Paragon lures Colliers pair for office launch

AN independent London building and project consultancy has opened a Manchester office, luring two former Colliers executives to lead its northern drive.

Paragon has hired James Onions and Rob Simpson as directors.  Onions previously worked for Colliers for 13 years and was head of its Manchester and Leeds building surveying and project management teams since 2011.  Simpson was based in the firm’s Leeds office for the last 11 years.

Prior to the opening Paragon has been active in the North West having worked on acquisitions for clients such as Rockspring, LJ capital, Magnus, Karlin and LaSalle. The firm is also retained by Legal & General on their New Bailey Street development.

Managing director John Munday said: “This new office is an exciting venture for us.  Having established a successful nationwide business from London, we were keen to supplement this in thenNorth and whilst we considered a number of cities, Manchester was the obvious choice for us as it is a powerful city competing on an international platform.

“The Manchester office is very much an integral part of the business as a whole, with the full support of the London team.  We have an ambitious but viable strategy to grow the business exponentially over the next 12-24 months.”

James Onions added: “This is an incredibly exciting and unique opportunity for us to establish a new office for Paragon at the centre of the new Northern Powerhouse and build a team of the best talent and expertise in our field.  Paragon is an enormously enthusiastic, dynamic company run by people who know and understand our line of work, with a focused client approach.

“They offer a service level that resonates with our own business beliefs.  We are very excited about this new venture and look forward to the challenges ahead.”