Three is a magic number!

Year 1

August 2019 and the new adventure starts with the incorporation of Arbor design Ltd. Branded as ‘More than Architecture’ it was aimed at offered full project support throughout its entirety to professional developers. With a couple of legacy projects on the books the first few months were focused on delivery and business development which started to bear fruit the following January / February when the phone started ringing and new project enquiries were coming through.

A new business is always a risk, but it was starting to pay off then, March 2020, the world closed, and everything stopped. A tough break, but onward and upward, and the larger commercial projects that had been the focus became lots of small domestic projects. No complaints, no regrets, keep looking up 😊

Now, there was plenty of time for training, business, and personal development which saw, as much as it’s possible to re-structure a one-person business & re-structure a new identity. Welcome to Ortus (Greek – meaning a new dawn for anyone interested)

Year 2

Lock downs came and went, and the world started spinning again. No work is ever wasted and the pre-covid networking started, once again, to bear fruit with enquiries coming through for more commercially focused development projects. Lisa Brown of Pebble Properties will forever have a place in the history of Ortus as being the first client to put faith in us with a multi-unit development project at Merrivale Road. https://www.arbordesign.net/post/property-is-a-long-game

A challenging planning application and our first venture into supported living development with an approval for 13 new homes.

Technically the second year of trading (though there is some scope to suggest the first, mostly locked down, year didn’t count) had some real progress with two significant milestones being reached towards the end of it.

An instruction on Northbank House, our first £1M+ project, very exciting and exactly where the business is pitched, followed by a doubling of the workforce. Yes! I said doubling, as Wendy joined the business taking us to two.

Year 3

We kept our focus and determination through two years of disruption and this has lined Ortus up to keep moving forward. New enquiries and a continuing growing workforce have brought us to 5 staff, bigger premises, and a broader project base. Watcombe Park was our first significant housing development with 9 substantial new homes in a parkland setting https://www.arbordesign.net/post/a-picture-paints-1-000-words with more coming through.

Networking and meeting people had always been the beating heart of new projects so, with the demise of so many networking events through the lock downs, we started our own in April 2022. The Property Development Forum is going from strength to strength and we have real ambitions for developing the concept in the future.

So, what’s coming next? It’s been an interesting three years and we’re really pleased with what we’ve achieved so, in many ways, it’s more of the same but with a precarious economy perhaps a period of consolidation.

We have a strong pipeline, a great team and optimistic outlook. A couple of new ventures are taking shape to diversify what we do and we’re looking at some strategic alliances to broaden our scope. The last three years have flown by and we’re still smiling so we’re doing something right. Ortus is looking forward to many new dawns and a bright future.