Introduction to Cityheart

About Us

Founded in 2005 by Managing Director, Mark McNamee, Cityheart specialises in working with the public sector to deliver and manage regeneration projects across the United Kingdom. We have also successfully delivered specialist healthcare, judicial, extra care, education and student accommodation buildings.

Whilst Cityheart is primarily a development company, we also provide development consultancy advice and invest in the property market, in addition to delivering private sector projects.

Cityheart has a strong ethos of working closely with its partners, understanding their needs and aspirations and delivering sustainable, cost effective solutions on time, offering real ‘value for money’ to its partners.

Property Development

Cityheart is an established property development, consultancy and investment company, which has been developing and delivering public and private sector projects for more than a decade.

As a dynamic, independent company, we benefit from being able to develop innovative and bespoke solutions for our clients, particularly in design and funding. Through this we are able to drive value for money into projects by testing all aspects of the market as well as seeking the most competitive funding terms through institutional and other mainstream funders to ensure we deliver best value for our partners.

We are able to provide our partners with a full development service including site identification, acquisition, design, planning, funding, construction and ongoing asset management services.

Cityheart Team

Mark McNamee

Managing Director

Mark is the Founder and Managing Director of Cityheart, which he formed in 2005 to deliver and manage developments in partnership with the public sector, in addition to providing development consultancy advice and investing in the property market.  Cityheart has since successfully delivered developments across the UK in various sectors with a range of public and private sector partners.

Mark was previously Managing Director of David McLean Developments where he was responsible for delivering over 5,000 student beds. He was also UK Regional Director for Equity Bank and has a breadth of knowledge of medium and large-scale regeneration projects, including Princes Dock Liverpool; Masshouse Circus, Birmingham; St. Austell Town centre; Rotherham Westgate Demonstrator Project and Lime Street Station regeneration in Liverpool.

Mark brings to the company a wide array of experience of working in Partnership with the public sector including Liverpool City Council, many NHS Trusts, the Welsh Assembly Government, SWERDA, Liverpool Vision, Yorkshire Forward and English partnerships.

Mark McNamee - Cityheart

Warren Taylor

Director

Warren is a Director at Cityheart, where his responsibilities primarily focus on the company’s various public private partnerships working to deliver regeneration across the UK, in addition Warren is a Director of Cityheart Living and Cityheart Homes.

He has over 17 years’ experience working with the public sector at Director level, having previously held roles at Morgan Sindall Investments Limited, Community Solutions and Morgan Sindall Construction plc. Warren’s experience spans strategic development partnerships, property development and estates management across various sectors, including healthcare, commercial and residential.

Warren is currently leading on delivery of the £135m Wigan Galleries masterplan in partnership with Wigan Council and the £60m Foundry Lane redevelopment with Halton Borough Council, amongst other private and public sector developments.

Warren Taylor - Cityheart

Jonathan Wrigley

Director

Jonny joined the board of Cityheart Homes in 2020 to support the development team in its significant and growing residential led mixed use pipeline across the UK, bringing his extensive development experience in the retail, residential and care sectors having held senior positions at Cushman & Wakefield, Crosby Homes (part of Berkeley Group) and Nikal.

Jonny has been Managing Director at HBV Group since 2011, a pioneering development company specialising in providing supported housing, specifically for young adults with physical disabilities, brain injuries and learning disabilities, HBV have delivered over 1200 new homes for some of the sectors most vulnerable people deploying some £250m of institutional capital.

HBV and Cityheart have set up a joint venture to develop Supported Living, Care Homes and Extra Care Housing in partnership across the UK bringing together their unique skills to target opportunities through both public procurement and private acquisitions, HBV Cityheart will be targeting £25m of development a year with a number of schemes already secured.

Jonathan Wrigley - Cityheart

Andrew Sanderson

Director

Andrew joined Cityheart in 2022 as Development Director.

He has over 20 years’ experience in property development and, before joining Cityheart was responsible for developing complex mixed-use sites to realise the UK government’s manifesto commitments to open 500 new free schools alongside delivering much needed new housing.

In addition to his education expertise, he has a demonstrated history of working in the retail and residential property development sectors.

Andrew is based in our southern region and is currently leading on the redevelopment of ‘Old River Lane’, a 5.2-acre site in the centre of Bishop’s Stortford.

Andrew Sanderson - Cityheart

Greg Ball

Development Director

Greg joined Cityheart in 2023 as Development Director.

He has a long track record for working on and delivering large scale regeneration projects during his time at Muse, U + I and Urban Splash.

