Place 100, 2011 – Top 30

Revealing the property people ranked from 1 to 30 by judges in the unique annual power list, in association with MC2.

Our judges this year were Jenny Douglas, director Liverpool Vision; Tom Russell, regeneration consultant, chairman of All Change for Crewe and former chief executive of New East Manchester; Sean Beech, real estate industry partner at Deloitte; Joe Dixon, head of property at MC2; Rita Waters, chief executive of Chester Renaissance; and Paul Unger, editor of Place North West.

Place 100 recognises power, influence on the region's built environment, endurance and those people who have had a strong year.

On Thursday the first 50 were published, listed alphabetically from F to Z. On Friday the top 30 ranked in order and the remaining entrants from 31 to 100 are revealed.

►Place 100, 2011: 31 to 100 A-E

►Place 100, 2011: 31 to 100 F-L

►Place 100, 2011: 31 to 100 M-Z

▼Place 100, 2011: 1 to 30

1 / John Whittaker / Chairman / Peel Group / Development / Trafford. Getting a mention from George Osborne for the Atlantic Gateway £50bn suite of developments down the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal in the Autumn Statement tops another formidable 12 months from the region's leading property developer. It was the year in which Whittaker made a return to the spotlight of the London Stock Exchange after a break of several years since taking Peel private in 2004. Publicly listed Capital Shopping Centres acquired the Trafford Centre in January and Whittaker became the largest single shareholder and deputy chairman of CSC. The BBC moved into Media City and Peel acquired film studios Pinewood Shepperton as Whittaker's interest in media increased. Enterprise Zone status was secured for Liverpool and Wirral Waters. Grant support flowed from the Regional Growth Fund into Port Salford, and strategic development deals were struck with UK Coal and Barratt.

2 / David Pringle / Noma Director / Martyn Hulme / Head of estates / Co-operative Group / Manchester. Having spent the previous 18 months creating and promoting a vision for the transformation of their 20-acre site in Manchester city centre, the Co-operative Group started to deliver its scheme in earnest. Launched in Mipim in March, Noma is central Manchester's next big regeneration project. With various planning permissions secured throughout the year, construction work will start imminently on improvements to the road network, moving the city ring road to the outside of the new 325,000 sq ft headquarters. A new hotel, a renewable energy centre and refurbished office space will all be delivered in 2012.

3 / Media City UK, Trafford and Salford. Judges wanted to recognise the contribution of this peerless project in the Quays. The £500m first phase of the media base opened during the year with an almost endless series of unveilings – Booths supermarket, three BBC buildings, seven TV studios, Salford University, new bridge over the Ship Canal. The Coronation Street set is now on site in Trafford Wharf and rumours about new occupiers continue to emerge. Lead contractor on the project was Lend Lease for Peel Media, with numerous firms involved in the project: Sheppard Robson, S Wright, Urban Vision, Wilkinson Eyre, Benoy, Fairhurst Design Group, Gillespies LLP, Chapman Taylor, Jacobs Engineering UK, Faber Maunsell, Overbury, Capita Symonds, Aecom, and Cyril Sweett.

4 / Steve Parry / Managing director / Neptune Developments / Liverpool. Parry has won praise for the momentum maintained through rough waters at Marine Point, the much-needed development in New Brighton, Wirral. A spate of commercial lettings completed this year, Travelodge opened, consent was gained for new apartments, the Light Cinema opened, and, in December, the Queen paid a visit. In April, Neptune confirmed its reputation for a challenge by agreeing to rescue the former Windsor Developments Liverpool site in the Baltic Triangle area. Plans for a £65m hotel and two apartment blocks will be submitted in the New Year. Neptune also started talks with Cheshire West & Chester Council about a mixed-use development of Chester's historic 18th Century Shot Tower.

