People: The latest West Midlands hires

Industrial developer and asset manager Chancerygate has appointed a development manager at its Birmingham office.

Rob Watts joins Chancerygate from commercial real estate agency,Avison Young, where he was mostly recently an associate director.

He said: “Chancerygate has burgeoned a fantastic reputation in the region and has real influence in the fast-moving Midlands market.

“Chancerygate has a clear growth strategy, which made it an easy decision for me to join the company. I look forward to working with Mark and the wider team to develop the Birmingham office’s pipeline of new developments.”

Chancerygate launched its Birmingham office in November 2018 and recently announced the acquisition of a 6.35-acre site in Colwick, Nottingham. The development will deliver 137,900 sq ft of industrial and warehousing space and has a projected gross development value of around £20m.

The Birmingham office is also developing a 31-unit scheme in Coventry in a joint venture with Bridges Fund Management. Named Holbrook Business Park, the site is expected to have a gross development value of £35m once complete.

Chancerygate development director and head of the Birmingham office, Mark Garrity, said: “Rob has excellent knowledge of the industrial market and is highly capable in his approach to deals. His wealth of experience will enable us to significantly increase our presence in the Midlands.

“We can only achieve our ambitious growth strategy for the Midlands with people that share our vision of providing high-quality industrial and warehousing space. I am sure Rob will play a vital role in enabling us to do so.”

:::

Real estate funding specialist ASK Partners has appointed Joshua Weinstein, former originator in the structured property finance division of Investec Bank responsible for originating transactions totalling £500m.

Weinstein spent six years at Investec Bank working with large family offices, corporate and institutional clients arranging senior development and investment loans across residential, industrial, commercial and retail asset classes, gaining significant experience of complex transactions and larger loans structured as club deals with third party funders.

Originally from South Africa, prior to Investec Weinstein served in the Israeli military, studied for an MS in Real Estate Development in New York and worked at real estate capital advisory firm Ackman Ziff Real Estate Group, specialising in capital stack design and sourcing for real estate investors across the US.

At ASK in his role as head of institutional markets, his remit is to build out a team focused on transactions in excess of £50m, for corporate clients with funding from institutional capital.

Daniel Austin, co-founder and CEO of ASK, said: “This is a senior, strategic hire for ASK and we are delighted to have Joshua on board. With our current total lent now at over £625m, his role will be key to further growing our loan book, expanding our diverse funding pool for larger ticket deals and increasing our ability to structure bespoke and complex funding solutions for experienced property developers and investors.”

:::

Full service content marketing agency HDY Agency has bolstered its senior operations team after appointing its first creative director, Paul Power.

Power joined the Digbeth-based creative agency as an art director in September 2020, and during that time the agency has experienced rapid growth and has secured international clients.

Power said: “When I first joined HDY last year, I was given the brilliant – but rare – opportunity to take ownership of the company’s creative direction and the freedom to build our team of creative talent.

“I’m passionate about leading by example and putting happiness and wellness at the heart of our team. It’s all about giving people the right tools they need to thrive creatively, commercially and personally.”

Angel Gaskell, co-founder of HDY Agency, said: “After a solid year of new client wins and an ever-expanding creative team, Paul has excelled in working collaboratively with the agency to produce award-winning work and winning international projects. Our recruitment drive this year has been about appointing the right talent to produce world class content.

“Paul represents the perfect balance of creativity, while fully understanding how to commercially grow the business. He’s well and truly proved himself as a leader over the past 12 months and we’re so excited to see what he achieves in his brand new role as creative director.”