Greg is based in our Wilmslow office working on projects nationally.

Greg Ball - Cityheart

Jeff Gillbanks

Group Legal Director

Jeff is Cityheart’s in-house legal counsel. Prior to his role at Cityheart he was a Partner and Regional Head of Property at law firm Brabners.

Jeff has more than 25 years of specialist development advice and has worked with Cityheart since our inception in 2005, acting on our behalf for almost all our development projects.

His role is to ensure that we have the appropriate level of governance to assist us in delivering projects in a timely and efficient manner.

Jeff’s position at CItyheart is a real coup for a developer of our size as we continue to grow over the coming years.

Jeff Gillbanks - Cityheart

Luke Piggin

Finance Director

Luke is Cityheart’s finance director. He is a FCA and CFA Charterholder and prior to his role at Cityheart worked for KPMG, MAS Real Estate and One Heritage Group, the latter he listed on the London Stock Exchange.

His role is to provide the financial structure required to assist Cityheart as the company continues to grow.

Luke Piggin - Financial Director - Cityheart

Benji Slater

Development Director

Benji joined Cityheart in 2024 as Development Director.

Benji has extensive experience working in property development, working on large scale urban regeneration projects, most recently for a publicly listed housebuilder, and previously for a London based UK listed REIT.

Benji is based in our southern region and will be focussed on projects in the south and midlands to support Cityheart’s growth in securing both private and public sector development opportunities.

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Anika Day

Assistant Development Director

Anika joined Cityheart in 2023 as Assistant Development Director.

Anika previously worked at Moda Living where she was a senior project manager, prior to which she was at Select Property Group and has more than 12 years’ experience working in the property industry.

She will be predominantly focusing on the £135m Galleries redevelopment in Wigan as well as other key projects we are developing in partnership with public sector bodies.

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James Litherland

Senior Planning and Development Manager

James joined Cityheart in 2024 as Senior Planning & Development Manager.  Prior to this James worked at Placefirst and The Co-operative Group.

James is an experienced planning and development professional who specialises in residential-led regeneration and public private partnerships.  He has a strong track record working on the delivery of award-winning neighbourhoods.

At Cityheart, James will play a key role in the growth of the business, providing particular expertise in planning, grant funding and the Built-to-Rent sector.  James is also a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

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Jon Sawyer

Strategic Advisor

Jon is a retained consultant for Cityheart providing strategic advice on affordable housing, grant funding and financial modelling.

Jon has successfully led and advised on the delivery thousands of new market and affordable homes, primarily delivered through public private partnerships on brownfield sites with a blend of public and private funding sources. Jon has previously held non-executive roles across the social housing sector, including Chair of ‘HouseMark’, Audit Chair of Nottingham City Homes and a Government endorsed appointee to rescue Cosmopolitan Housing Association.

Jon’s strong relationships with MHCLG, Homes England and Registered Providers nationally and locally bring a current and in-depth knowledge of the affordable housing market, assisting Cityheart in the delivery of housing across the UK through their housebuilding arm, Cityheart Homes.

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Eleanor Leslie

Executive Assistant & Office Manager

Eleanor plays a pivotal role in ensuring the daily operations at Cityheart run smoothly, including management of monthly drawdowns, accounts, billing and invoicing.

Additionally, Eleanor draws upon her strong customer service record to liaise with Cityheart’s clients and third party suppliers to manage contracts and maintain relationships.

Eleanor joined the company in 2019, with vast managerial and administrative experience mainly gained in the education and finance sectors, including specifically estates and facilities management expertise.

Eleanor Leslie - Cityheart

Siân Evans

Marketing & Operations Manager, Cityheart Living

Siân leads on Cityheart Living’s operational and marketing activities across all student accommodation sites, supported by the regional accommodation team leaders and the finance team.

Siân works closely with the operations teams and University and HEI partners to develop and mobilise marketing campaigns, events calendars and operational plans to maximise occupancy across the portfolio. In a number of instances, this has resulted in achieving 100% occupancy within the first two years of operations.

Prior to joining Cityheart Living, Siân gained student accommodation experience working for Victoria Halls and Host Students, following a role managing marketing campaigns for serviced business centres across the UK.

Sian Evans - Cityheart

Suzy Lockley

Management Accountant

Cityheart’s management accountancy function is led by Suzy, who joined the group in 2022.

Her role incorporates day to day responsibility for financial reporting across a growing number of companies within the Cityheart group.

Suzy’s role covers the production of management accounts, VAT returns, and year-end financial accounts.

Suzy Lockley - Cityheart