5 / Richard Peel / Managing director / Merepark / Development / Altrincham. Regarded by peers as a smart dealmaker, Peel has used several mechanisms to get the £160m Central Village motoring in Liverpool, from inner city VAT breaks to European funding to good old-fashioned bank borrowing. Work is now well underway and the first phases will open in 2012. Leisure operators signed up include Odeon, Prezzo, pan-Asian restaurant Cosmo, Handmade Burger Co. There are 72,000 sq ft of speculative offices, overlooking a new square. More than £26m is being spent refurbishing the historic Lewis's Building. There will be two hotels, a multi-storey car park pre-let to Q Park. And three new floors of shops and restaurants built above the busy Liverpool Central Station in agreement with Network Rail and Merseytravel. Difficult stuff, well executed, our judges agreed.

6 / Chris Oglesby / Chief executive / Bruntwood / Offices / Manchester. Secured the second major bank funding deal in five years, raising £200m from a club of Barclays Real Estate, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC. Consent was granted in February for the conversion of the former Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester into biomedical research space and in April the scheme won grant support from the Regional Growth Fund. Bruntwood followed this by agreeing a deal with Manchester Business School to redevelop its dated home nearby. In the meantime, lettings remained as impressive as ever, securing Indian outsourcing giant Aegis for 40,000 sq ft at City Tower in Manchester, and, in Liverpool, law firm Weightmans for 90,000 sq ft at the Plaza.

7 / David Partridge / Chief executive / Argent / Development. Completing the 62,000 sq ft pre-let to KPMG at One St Peter's Square in Manchester enabled Argent and Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund to start work on the 210,000 sq ft office building, arguably the largest speculative office building outside London currently under construction. Argent is established now as one of the city's more prolific developers. However, it has not had it all its own way; in November, Eric Pickles rejected the Compulsory Purchase Order application with Manchester City Council at London Road Fire Station in Piccadilly area.

8 / Steve Morgan / Chairman / Redrow / House building / Deeside. Morgan saw pre-tax profit rocket from £700,000 to £25m in the past year, on improved turnover of £452.7m. The surge was put down to the success of a new range of Arts & Crafts-inspired family houses, mainly detached and semi-detached. Average price also rose, reaching £174,000, and will rise further as the house builder targets premium locations where land is inevitably more expensive. Redrow has followed many to London and the South East, closing in Scotland and reorganising regional management. Redrow has ten sites live in the North West.

9 / Matt Crompton / Joint managing director / Muse Developments / Salford. Has enjoyed a fruitful downturn in much the same way as its previous incarnation, Amec Developments, did the early-1990s recession. Muse, now part of the cash-rich Morgan Sindall group, was successful in securing Regional Growth Fund support for a new headquarters for manufacturer Mono Pumps in Ashton Moss in April. In June, Muse was named preferred developer at Warrington Bridge Street, a £130m retail-led scheme. Work is due to start in 2013. Completed 109,000 sq ft of offices at 4 St Paul's Square, in Liverpool, the final building in the development by the English Cities Fund JV with Legal & General Property and Homes & Communities Agency. Detailed negotiations with Santander are ongoing over letting 14,000 sq ft at 4 St Paul's Square. In August, Muse secured a development opportunity with Cheshire West & Chester Council for a new 500,000 sq ft business district valued at £115m around the train station. A planning application is expected in early 2012. In Blackpool, Muse submitted plans for initial phases of a £220m development, a car park and an office building, as well as signing Sainsbury's. The year ends with Muse beating rivals in Stockport to win a 400,000 sq ft office scheme at Grand Central. Any one of these projects alone could have got a developer onto the Place 100.

10 / Mike Ingall / Chief executive / Allied London / Development. Ingall's ceaseless drive shows in the management of the space at his synonymous Spinningfields development in central Manchester. Outdoor films, ice rink, pop-up ten pin bowling alleys, fashion villages… The city council will be keeping an eye on development in 2012 as start-on-site deadlines written into a £15m sale-and-leaseback in 2010 of remaining plots to Allied start to loom. The Avenue, high-end retail, is now fully let but largely devoid of shoppers, must also perform. Smaller in-fill development continued this year, with refurbishment of offices on the fringe, and opening of basement restaurant Australasia and pub the Oast House, both to runaway success under the management of Living Ventures.

