Why can all property developers be like Tom Bloxham?
His candid blue eyes are fixed on the next deal, but he’s got a broad enough focus to care about his schemes and their effect on communities. He’s just turned 40, but he’s got the youthful enthusiasm to carry off his trademark goatee and bleached crop. In the organised chaos of an office where real work gets done, Bloxham isn’t out to impress. He doesn’t have to: the architecture he commissions does that for him. “You have to get the best potential out of every bit of land. That’s what architects want, and what we want as well,” he says earnestly. Bloxham is co-founder and chairman of Urban Splash, the Manchester-based developer that last month marked ten years of financial success and architectural awards. The company is celebrating with an ambitious piece of brand extension, a debut in the hotel business. Not surprisingly, the designers’ developer has bought a designers’ hotel. The Midland in Morecambe is a decaying art deco beauty, a 1933 modernist icon once described as a “graceful
