Hamilton brothers build on their father’s legacy
“One thing Dad often used to say is, ‘Don’t tell me why you can’t do it, and how you can’t do it, tell me how you can’.”
It is a lesson that has underpinned the business’s approach to investing in heritage, historical and industrial sites for redevelopment into office and retail space.
“I often tell people, the more problems the better,” Cam says. “They are all the problems that other people won’t take on.”
Andrew agrees about their father’s influence on their mindset.
“He was relentless with his energy. (He was always saying), ‘you can do this, you will do this, this is how the world works’,” he says. AM thinks the “light bulb moment” for his father came from talking to small business people while publishing the Home Builders and Renovators Guide and those he met while doing a New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.
During those times he saw the demand for low-cost business offices.
The success of the initial investment in Pakington St was quickly repeated with another, for a similar amount, at Spring St, Geelong West, in 1997 and the business model that would direct the growth of the group for the next two decades was under way.
Partnering with long-term local investors, cheaper heritage and industrial buildings, sometimes bordering on being derelict, would be bought, improved and refinanced, paving the way for reinvestment in the next project.
“We still have both of those buildings,” Cam says of the original investments.
The brothers cite success stories such as Encompass, a tenant that has grown from leasing 60sq m to 3000sq m at 400 Pakington St, as being indicative of their long-term support for Geelong.
“We offered those spaces, we offered the ability for businesses to grow with cheap but decent office space and that was what was needed,” Cam says.
In hindsight, Cam has a clearer picture of his father’s approach to developing the business through its early phase.
In 1998, unbeknown to his children, David had been given six months to live.
“Dad being sick for a long time, we didn’t know about it, and we sometimes wondered what his thought process was. I think at that stage we were still cutting corners,” Cam says.
“That was all about doing as much as he could while he was still there. He felt he had limited time to set this up.”
Cam had kept engaged with the business, though not always full-time, doing various roles including designing the home renovators magazine.
In 2006, his father called him aside.
“He came to me and said, ‘This is where it is at, I am getting crook, we either sell up or you come and do it’.”
By that stage Cam had, belatedly, followed his two older sisters in becoming an accountant and he acknowledges he always wanted to be involved in the business.
It was he who gradually took the reins, being in full control when his father died from cancer in 2010.
“A lot of people were like, ‘sell up . . . you guys can’t do this by yourself’,” Cam says.
Andrew says the family, especially mum Heather, backed Cam with “whatever he wants to do”.
A loyal band of investors, some of David’s long-time friends, also remained steadfast.
The founder had passed, but the David Hamilton Property Group had established reliable revenue streams and was positioned to grow. HREE years younger than his brother, Andrew has travelled a different path, initially studying design and partnering with his sister in a media business before going on to work in New York, London and Singapore.
Returning to be part of the Geelong business about 18 months ago, he recently became a co-owner and the business has subsequently been rebranded as the Hamilton Group, also recognising the instrumental role Cam’s wife, Penny, has had since 2011.
Experiencing rapid growth in the past three years, the business, which includes partnerships with other key investors, has 17 sites on its books, all in Greater Geelong.
The business model has moved on from the original B and C-grade office space to quality renovations of significant heritage sites, such at Brougham St and the heritage award- winning Federal Mills Park, creating a substantial amount of work for local builders and suppliers.
Key tenants include NAB, the NDIS, GHD, Victoria Police, Ikon Collectables, Runway, LiveTiles, Tribal, Encompass, Wathaurong and Barwon Child, Youth & Family.
The next major development is under way with work started on the old Pilkington’s building and plans submitted for a seven-storey redevelopment of the Powerhouse in Mackey St, with those two sites combining with Federal Mills Park to be known as the Pivot City Innovation District.
In partnership with the Votsaris Group, they have also announced a two-storey rooftop and restaurant extension as part of a reinvention of the former Thomas Jewellers building in the CBD and they are also working on a landmark design for the Bright and Hitchcock building in Moorabool St.
“Local partnerships have been essential to the success of these projects. We have more than 20 investor partnerships going back as long as 30 years,” Cam says.
“These guys, like us, are all in this for the long haul.
“With everything in the pipeline at the moment, we will have another 100 business tenants.”
Over the next five years, the Hamilton Group expects to develop 40,000sq m of office and retail space.
At that stage, Andrew estimates the group will house about 7000 workers, or about 6 per cent of the Geelong workforce. HE brothers are proud of what the business has delivered to Geelong and their excitement for the future is based on what can now be achieved, and their long-term commitment to the city.
They are also convinced the innovation and tech hub they are creating at the Pivot City Innovation District is the right environment for modern business to succeed.
Andrew says to join the business he needed to be able to add value and his history working with start-ups, innovative property developments and major tech companies will be put to use to design, market and operate the innovation district.
“Dad and Cam have built this incredible thing that meets the needs of business in Geelong, we have an amazing opportunity to build on that,” he says.
“We know the potential of what we can do, and are very driven to do these things because of the opportunity for us to have a real impact on the future of Geelong.”