development founder henry ronson headquarters city of westminster london united kingdom area served uk europe key people ceo gerald ronson website heron international heron international is a british property development company . founded by the ronson family it came to prominence in the 1980s as the uk s second largest private company . 1 after over extending itself in the 1990s it was revived by gerald ronson and has developed a building now known as salesforce tower initially known as heron tower . contents 1 foundations 2 today 2.1 heron plaza 2.2 the heron 3 references 4 external links foundations edit named after current chief executive gerald ronson s father henry ronson heron was a furniture manufacture and sales business . in 1954 aged 15 henry s son gerald joined the family firm and at the age of 17 was put in charge of developing a new factory . when a mail order firm put in an offer for the factory as it was approaching completion heron entered the property market . 2 heron homes became one of the biggest house builders in the south of england . developing into commercial property and office development since the 1960s heron has developed 160 buildings in nine countries . during the 1970s and 1980s heron international sponsored the suzuki factory racing team in grand prix motorcycle racing with riders including barry sheene randy mamola mick grant and rob mcelnea . by the early 1980s heron was one of the largest private companies in the united kingdom with assets of over 1.5 billion . but the company was over extended and after gerald s criminal conviction in the guinness share trading fraud during which time he spent six months in ford open prison 2 by the mid 1990s the company almost collapsed with debts of over 1 billion owed to 11 000 bondholders . 3 the company survived with help from bill gates rupert murdoch craig mccaw oracle corporation s founder larry ellison and others who gave loans to heron . 4 today edit heron tower london now supported by a series of investors heron international is a property development company having developed more than 10 000 000 square metres 110 000 000 sq ft of commercial and retail property and around 15 000 residential units in the uk continental europe and the us with an investment portfolio worth over 500 million . 5 heron plaza edit salesforce tower the 46 storey office and restaurant building in the city of london completed in 2011 forms the centrepiece of the heron plaza development at 110 bishopsgate incorporating new public spaces and a network of squares and gardens . in july 2009 heron international confirmed that it had signed heads of terms with four seasons hotels and resorts to develop a mixed use project as a component of heron plaza . 6 the heron edit the company also developed the heron in london s square mile on the site of milton court . 7 rather than offices the slender 36 storey tower includes 285 luxury apartments . the lower floors of the development incorporate new facilities for the guildhall school of music and drama . 8 at 112m tall the heron s anodised aluminium and steel facade contrasts with the barbican s concrete towers on the other side of silk street . references edit my father my hero . the daily express . london . 25 may 2009 . retrieved 4 february 2016 . a b gerald ronson . management today . retrieved august 17 2010 . hellier david 2 april 1994 . heron group lurches deeper into crisis . the independent . london . retrieved 4 february 2016 . a guy named gerald 2007 interview about us . heron international . retrieved august 17 2010 . http www.propertyweek.com story.asp sectioncode 36 & storycode 3144492 http londonist.com 2010 03 work on second heron tower begins.php http www.redleafpr.com uploads files 2649 100302 the heron launch.pdf external links edit heron international website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title heron international & oldid 715469871 categories companies based in the city of westminsterprivately held companies of the united kingdomproperty companies based in london navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 16 april 2016 at 00 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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