British property developer (born 1980)
Tim Heatley (born 1980) is a British property developer and co-founder of Capital &amp; Centric.
Background.
Heatley was born and grew up in Eccles, Salford. He studied law at Manchester Metropolitan University. While studying at university, he began selling art and restoring cars. He used this money to buy and redevelop his first property after graduating from university.
Career.
Heatley co-founded Capital &amp; Centric with Adam Higgins in November 2011. The company has been described as a "major disruptor" in property development by "Insider Media". The developer won a national placemaking award in 2020 for Kampus, a £250 million garden neighbourhood project in Manchester City Centre. "Business Insider" ranked the co-founders 87 in its 2020 Power 100 list.
In 2020, Heatley and a number of Capital &amp; Centric's projects were featured in a 2020 BBC2 documentary, "Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom", looking at Manchester's property boom and its impact on the housing market and local communities. Heatley's real estate firm, while providing affordable housing solutions, is involved in multiple projects which do not provide affordable housing as well. His proposals and planning regarding converting and developing old buildings and mills has witnessed mixed receptions, where certain groups of citizens believed that such initiatives would actually solve the basic problem of housing within Manchester, whereas some are apprehensive about their old neighborhoods becoming gentrified.
Heatley has faced questions around the shortage of affordable housing across Manchester and the company's record of delivering new affordable homes as part of its developments. He identified the lack of a national policy on city centre affordable housing as a barrier for developers to deliver more affordable homes, arguing: "Developers who want to build affordable homes are being priced out when purchasing the land or buildings. A developer who decides to build non-affordable homes as part of a project can bid higher". In an interview on the BBC2 "Manctopia" documentary, Heatley disclosed his company's aim to deliver a 100 per cent affordable housing scheme in Manchester city centre.
Heatley's Capital &amp; Centric founded the Regeneration Brainery initiative, a mentoring project that aims to support young people from a range of backgrounds to take up careers in the property and development sector and "widen the talent pool." Capital &amp; Centric also co-founded the Embassy Bus initiative with Stockport-based charity, Embassy, which converted a former luxury tour bus into temporary accommodation for the homeless in Greater Manchester. In 2017, Heatley and Higgins were in the news for the policy driven sale of flats at their Crusader Mill development in Manchester only to local owner occupiers while banning any foreign investors.
Heatley is known as an active campaigner on tackling homelessness across Greater Manchester. He is the current chair of the Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity that prioritises ending rough sleeping and homelessness. The charity has raised more than £2 million and during the COVID-19 pandemic opened a food and supplies depot in Manchester to support the homeless and rough sleepers in partnership with Capital &amp; Centric.
References.
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