11 / Yousef Tishbi / Owner / Realty Estates / Manchester. Surprised many by pipping Bruntwood, Downing and Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund to acquire New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in Manchester from the BBC. Tishbi is known more for holding assets than developing them. He will be expected by city leaders to deliver and quickly. The 5.4-acre site could take a number of uses in busy prime university land. Student housing above fast food and convenience retail are most likely. Incubator offices and labs are equally needed in the area. At a separate site, the long-held Gateway House next to Piccadilly Station, Tishbi finally submitted plans for a 270-bed hotel and said talks with hotelier are at an advanced stage.

12 / Paul Bolton and Simon Matthews-Williams / Founding directors / Sanguine Hospitality / Hotel development. In five years, Bolton and Matthews-Williams have opened ten hotels and started construction of a further eight. Bolton developed and sold Charlton Homes for £8m in 2002 to McInerney Holdings of Ireland. Matthews-Williams brought the Crowne Plaza to Liverpool in the mid-1990s, before regeneration was even heard of in the city. The franchisee operates several brands including Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Express and Hampton by Hilton. A Hotel Indigo next to Victoria Station will be among the first phases of the Co-operative Group's Noma development in Manchester next year.

13 / Matthew Weiner / Investment director / Development Securities. London-based DevSec continues to focus on Manchester as a key strategic region. The owners of the MEN Arena raised £200m of shareholder equity in 2009 and 2010 to spend on secondary assets ripe for active asset management and redevelopment. In 2011, Development Securities acquired two assets in Manchester completing their first student housing deal with the purchase of Ladybarn House from Manchester University for £7m and more recently acquiring a portfolio of assets from Citybranch that includes the Chorlton Cross Shopping Centre. In Hale Barns, planning was secured in March 2011 for a redeveloped scheme that will include a 30,000 sq ft Booths, 12,000 sq ft of smaller retail units and 24 apartments – completion is due in early 2013. Development Securities also acquired a leisure complex, Hollywood Park in Burnley, at the end of 2010 and this year submitted planning to develop a new restaurant on this site.

14 / Simon Marshall / Chairman / Commercial Development Projects. Turnover at the Yorkshire-based developer dipped to £33.9m in 2010 from £57.5m in 2009, profit remaining flat at £1.5m. Net assets rose slightly to £159.6m. The widely liked, media-shy 48-year-old fronts the family firm founded in 1901. CDP is bouncing back after suffering a tough recession largely due to the unravelling of a £44m speculative office fund with Pinder Fry & Benjamin when the latter went into administration in 2009, breaching loan covenants with National Australia Bank. Marshall has decent assets all around the patch such as offices in Birchwood and Daresbury and he continues to do deals on realistic terms. Manchester's city centre workforce awaits the opening of Jamie's Italian in Marshall's Midland Bank building at the top of King Street, scheduled for early 2012.

15 / Callum Tuckett / Business unit leader / Laing O'Rourke Construction North. Firmly embedded in reshaping the capital of the North through major contracts with Transport for Greater Manchester on the expansion of the Metrolink tram network, building houses for Countryside Properties in Salford, and the £95m refurbishment of Central Library and the Town Hall Extension, due for completion in 2014.

16 / Miles Dunnett and Chris Bliss / Head of asset management and estate director / Grosvenor Liverpool Fund and Liverpool One. Three years on, Grosvenor continues to work a brand of urban magic at the 1.65m sq ft retail-led development. Habitat went, Harvey Nichols arrived. When House of Fraser launched a click-and-collect pilot, it chose Liverpool One for the first store in England. Whilst Dunnett does the deals, Bliss and his team actively manage the public space with a constant festival of fashion shows, live music, band appearances and visiting attractions on Chavasse Park. The effect L1 has had on the psyche of Liverpool – not just retail but rippling into tourism, arts, and business – is profound. The challenge is for the rest of the city to raise its game to match.

17 / Peter Jones / Chairman / Emerson Group / Development and Investment / Alderley Edge. Jones heads one of the largest privately owned property development companies in the UK. The three principal divisions are Jones Homes, Orbit Developments, and Emerson International, with a collective turnover of £157.3m for the year to 30 April 2011. The UK commercial property portfolio consists of around 6.3m sq ft with a further 1m sq ft in Florida. Jones Homes UK completed 250 homes last year. Orbit Developments remodelled 133,000 sq ft of offices at Park Square in Cheadle, where it has capacity for further buildings of 45,000 and 55,000 sq ft.

