Capital Ventures

We are entrepreneurial developers and placemakers who create long-term value for people, places and projects.

Welcome to Sir Robert McAlpine Capital Ventures. We are a developer, investor and operator with over 25 years of experience and have completed over 50 major projects.

We deliver built environment and placemaking solutions tailored to the needs of people and locations. From places people choose to live and relax to schools and colleges educating future generations. From hospitals caring for thousands of patients to roads used by millions of motorists, our purpose is to improve people’s everyday lives.

We listen first and focus on how organisations and places must work to create positive human outcomes from development. This ensures we find the right funding and delivery route for each project and combine our development capabilities with construction expertise to make the places that matter.

Whether projects involve design, construction, financing or ongoing operation, we can call on specialist teams with a history of successfully working together, creating long-term, sustainable solutions for every vision.

 

A19 named England’s No1 road

The Strategic Roads User Survey 2023/24, which is carried out annually by independent watchdog Transport Focus, voted the A19 the best “A” road in England, achieving the highest overall satisfaction rate of 85%.

The survey questioned over 9,000 road users about their recent journeys on motorways or major ‘A’ roads managed by National Highways, serving as a formal measure of user satisfaction and highlighting the exceptional performance of the A19 in the process.  

A crew performing routine maintenance on the A19 during daylight

Our capabilities

We manage:

  • Design
  • Project manage
  • Development processes
  • Construction
  • Procurement and resources
  • Assets and facilities

We deliver:

  • Equity investment
  • Finance & funding solutions
  • Master planning
  • The development business case
  • Placemaking strategy
  • Stakeholder management
  • Community liaison

We take responsibility for:

  • Sustainability and carbon efficiency
  • Short and long-term social value creation
  • Collaborative partnership working

 

collage of projects

 

We have completed over 50 major projects, proudly working in partnership with the public and private sectors.

Private sector

We identify, buy and develop sites for projects, including:

Public sector

We design, build, finance and maintain facilities for infrastructure projects, including:

  • Student Accommodation
  • Build to Rent
  • Hotels
  • Care Homes
  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Transport
  • Housing

 

 

27 years of achievements and key moments

Capital Ventures timeline

Our approach

We work flexibly, take on the challenging and bring imagination to every project and place we make. Our approach is defined by:

Entrepreneurial thinking

We identify, secure and deliver opportunities that align with our creativity, flexibility and innovative approaches to optimising outcomes.

Considered execution

Our open-minded ethos enables us to select projects and partnerships that align with our development principles and identify value regardless of development type, location or use.

These seven development principles underpin our long-term approach to development and placemaking:

  • Always focus on human outcomes
    We think in experiences

  • Respect heritage, understand culture, connect to community
    We have a relentless attitude to quality

  • Create simple solutions in complex situations
    We approach challenges with creativity

  • Prepared to take calculated risks
    We are financial innovators

  • Deliver social value as part of profit and returns
    We make places that make meaningful contributions

  • Protect resources, and minimise environmental harm
    We make sustainability a key to everything we do

collage of student wood working and external city of glasgow college

What matters to us

Developing with pride. Making places that matter

We are a purpose-driven developer who believes development and the built environment are platforms to improve people's everyday lives and their community's successes.

Our guiding principles of honesty, integrity, passion, and innovation underpin this purpose and support our total commitment to collaboration and meaningful relationships.

These beliefs run deep in our culture, influencing decision-making but allowing us the freedom to build an extensive development portfolio in creative and imaginative ways.

They drive the behaviours and attitude every project and partner can expect from our team:

Our projects

Our live, learn, leisure, health and infrastructure projects are defined by four pillars that embody the driving principles of social value and sustainability.

Comprehensive placemaking
Innovation and imagination in planning, design and management to connect people to places that communities value.

Value creation
Experience and expertise in identifying, buying, and optimising a site's potential to create investment returns and positive human outcomes.

Responsible thinking
Care and consideration for the places where we work, the people we work with and development that minimises harm to our planet.

Long-term commitments
Ability and attitude to create management and operational platforms that make places work and stay connected to their users' needs and expectations.

