Tony McDonough meets GUY BUTLER, project director at Grosvenor

AT THE age of 34, Guy Butler has already helped oversee property projects worth more than £1bn.

Not bad for a man whose original modest ambition was to become a council planning officer in his native South Wales.

Butler is currently project director for property giant Grosvenor, in Liverpool and the North West.

He was originally parachuted into the city in 2002 to assist Rod Holmes with the delivery of the £1bn Liverpool One retail and leisure scheme.

That is now complete and will drive the city centre’s economy for decades to come.

However, Butler admits he has still to fully appreciate the full scale of the achievement.

He said: “I have friends who also have amazing jobs and I look at what they do sometimes and think ‘wow’.

“But then sometimes I realise what a phenomenal job we have done here in Liverpool.”

These days, his remit includes all of Grosvenor’s assets in the city, with the exception of Liverpool One itself.

The biggest of those is probably One Park West, a mixed-use development bolted onto Liverpool One which comprises 326 apartments and eight commercial units.

Despite the poor state of the UK residential market, One Park West managed to notch up £25m of sales last year – a performance that exceeded Grosvenor’s expectations.

Commercial lettings are also going quite well, with three just completed – Cafe A-Z, Genesis Wellbeing Clinic and Italian eaterie Prego.

“Prego was an excellent one for us because it is something a bit different from what you might normally find in the city centre,” said Butler.

“You tend to find a lot of chain restaurants but these guys offer genuine traditional Italian cooking.

“One Park West is a genuine mixed-use scheme and is in use 24 hours a day.

“We have a gym here and there really are some mad people you can find working out in the middle of the night.

“Last year, the UK residential market was at a very low point so to record the sales we did was exceptional and we remained tough on not lowering our prices..

“What has been clear in the current market is the flight to quality. When people do have the money, they will go out and get the best they can buy. They seek out the prime locations and Liverpool One is certainly that.

“I would say it is a 50/50 split in terms of owner-occupiers and investors.

“There are ex-pat Scousers working in places like the Middle East and Australia. They are letting their apartments out for now but eventually aim to come back and live in them.

“We also have Liverpool FC supporters who have the apartments to stay in when the matches are on, and over-50s whose children have flown the nest.

“They have moved back into the city centre because they want to relive their youth.”

Butler was born and brought up in Bridgend, in South Wales.

His family had two businesses – a wholesale butcher and motor dealerships – and he himself wanted to work in property.

He said: “To be honest, I thought I would end up as a planning officer for the local council.”

However, Butler ended up studying land management at the University of Reading, a national centre of excellence for those in the property sector.

He added: “A lot of the top property companies end up recruiting from there, and I was quite picky after I graduated.

“I wanted to work somewhere with nice people who would look after me and develop my career.”

The younger graduate struck lucky and ended up at just such a firm – Turnberry Consulting.

The London-based outfit worked on projects such as the redevelopment of Ascot Racecourse and Butler very quickly picked up the skills necessary for him to further his career, and left for bigger things after just two years.

“It really was in at the deep end, but I was trusted and trained. One of the biggest projects I worked on was the sale of the famous Ealing Film Studios.

“I left Turnberry 12 years ago and I still keep in touch with the people there.”

Butler had been doing some part-time lecturing back at Reading and it was here he was approached by Grosvenor, one of the UK’s biggest landowners and property firms.

And, at the tender age of 22, Butler found himself helping to deliver a £350m retail development in Basingstoke.

He said: “I was assistant to the director and looked after things like leasing, construction, site assembly and reporting to the funds.

“It was a great thing to do. You are at the cutting edge and you also have a huge responsibility and that can be quite hairy.”

In 2002, Butler arrived in Liverpool to assist Rod Holmes with Liverpool One.

It was a huge task. He was responsible for assembling the site which comprised 275 bits of land.

That led to him getting embroiled in some complex negotiations over land purchases.

Probably the most high-profile of those was the relocation of the Quiggins retail business, a collection of alternative and independent retailers.

Butler lives on the Cheshire/Shropshire border with wife Georgia – whom he met at Grosvenor – and their two children Florence, two, and Ellen, four.

His personal passion is cars and he was able to indulge this earlier this year when he organised the Pageant of Power which saw 20,000 motor enthusiasts watch high-performance cars being driven up and down The Strand.

The event was timed to coincide with Liverpool One’s second birthday.

“It was huge beyond imagination,” said Butler. “I just said ‘I have this mad idea’. But we pulled it off.”

Butler divides his time between Liverpool and London and is kept busy on his three days a week in Merseyside.

His remit across the city centre includes the former George Henry Lee building, in Church Street, and the former Rapid Hardware store, in Renshaw Street.

He said: “The most important thing I learned about working on Liverpool One was respect.

“The project was quite difficult initially and we had to work hard to get the trust of people at the city council. But, as time went on, I think it just got better and better.”

“You have to listen to people and explain things clearly and slowly. Once people understand what you are trying to do, you are more likely to get their respect.

“We feel like we have done things properly here.”