Greycoat chairman Peter Thornton has announced his retirement after 38 years at the firm.
Thornton joined Greycoat in 1979, three years after it was founded by Sir Stuart Lipton, Geoffrey Wilson and Ron Spinney. By 1981 he had joined the board and in 1983 he founded Greycoat’s City office, which he ran for nine years.
In 1986 he was promoted to joint managing director with Ron Spinney before becoming chief executive in 1993. Greycoat specialises in central London developments but for 10 years in the 1980s and 1990s it also had a New York office and Thornton oversaw the development of several schemes in New York and Washington. In 1999 he was involved with Merrill Lynch in taking the company private.
In 2003 the management bought out Merrill Lynch and in 2016 the firm raised a new £130m development fund with GIC, Scottish Widows, ING and MN Services and acquired development sites in the City and West End.
Most recently Thornton has worked on the development of 10 Fenchurch Avenue, EC3, a joint venture with Generali Real Estate which topped out in September.
Thornton was replaced as chief executive by Nick Millican in 2012 and became chairman.
“By 2012 we realised that the old Greycoat team, who had been together for more than 20 years, were reaching retirement age and should be replaced with new talent,” he said. “A new and very talented young team has now joined Greycoat and I am delighted to leave the company in excellent hands and wish them every success.”
Thornton will retire at the end of the year but will stay on as consultant for a further three months to see the successful completion of Fenchurch Avenue.
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