LIKE all the best property developers, David Topham never intended to go into property. David, the founder and frantically energetic boss of Manchester-based CTP Properties, started his working life in luxury hotels. Ending up as one of the UKés most successful property moguls was never part of the plan.

Today, CTP is involved in projects from the Channel Islands to Scotland, including the massive former Garden Festival site in Glasgow, and major redevelopments in Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool.

Locally, David is behind plans for a new cinema and leisure complex in Altrincham, an office block on Princes Street, close to Manchester Town Hall ,and was the developer of Stockportés Grand Central leisure scheme.
Ités all a long way from the day, 30 years ago, when David launched his career in Londonés big-name hotels.
éThe family had a hotel in Gloucestershire, and I fancied getting into that kind of work. From my early teens, thatés exactly what I did.

éAfter college, I went seriously into hotel management in London, including a spell working at the London Hilton é which was a very flash place and top of the hotel ladder in those days,é he remembers.

But, by his late 20s, David was beginning to find London life é and the hospitality business é less appealing. Not sure what to do next, but determined to start a business of his own, he headed back to Manchester and the family construction business, C. Topham and Sons.

éIt was a complete change of direction. I knew I wanted to do something for myself but ended up working in the family business. It wasnét as much of a culture shock as it might have been for others, and anyway, young men take these things in their stride. Iéd grown up on building sites and talk of it round the dinner table. It wasnét new to me, so I soon settled in,é he says.

Humble

Davidés role was humble in the early days, during which he kept the accounts and drove the wagon.
But by the mid-1980s he was ready for something bolder.

éWe knew that we wanted the family business to move from construction into development and we thought, as builders, that we knew all about property. Of course we didnét é nobody does é and you learn as you go along, which is perhaps why so many developers come from non-property backgrounds like me, rather than from the ranks of the surveying profession.é

In 1987, David set up CTP with the backing of family and friends, who remain shareholders to this day.
The first project was to develop the 70,000-sq ft AA offices at Cheadle, an ambitious first venture for a small business. Fortunately, the economy was booming and Davidés gamble paid off. The profits from the AA offices were promptly re-invested in something much bigger é a pioneering leisure scheme in Stockport that was to become the Grand Central complex, next to the station.

éIt was a real risk,é recalls David. éBy the early 1990s, the economy was in recession and leisure development was rare in those days. A lot was riding on it, for us.é
As luck and good judgement would have it, Grand Central worked and paid off handsomely for David.

Since then, heés coasted from one major property deal to the next, creating one of the most active developers outside London. Today, Davidés time is divided between a range of projects in Cheltenham, Wigan and the big cities of the north and Scotland, along with his office block on Princes Street and an é80m redevelopment in Wakefield.
Under Davidés leadership, CTP has taken advantage of changing fashions in planning and property to put itself in pole position.

So, for instance, as the days of the out-of-town business park faded, CTP moved promptly into town centre development, establishing a reputation as a developer able to take on tricky urban sites.

Hospitality

Davidés early days in the hospitality business have paid off é heés proved adept at making local authorities feel at home with CTP, and that has opened opportunities for property development on sites controlled or owned by local councils.

éIéd like to think we treat our customers like customers é and our partners like partners é and that we manage our relationships with them and with local authorities well.

éWe have a small team é thereés only 15 of us é and the way we do our job defines us. We donét just pass ideas down the line for others to sort out, rather we solve problems ourselves,é he says.

éI want to create new places and spaces to be proud of, things which will be around in 100 yearsé time é and if thatés being driven, Iém driven.

éYou can get so much out of business life by making money and doing something creative, creative things which will last,é he confesses.

Davidés days in the hotel business are long gone é though heés retained a keen and critical interest in food and restaurants é but one lesson has remained: make your customers feel at home.
Ités a philosophy that has helped CTP grow its turnover by more than 500 per cent in five years to around é40m. And, as David is anxious to point out, he hasnét finished yet.

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