18 / David Russell / Chairman / Property Alliance Group / Development and investment / Trafford. The two-year-old joint venture with Moorfield Estates made its first acquisition, Towers office park in Didsbury, totalling 300,000 sq ft. Alliance set up APAM asset management business with London-based Cooke & Powell. A Premier Inn hotel scheme in Manchester's Piccadilly was sold to British Steel Pension Fund in January. More than 365,000 sq ft of leases, including new deals and renewals, were completed in the past 12 months.

19 / Iain Jenkinson / Senior director of planning, development and regeneration / GVA / Surveying, planning, economic consulting / Manchester. Promoted this year and now heading a team of 30 since predecessor Gerry Hughes relocated to London. Wins this year include council-backed urban regeneration vehicle All Change for Crewe, with Cheshire East Council. The team is also working on the One City Plan for Chester with Cheshire West & Chester Council, the Mersey Gateway second crossing and Peel's Ince Marshes biomass energy plant in Cheshire. GVA is advising Igloo Regeneration and Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets, with local authorities, to bring the £60m Jessica Merseyside programme to market, due to launch shortly.

20 / George Downing / Ann Lodge / Sally O'Brien / Owners / Downing Developments / Liverpool. It was a relatively quiet year for the Downing siblings but judges felt the name remains one of the most prominent on the region's top table. Downing claims a £500m investment portfolio though figures for the business are hard to come by, assets being registered in Jersey. Domestically, George Downing Construction showed a slight profit on turnover of £16m in 2010. Downing Property Services, a management company looking after its portfolio including student beds, is also profitable and produced revenue of £1.8m last year. Highlights of 2011 were mainly outside the region; development debut in London, advancing Downing Plaza in Newcastle city centre, revealing plans for a second student tower in Leeds. In Liverpool, the group revealed it was inviting offers for The Capital – Liverpool's largest office building, let to UK Border Agency and RSA Group.

21 / Sheikh Mansour / Owner / Manchester City FC. There are big hopes for the Etihad Campus, the 80-acre development next to the club's ground in northeast Manchester. The high-profile nature of the scheme inevitably attracts critics – can football facilities regenerate a deprived neighbourhood? The club insists it will be a more rounded development than training ground and youth academy but details remain scarce. So far, the local community will get 5.5 acres which could be a sixth form centre, recreation centre or medical science facility. Lucrative Middle East connections such as with club sponsor Etihad Airways have fuelled aspirations for bigger and better schemes to come Manchester's way from the young Sheikh's deep pockets.

22 / Stuart Wall / Owner / Opal Property Group / Development and construction / Manchester. Opal employs more than 500 people, produced £113m turnover, and had a net asset value of £246m in the year to October 2010. The business boasts a 10% share of the UK's student accommodation market, with 20,000 rooms in 16 towns and cities. Wall wants Opal to move into non-student commercial development as he sees the market opening up for cash-rich developers. The construction division is one of the biggest builders of student accommodation directly for university clients in the region.

23 / Simon Bedford / Partner and head of office / Drivers Jonas Deloitte Manchester / Surveying. DJ advised this year on the 150,000 sq ft redevelopment of office building Brazennose House for Prupim in Manchester, the Airport City master-plan for Manchester Airports Group, and the Etihad Campus by Manchester City FC. Bedford says: "Reflections regarding what has been achieved in 2011 are likely to focus on the foundations that have been laid for future success, rather than 'missions accomplished'. While the market has in no way returned to pre-recession levels of activity, what's in the pipeline suggests we may see spikes of activity over the next 12 months. KMPG's confirmation that it will be taking a 62,000 sq ft pre-let at Argent's 1 St Peter's Square scheme will mean a shot in the arm for the market, and Pannone's expected relocation in Manchester by spring 2014 could well result in further development in the city. Likewise, Ask's Greengate Embankment scheme in Salford, and the planned regeneration of the cultural quarter at First Street will spark movement elsewhere in the city."

