial controller. He left to join Hortons’ Estate in 2000 as financial director and became chief executive in 2009. He stood down from that role earlier this year.
One of the highlights of his career at Hortons’ was the restoration of the Grand Hotel at Colmore Row in Birmingham.
“It was a remarkable project and it took up a lot of my life for more than 10 years. I am thrilled that we were able to bring it back to life and I’m looking forward to seeing the hotel open there next year. Hortons’ also celebrated its 125thanniversary while I was there, which was a great milestone to be involved in.”
He added: “Over the next few months I hope to take up more non exec roles to commit a little more time to my work in the not-for-profit sector.”
Dominic Goold, managing director of Goold Estates, said: “We are at an important point in the growth and development of our business, so to have someone with Tony’s knowledge and experience on board is very welcome.”
Goold Estates recently sold a trading estate of six industrial units, which it had speculatively developed, in a £4m deal. A London-based private investor acquired Steelpark Trading Estate, at Wednesfield near Wolverhampton.
It also recently significantly increased the size of its property portfolio with the multi-million pound purchase of an industrial and warehouse distribution park. Totaling 457,000 sq ft, units 1-7 Spring Road in Ettingshall, Wolverhampton, were acquired from London and Oriental Properties for an undisclosed sum in an off-market deal.
