About
A developer that stays.
Since 2009 Corbel has built homes, renewed ageing neighbourhoods and opened a hotel on the seafront. The people who start a building with us are still there when the keys are handed over, and for years after.
Our story
It started with one corner plot.
Corbel began with a single corner plot in the Old Town. Miriam Okafor had spent fifteen years delivering public housing and wanted to build homes the way she would want to live in them: generous windows, real balconies, stairs you are happy to use.
Today we develop homes, rebuild ageing blocks with their residents and build the occasional hotel, all with one in-house team of architects, engineers and site managers. We take on fewer projects than we could, so the people who start a building are still there to finish it.
Principles
Four things we don’t compromise on.
01
Build for decades
Stone, brick, timber and glass that weather well, and details that can be repaired rather than replaced.
02
Residents before plans
In every renewal, the people who live there see and vote on the plan before the design is fixed.
03
One team throughout
The architects, engineers and site managers who start a project are the ones who hand over the keys.
04
Say what it costs
Fixed prices, fixed dates and written answers. If something changes, buyers and residents hear it from us first.
Milestones
One building at a time.
The projects that changed how we work, in the order they happened.
Corbel is founded
Miriam Okafor sets up Corbel with four colleagues and one site in the Old Town: twenty-two apartments around a shared garden.
Our first renewal
Forty households in two 1950s blocks vote to rebuild with us. Every family is offered a new home on the same street, and every one of them accepts.
Hotel Solenne opens
Our first hotel: 140 rooms on the seafront, with a garden terrace and a restaurant that opens onto the promenade.
Courtyard Commons completes
Four 1960s blocks in the West End rebuilt around one courtyard. 64 of the 96 homes go back to the families who lived there before.
Under construction
Harbour Row completes
Two towers and a public quay on the old ferry wharf. The east tower topped out in July; the first residents move in next spring.
Leadership
The people who sign off every building.
Six people lead our development, design, construction, renewal and investor teams. Each of them is on a site at least once a week.
Careers
Build the next one with us.
We are hiring architects, engineers and people who are good at sitting at a kitchen table with residents. See the roles open now.