Developing with pride

Our team

Our team has been established for a long time. We have a unique chemistry built on shared beliefs and an understanding that the project outcome is more significant than any individual.

Our beliefs and commitments

  • A relentless attitude to quality
  • A determination to solve challenges
  • A focus on listening and uncovering insight
  • A connection to the human outcome of development
  • A commitment to partnership and shared responsibility

Meet the team collage

  1. Robert Wotherspoon

    Robert Wotherspoon

    Industry perspective: “We always seek to collectively raise the bar and challenge every standard. If we focus on embedding quality in every aspect of development, we can manage whole life costs and deliver the sustainability we aim to achieve.”

    Proudest moments: “Delivering the first PPP in Bermuda. We embraced a different culture, adapted and created a hospital making a real difference.”

  2. Olivia McAlpine

    Olivia McAlpine

    Industry perspective: "Our opportunity is to create a built environment to enhance today’s society whilst future-proofing for generations to come. If we focus on this balance, we can create real, sustainable legacies."

    Proudest moment: “Seeing the dedication and hard work of our team make our Springfield Hospital project a new and needed milestone in effective mental health care and improved awareness."

  3. David Honeyman

    David Honeyman

    Industry perspective: “Almost every aspect of development and placemaking is reliant on relationships. These will be the most effective when we share objectives and pull together to create a trust that builds value.”

    Proudest moment: "Every time the team celebrates a success or does something they are proud of is a proud moment for me.”

  4. Owain Thomas

    Owain Thomas

    Industry perspective: “Too often, end users, owners, investors, developers, and contractors have conflicting interests. Building long-lasting relationships that align everyone’s interests will ultimately create places that matter to live and spend time."

    Proudest career moment: “The privilege of working with a hugely talented team to deliver a genuinely best-in-class build-to-rent neighbourhood in the UK.”

  5. David Hosken

    David Hosken

    Industry perspective: “The industry has a responsibility to adapt the way we work and the legacy we leave.”

    Proudest moment: “Handing over four schools in Newcastle in one day after our team’s dedicated work over three years.”

  6. Harriet Gladwell-Phillips

    Harriet Gladwell-Phillips

    Industry perspective: “Places are fundamental to life experiences and wellbeing. The industry takes its opportunity to create cohesive environments that support living, learning and working communities.”

    Proudest moment: “Achieving Financial Close on our Springfield project working with multiple parties and at least six sets of lawyers!"

  7. John Parnell

    John Parnell

    Industry perspective: “After people themselves, the built environment is the most critical part of society’s fabric. We have a huge responsibility and opportunity to get it right now to protect future generations.”

    Proudest moment: “Delivering The Cycle Works which transformed an old garage in a run-down inner-city location in Coventry into a vibrant student accommodation village.”

  8. Chris Lane

    Chris Lane

    Industry perspective: “Many amazing places exist because of opportunities created by developers. However, we must be responsible for creating and evolving efficiently and sustainably.”

    Proudest moment: “Developing a forensic lessons learned exercise on pre-contract process that is shaping our ongoing project approach.”

  9. Alan Austwick

    Alan Austwick

    Industry perspective: “Being a developer is about far more than just creating a building, place or space. Every environment should delight the eye and contribute positively to its environment and people’s lives."

    Proudest moment: “Having two of our completed schemes on the final short list for the Stirling Prize.”

Capital Ventures in the news

  1. A19 named England’s No1 road

    08 Nov 2024

    The Strategic Roads User Survey by Transport Focus highlights the remarkable success of the A19 DBFO Project.

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  2. New building for Kingsmeadow Community School

    19 Jun 2024

    Sir Robert McAlpine Capital Ventures (SRMCV), in partnership with Pinnacle Schools (Gateshead) Limited, is proud to announce the construction of a cutting-edge 6th Form building at Kingsmeadow Community School.

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  3. New life for Monkwearmouth Hospital as redevelopment completes

    14 May 2024

    The new modern building within the grounds of the existing hospital provides a welcoming, accessible front entrance to the main outpatient facilities.

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