Meet Alec Hamlin - Development Director, Igloo

Meet Alec Hamlin - Development Director, Igloo

This week, we had the opportunity to sit down with Alec Hamlin, development director for Igloo and project lead for the Fruit Market development. At Fruit Market we know that the continuity of the team throughout the process is key to delivering a successful development, and Alec has been involved in the project right from the beginning.

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to work in the industry.

After studying property development at Nottingham Trent around 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to join Igloo and work in my hometown of Nottingham. From an early stage in my career, I worked on developments that were genuinely innovative with a focus on regeneration. Property development is often perceived as a cynical or purely money oriented profession, but the attraction for me was the ability for development to improve urban areas with sensitive and considered design, so it was great to be part of a team that shared the same values as me.

Nottingham’s your hometown, how does that influence your work?

If you’ve grown up in a city, you develop an intimate knowledge of its character and history, which I feel is a great advantage. You can also see the potential in locations that perhaps developers outside of the city can’t.

Presumably, that comes with wanting to feel proud of your own city?

Absolutely. Everyone wants to live in places that are attractive, function well, and enable communities to thrive. When you live in that place, it can give you an added sensitivity to what’s needed. There is obviously a very rigorous process involved and a lot of expertise. From the initial vision and master plans, through to appointing the right architects and building contractor. But when it's your hometown, getting it right is a matter of personal pride, not just professional.

So what’s involved with the development director role?

Being a development director is a multifaceted role that combines coordinating the commercial, creative and practical delivery considerations of the development. It's my job to help direct the initial vision through to the finished development and deliver the requisite returns. However, at Igloo the considerations are much more than just financial. We’re committed to sustainable developments that create communities and deliver a positive social impact - and we are an industry leader in that respect.

So what attracted you to working in Sneinton Market?

Sneinton Market is one of the city’s most characterful locations. Growing up in Nottingham you realise everyone has something to say about the market. People still remember it as a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, or shopping on a Saturday morning with their parents or grandparents. It’s much loved. Like many market locations in the UK it fell into a period of decline for many years that affected the whole area. Then in 2012 the square and the leisure centre was redeveloped by the city council and the regeneration of market buildings followed a few years later. Both of these projects have been successful and there is now a thriving community of independent businesses. ​These major regeneration steps combined with an increased demand for more housing in the city, paved the way for Fruit Market. It’s great to build upon the regeneration of such an historic location.

It’s an unusual location for a new development. How have you approached it?

While it’s very much in the city centre there are actually a lot of people who live in the local area in a diverse range of different properties. The development is very innovative as each home looks onto a central shared courtyard garden so they have the feeling of being green, spacious and private while still being in the heart of the city centre. A conventional developer would normally use this space for private parking spaces, but by removing the cars and offering on street parking we are able to provide a fantastic garden space which benefits the residents and increases biodiversity in the local area too. This is the first of its kind in the city, but we will see more of this approach throughout the UK over the next few years. Many residents want to prioritise green space over cars or live car free.

So how did you approach the architectural design?

It was really important that the design fulfilled its function, had a design-led, modern aesthetic but still fitted in to the local area. We chose to work with Nottingham based architects Lett’s Wheeler because they had an excellent track record in housing but also understood the character of the city. In Sneinton Market there is a wide mix of heritage buildings, including Victorian housing, old mill buildings, 30’s architecture, Victorian tenements and modern architecture. I feel we’ve been very careful to hit the right balance. The design is fundamentally modern but there are details that are sympathetic to the heritage. Using a mixture of bricks in each stage of the development means it is not too repetitive and each aspect of the development has its own character.

With phase 1 of the development complete, are you excited about phase 2?

It was great to see phase 1 complete and we won a national Housing Design Award for it too. It’s exciting to see Phase 2 in progress as I’ve been working on Fruit Market for a long time and think it will really compliment the area. I think Sneinton Market is a great location to live. It’s got markets, independent shops, it’s got parks, it's minutes from the buzz of Hockley, it’s part of Nottingham’s arts scene, and it’s got a great leisure centre too. So it’s kind of got it all. But on a personal level, this is the development I’m most proud of. It is a key building block in the regeneration of the area, and the development itself is one of the most innovative in our portfolio. I can’t wait to see it become a thriving community.