May 25 2009
The prestigious ‘Nottingham Evening Post Business Awards’ has announced that Managing Director of Sladen Estates, Nick Sladen, has been named as their Property Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009.
Sladen Estates has in less than ten years created development projects worth more than £100m and currently has almost two million square feet of development on 14 projects across the greater midlands, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Cheshire.
The annual business awards event was held at Nottingham University and the awards dinner was very well attended despite the current economic climate.
Commenting on his award Nick Sladen attributed it to “nothing more complicated than hard work by his business. We have always underpinned our business with good quality product. We’re not flashy, we’re not flighty – we identify what people want to make and we make sure it is as good as we can get it”.
He went on to sound a note of caution about the commercial property sector moving forward “What we are getting back to now is the real market. The last five or six years haven’t been a real market – lots of development has been about the amount of cash available. So in recent years, development has been easy. Our business started when it was tough and we have always been about generating true value”.
The award was sponsored by PKF, Accountants and business advisors. Rick Wilson, their Nottingham Chairman said “Successful property entrepreneurs are admired by the business community for their comprehensive knowledge of finance, design, political climate, technical capabilities, social and environmental impacts – together with risk management – which contributes to a successful profitable business”.
He concluded “In the current climate these skills are needed in greater magnitudes to navigate the way forward, together with that rare ingredient, ‘entrepreneurial flair’ to identify the opportunities that are still there, and to attract the investment needed for the project to succeed”.