Image: (L to R) James Lee, quantity surveyor; David Blakey, Director; Alex Lodge, Director; and Ryan Kirk, senior building surveyor. (Image courtesy of Summers-Inman and UNP)
Following a sustained period of new appointments, the Leeds office of award-winning Summers-Inman, a construction and property consultancy with a national network of offices, is expanding its footprint at Thorpe Park Leeds.
Although established in Leeds for 35+ years in Leeds city centre, the firm moved up to Thorpe Park in 2006 Now, due to winning several new projects, embarking on a long-term business plan and recruiting additional staff, Summers-Inman has taken a five-year lease on 1550sq ft of space only a short distance from where the office was previously, which will enable future expansion plans in the region.
To that end, two new additions have also been made to the team bringing the current total of staff in Leeds to twelve.
Ryan Kirk joins as a senior building surveyor. He has 15 years of experience gained at a national consultancy and has been working on Summers-Inman’s national client accounts providing due diligence, dilapidation reports and professional and project building surveying services. Ryan is a real strength to the dilapidation advice team and trusted by clients.
The second new appointment is James Lee, a quantity surveyor, with six years of experience aiming to become MRICS later this year. James will be working closely with Director of the Leeds office, David Blakey, in providing Cost Management and Employer’s Agent services to many of the firm’s clients in various sectors. James has been appointed to provide support on a wide variety of project work including undertaking the Employer’s Agent role for many of the region’s housing associations.
Both appointments have been made due to Summers-Inman’s established reputation, demonstrated by its appointment to several frameworks and multi-million-pound schemes in the Yorkshire area and nationally including large schemes for Yorkshire Housing and The Riverside Housing Group.
For Yorkshire Housing, Summers-Inman is undertaking Employer’s Agent and Cost Management roles on its new £30m affordable housing scheme in Beverley. Consisting of 136 residential units, the development, called Anthem 3, is also providing a wide range of public open spaces to provide a real community feel.
Meanwhile at Westwood Village in Thanet, Kent, Summers-Inman is providing Employer’s Agent and Cost Management services via the Efficiency North Framework for 449 affordable residential units, working on behalf of the Riverside Housing Group. Designed around open spaces this development will bring much needed affordable housing to the area.
Summers-Inman is also working in partnership with York-based developer Grantside to develop carbon net zero schemes in Sheffield. The first, 190 Norfolk Street, which overlooks the award winning public open space, Peace Gardens, provides much needed exemplary office space in the city centre. The second, Hive-Central in Kelham Island, provides one hundred co-living studios spread over five floors of IT enabled community live/work space.
Within the utilities sector, Summers-Inman is enjoying a re-appointment under the Helpdesk and Professional Services Framework for Severn Trent Water, which marks the continuation of a 13-year relationship.
Commenting on the new office and expanding team, David Blakey, said:
“I am delighted by the success of the Leeds office. It has always been our intention to expand Summers-Inman in the Yorkshire area - our Leeds office falls within the northern region of our business, which also includes Newcastle, Teesside and Manchester - and we are finding that the wider Yorkshire, Humberside and Teesside markets are very receptive to our message and way of doing things.
“If you also factor into this, the enviable position Leeds enjoys as a strong financial centre and the inward investment proposition of this area as a whole, there have been many opportunities for us to win new work.”
Commenting on Summers-Inman’s future plans, he added: “In the short to medium term, we will be strengthening our position with our current workload while we aim to attract further team members.
“We can offer our employees a raft of exciting projects to work on as we are servicing a wide range of sectors from this office – residential, affordable housing, commercial offices, healthcare, higher education, retail, industrial, community schemes and utilities – so they will gain plenty of experience while helping to further grow the business as we expand into new and existing markets. We continually invest in our staff and view their wellbeing as paramount to a successful office environment.
“We are at an exciting stage in the development of the Leeds office and we are all very optimistic about its future success.”
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