24 / Stephen Hodder / Chairman / Hodder + Partners / Architecture / Manchester. Landmarks define cities, and Manchester is getting another in the shape of a second skyscraper to twin with the Beetham Tower of 301 Deansgate, viewable on the route into Manchester from seemingly any angle. Fees from the 520-bed £45m tower for Student Castle next to Oxford Road train station have helped Hodder + Partners ride out the downturn when so many other architecture practices have closed. The firm also designed the redevelopment of Gateway House in Piccadilly for Realty Estates, currently awaiting a planning decision. Hodder is a keen supporter of Places Matter! Design Review and the RIBA in the North West.

25 / John Shannon / Regional business unit director / Wates / Construction. Won a raft of work awarded through the North West Construction Hub including Toxteth Fire Fit, a combined fire station and fitness centre, worth £4.8m; Pensby Primary £11m, Lion Salt Works £8m, and the University of Salford Chapman Building, £4.6m. Wates is working for four of the region's largest universities – University of Liverpool, on the £13m Central Teaching Laboratory, University of Manchester's £12m Learning Commons and £3m Williamson Building, Liverpool John Moores University's £19.5m Mount Pleasant Campus and £1.2m Byrom Street Lecture Theatre and the University of Salford's £4.6m Chapman Building. Wates also replaced Rok as the contractor partner in the Inspiral Consortium appointed to deliver the £130m Oldham Gateways housing scheme.

26 / Steve Byrne / Regional director / BAM Construction / Salford. Selected by Bolton Council to build the new £11.7m Kearsley Academy in September, one of the larger wins this year whilst procurement remains quiet. Small jobs have kept the contractor in touch with key clients such as Manchester University and BAE Systems in Lancashire. BAM will hand over the Co-operative Group's new headquarters, One Angel Square in Manchester, in 2012. The Mann Island scheme for Neptune and Countryside also completes next year. Work will start on site with a new facility at Aintree Hospital in 2012. The Salford office serves other regions as well and won a hotel contract in Nottingham in recent weeks.

27 / Richard Smith and Gary Willis / Directors and heads of office / Gifford / Civil engineering / Chester and Manchester. Gifford designed Mersey Gateway, the £600m six-lane toll bridge that will be the second crossing of the River Mersey when it opens to traffic in 2016. The major infrastructure project had its funding protected by government despite widespread austerity measures elsewhere. Tenders started coming out in the past 12 months for site remediation and testing in the Widnes and Runcorn area where the bridge will cross. Another high profile crossing, on a different scale, the pedestrian bridge in Media City UK between Salford Quays and Trafford Wharf, was installed this year.

28 / Gavin Elliott / Director / BDP / Architecture / Manchester. During its 50th anniversary year BDP maintained its position as the region's largest design practice. A new Shanghai studio run out of Manchester has already secured projects. Other international commissions include two new schools in Qatar. Back here, construction finally began on the main phase of Lancashire County Cricket Club's redevelopment of Old Trafford cricket ground, with other projects currently in their design stages including the Manchester Business School & the Merrion Centre Leeds. The studio also designed the Music Boxes shipping container installation at Media City UK in Salford as part of the Manchester International Festival.

29 / Ken Bishop / Senior director / Surveying / Manchester. With occupier markets somewhat quiet of late, Bishop has been pulled in by clients preparing the next wave of office developments, such as Stockport Council's Grand Central site. He was one of several promoted in March, along with Mike Mitchell, John Downes and Bruce Poizer in recognition of their "significant contribution and consistently high performance relating to revenue generation and management".

30 / Tom Bloxham / Chairman / Urban Splash / Development and investment / Manchester and Liverpool. As recognisable as any property person in the North, if not the country. Judges felt Splash's development slowdown in the North West should be reflected in a lower ranking but still inside the top 30, just. Most of the headlines this year have been with the remarkable transformation of Park Hill across the Pennines in Sheffield. Closer to home, Bloxham has concentrated his staff on residential and commercial lettings. He remains a super-connected player in the arts world, as a Tate trustee and chairman of the architectural competition for Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery extension, for instance.