Construction
2018: No.32= - £160m
2017: No.29 - £155m
Hortons' Estate has been celebrating 125 years in business. The company traces its roots back to the1870s when great, great, great grandfather developed the Midland Hotel in Birmingham city centre.
Now Birmingham's historic Grand Hotel in Colmore Row is getting back to its former glory thanks to a £14 million restoration project being carried out by Hortons' Estate. The project has been boosted by extra funding from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership and Birmingham City Council. The hotel is due to fully re-open next year.
The façade of the hotel has been undergoing sensitive restoration work and the hotel’s interior is being renovated, with office space created. Shops which form part of the hotel’s frontage have also been refurbished, along with a restaurant which can spill out onto the pavement on Colmore Row.
The Alchemist bar opened its first venue in Birmingham in 2016 in the development, joined by Italian restaurant Gusto which is part of the same Living Ventures group. They have taken 25 year leases.
Ten shops are fronting the scheme, and high-end shoe brand Loakes has agreed a 10 year-lease. Another shoe brand - Crockett & Jones - has also reopened its shop after closing in 2015 to allow the Grand development. The office space is currently being marketed.
The Grand Hotel is not the only project being looked after by Hortons, Estate, which is run by Peter Horton, aged 48, who took over as chairman of the group in May 2015.
The company acquired the Old Dalby Business Park in Leicestershire for £10 million, with plans to extend the 39 acre site which currently has 12 industrial units.
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In addition Hortons is planning a 50,000 sq ft manufacturing facility at Hollymoor Point in Rubery for Aquapak Polymers Ltd. The business is also developing a £5 million out-of-town shopping on land beside the M6 Toll at Cannock, creating more than 60 jobs. The land was bought by Hortons and Trebor Developments from Staffordshire County Council.
Elsewhere Horton’s Estates manages the Marchington Industrial Estate in Staffordshire. The estate is made up of 1.3 million sq ft of industrial and warehousing space in 34 buildings.
Hortons has net assets of more than £135 million and manages a portfolio worth more than £250 million. It made a £13 million pre-tax profit on £15.9 million sales in the year to September 2016. The value of its investment properties grew by more than £5.3 million.
Peter Horton's father, 76 year-old Michael Horton, stepped down as chairman in 2008 after seven years in the post and 44 years as a director. He now runs the award-winning Cotswold Inns and Hotels with his wife Pamela.
Isaac Horton - a pig farmer and butcher from Lichfield – began the company in 1871 when he acquired the Midland Hotel, which is now the Macdonald Burlington, and set about developing it. He also built the Grand Hotel and by the time of his death in 1880 had established a substantial property business. The Hortons' portfolio includes some of Isaac Horton's original buildings including the Grand and Burlington hotels and property on New Street.
Isaac is buried at Key Hill Cemetery in the Jewellery Quarter.