Former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) superintendent Nadeem Butt has joined residential property management specialist urbanbubble as Head of Build To Rent (BtR) Operations.
Nadeem is one of six new senior appointments made by urbanbubble, as it continues to grow its presence around the UK.
The Manchester-based business celebrates its 10th anniversary by expanding from its North West origins thanks to a partnership with institutional investor Legal & General to manage Legal & General’s BtR residential schemes in Manchester, Salford, Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and London.
Nadeem was a manager at Bradford-based student accommodation provider Malik Halls Ltd following numerous senior roles in the police service including being a superintendent at GMP headquarters, force liaison head for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies, Fire and Rescue and Peer Review Lead at the College of Policing in London.
Joining Nadeem at urbanbubble are:
Gavin Carson as general manager of Spring Wharf, Bath;
Leo Glass, general manager, Blackhorse Mills, Walthamstow, London;
Samantha Richardson as general manager of West Tower, Deansgate Square, Manchester;
Sofie Haig-Smith as general manager of Anco & Co, Ancoats, Manchester;
and Rebecca Whitehead, general manager, The Whitmore Collection, Birmingham.
Steve Austin has also been promoted internally to general manager at the LOCAL Blackfriars scheme developed by Salboy in Salford.
Gavin was recruited from a role as regional business development manager (South West) with Liberty Living and previously held two senior operations roles at Unite Students.
Leo Glass joined from being head of operations at Fusion Students and Samantha Richardson was formerly head of relationship management at Get Living, Stratford, where she was responsible for more than 1,000 homes for rent on the site of the former London Olympics athletes’ village.
Sofie Haig-Smith arrived at urbanbubble from her role as general manager, Sir Charles Groves for Liberty Living, Manchester, while Rebecca Whitehead was previously property manager at Mainstay Group.
They join a workforce of about 180, a headcount forecast by urbanbubble to increase to around 300 by Q3 2020 to accommodate the growth of the business.
Michael Howard, founder and managing director of urbanbubble, said: “Nadeem, Leo, Gavin, Samantha, Sofie and Rebecca bring with them a wealth of experience in property management and other sectors such as Nadeem’s time at GMP and will prove to be invaluable additions to the urbanbubble team at an exciting time as we grow our business outside of our North West heartland. We’re a values-led business and that runs through everything we do, especially when recruiting new colleagues to deliver our vision of making our cities better places to live.”
Based at Sevendale House in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, urbanbubble recently expanded its property management activities outside the North West by securing further nationwide BtR schemes with Legal & General.
Following the success of the partnership’s inaugural BtR scheme at multi-award winning The Slate Yard in Salford, urbanbubble secured the management of Legal & General’s latest BtR scheme at West Tower, Deansgate Square, Manchester and others in Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and London.
In a separate partnership with a leading property investor, urbanbubble manages Anco & Co in Ancoats, Manchester on behalf of DTZ Investors.
The firm also manages residential schemes in Manchester and Liverpool for developers Salboy, Elliot Group, PAG, Capital and Centric and Mulbury.
With a sector-leading focus on customer care and service, urbanbubble has a total of more than 8,000 residential units under management across 80 UK sites – including 4,500 units in Manchester – and forecasts that figure to rise to more than 15,000 by 2021.
