Matt Wilkins

Matt Wilkins is a property consultant and developer credited with the preservation of Old Buckenham Airport.

Property career
Wilkins worked at FPDSavills (now Savills) based in Canary Wharf in the early 2000's In 2005 Wilkins became the first Sales and Marketing Director of Donal Mulryan's West Properties. Amongst the projects built by West Properties in Manchester was a building called Lumiere with a 50m swimming pool on the 18th storey By 2007 Wilkins had become one of two partners of Trinity Quays LLP, a company which purchased an important site in the centre of Kingston upon Hull opposite The Deep (aquarium). Initially Trinity Quays achieved planning permission for a 30m tall building with apartments, offices, restaurants and shops. In 2009 a fresh planning permission was approved, which increased the height of the project to 20 storeys and incorporated a Millennium & Copthorne Hotels hotel, apartments and restaurants. The scheme was quoted as having a value of £50 million.

Wymondham Salerooms Limited
In January 2011 Wilkins created Wymondham Salerooms, an auction house in Wymondham, Norfolk The first auction took place on 17 February 2011 and the turnout was described as "Exceptional" by Wilkins. However by May 2011 Wymondham Salerooms had ceased holding auctions amidst rumours of relocating under "mystery new owners". In August 2011 Wilkins reported that "work was still being carried out on the new, “much bigger” venture" and that “I’m in the process of finalising something very new and different interlinked with the salerooms but the auction side of it has taken a back seat. It will be several months before something happens but it will be extremely different from what we had before. It will be far more significant to the local community than the auction was.” By the end of August 2011 it was being reported that the return of Wymondham Salerooms was "On hold indefinitely" amidst reports in the EDP that customers and suppliers had not been paid In May 2012 Wymondham Salerooms Limited (07398605) was dissolved.

On 3 March 2014 Wilkins was ordered to pay £6,716.97 in unpaid rent and costs to Circuit Consultants (Norwich) Ltd Pension Plan by District Judge Airey sitting in the Norwich Small Claims Court.

Old Buckenham Airport
In August 2011 it was announced that Wilkins had taken over the management of Old Buckenham Airport formerly RAF Old Buckenham. Old Buckenham Airport was in the ownership of Donal Mulryan's West Properties where Wilkins had previously worked.

Wilkins announced the return of the Old Buckenham Airshow and was the Airshow Organiser In 2013, in collaboration with a military museum based at the airfield, Wilkins organised and promoted Military Revival. A sequence of promotional videos were released featuring Wilkins, showing a Citroen van being destroyed by a FV180 Combat Engineer Tractor and a later video showing a lawn mower being flattened by a World War 2 unexploded German bomb. Wilkins made a variety of improvements at Old Buckenham Airport, such as a new War Memorial Garden.

During 2012 the airfield had become the property of Morgan Stanley as part of a portfolio of properties with loans which were being administrated by NAMA from whom Morgan Stanley purchased the debt. Wilkins sold the airfield on behalf of Morgan Stanley in June 2013. Since the sale Wilkins has continued to run the airfield, and in January 2014 oversaw the building of new hangars. In November 2013 Touchdown Aero Centre Limited, the operating company of Old Buckenham Airport, was placed in liquidation having been run by Wilkins for two years.