One of Birmingham’s oldest property dynasties is celebrating its 125th year in business.
Hortons’ Estate was incorporated on 21st June 1892 and still remains in the control of the family with more than 100 shareholders spanning seven generations and living all around the world.
Founder Isaac Horton began the real estate empire during the Victorian property boom, using income from his family provisions, butchery and cheese factoring businesses. Foreseeing the impact the railways would have on visitors to Birmingham, he built the Grand and Midland (now Macdonald Burlington) hotels, close to the city’s stations.
The hotels were supplemented with a number of leasehold and freehold properties in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, many of which remain within the portfolio today and have helped shaped the landscape in both cities.
Always at the forefront of new technology, Hortons’ Estate developed Britain’s first rooftop car park in Wolverhampton and also one of its first concrete framed buildings (the White House, Birmingham); at the Grand the use of riveted steelwork to construct the Barwick Street block was also ground-breaking.
Today the family-owned property company boasts a portfolio of retail, hotel, office and industrial properties and land located throughout the Midlands valued at more than £250m.
The portfolio includes a number of Isaac’s original buildings including The Grand and Burlington blocks in Birmingham, 128 New Street – home to the newly opened Apple store – with more recent additions including Gateway Retail Park, Cannock, and Old Dalby Trading Estate in Melton Mowbray.
Peter Horton, chairman of Hortons’ Estate. said: “Established in the Victorian property boom, Hortons’ Estate survived the Great Depression and two world wars to build a diverse and profitable portfolio of Midlands’ properties.
“The Grand in Birmingham was one of our earliest developments and it’s particularly fitting that within weeks of our 125th Anniversary we have been able to announce its reopening in 2019.”