Stephen Beech said his company will continue to buy historic Manchester buildings, after landing a significant win at the EN North West Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. The 38-year-old was named Property Entrepreneur of the Year in front of hundreds of people who piled into The Mere Golf & Spa Resort in Knutsford to see a raft of companies pick up awards.

Following the award win Stephen, whose company takes unloved city centre buildings and turns them into residential apartments, said 2016 has so far been a “pivotal” year in the Beech Holdings story.

He said: “It’s a real honour to win this award as I’m fully aware of the people who have received this accolade in previous years.

“Beech Holdings, the parent company of Beech Construction, Beech Properties and Manchester Apartments, is going through a period of strong growth and has a gross development pipeline of over £150m.

“We invested £1m in new headquarters for our 90 members of staff on Oxford Street this summer and were lucky enough to have Manchester Council Chief Executive Sir Howard Bernstein speak at our launch party.”

He added that next year will be another big 12 months for Beech Holdings.

“We will continue with our aim of becoming the biggest and best residential landlord in Manchester by collectively pushing to buy, build, let then manage more significant city-centre buildings containing carbon neutral high-end apartments.”

Stephen’s Property Entrepreneur of the Year win at the EN North West Entrepreneur of the Year Awards comes after Beech Holdings was crowned the overall national winner of the 2016 Local Business Accelerators scheme earlier this year.