Don St, Middleton & Seaford Rd, Salford

Rock Investment Management/Kellen Homes

Working for Rock Investment Management, NLA was part of the project team which secured a subject-to-detailed-planning deal with Kellen Homes for their extensive developments at Don Street in Middleton, and on the old British Vita site on Seaford Road in Salford, vacant since 2009.

Both projects were designed to deliver a mixed tenure blend of affordable, open-market sale, and private rented sector properties. NLA was also heavily involved in negotiations with the local planning authorities, the Environment Agency and with the Viability Assessment agreements for both schemes.

Halfpenny lane, knaresborough

When Countryside Properties in Yorkshire secured a residential development site off Halfpenny Lane, Knaresborough, Northern Land Agency worked with them to identify a Registered Provider partner.

The brief was to find a partner that combined local stockholdings, extensive local knowledge of the Affordable Housing market and planning landscape, and a successful track record of working with the local planning authority to deliver sites of 100% Affordable Housing.

After less than a month, the NLA team Identified Yorkshire Housing Association as an ideal Registered Provider and agreed a land and construction package between YHA and Countryside Properties. We facilitated negotiations on specification, programme and price, successfully completing contracts, full planning permission and construction related agreements all within six months of first being involved.

Northern Land Agency has always believed that Affordable Housing partnerships are a crucial part of the residential sector. Delivering partnerships, like this Knaresborough project, has become one of our key strengths, something increasingly valuable as the post-Covid housing market cools and tightening mortgage availability and economic headwinds combine to add even further to the need for innovative, ambitious and competitive Affordable Housing.

Our thanks go to the team at Yorkshire Housing Association and at Countryside Properties who were extremely professional and diligent, and played a big part in making this deal run so smoothly.

MELWOOD, WEST DERBY

DEvelopment ADVISORY & APPRAISAL

In late 2020, Torus Developments took ownership of Liverpool Football Club’s former training facility, ‘Melwood’, in West Derby, acquiring the site for redevelopment.

Prior to the acquisition, Tom provided ongoing market, valuation and viability advice and development appraisal modelling, to assist Torus with their purchase of this high profile, community-based regeneration project.

Tom’s involvement meant working with Torus’s full professional team, assisting them in acquiring the site and modelling different tenures, densities and typologies in support of their acquisition strategy.

ROSSFIELD ROAD, ELLESMERE PORT

BUILD-FOR-LAND

In 2019, Torus Developments were seeking a construction partner to deliver a 260-unit residential development on their site at Rossfield Road, Ellesmere Port.

At the same time, Anwyl Homes were looking for additional development sites, following ongoing success at their adjacent Ellesmere Port development.

Aware of the needs of both parties, Tom brokered an innovative land-for-build deal where a proportion of the 19-acre site was transferred from Torus’s ownership to Anwyl to deliver housing for market sale.

In return, Anwyl delivered a building contract for Torus equal to the value of the land they received, resulting in a 50:50 split of the site between the parties and affordable housing on the balance of the site.

Viability in Planning

Over the past four years, Tom has provided expert development viability advice on over 150 separate planning applications and projects, on behalf of landowners, developers, investors, registered providers and the public sector.

During this time he’s been at the forefront of the debate on viability and National Planning Policy on developer contributions…a debate brought about in 2018 by the introduction (and subsequent evolution) of the new NPPF.

During those four years, Tom has acted on schemes ranging from small, bespoke new-build developments and conversion schemes in listed buildings and sensitive settings, through to multi-phase urban extension sites of over 1,000 units, and high-rise city centre developments of over 600 units.

Parkgate, Knutsford

The Tatton Estate

For the Tatton Estate, the emphasis is on key deliverables in terms of quality and specification. For around eight years while at CBRE, Steven and John were retained by the Estate to provide key strategic development advice on delivering surplus land assets for uses including residential, PRS and employment related development.

Steven worked on a number of bases to deliver alternative funding mechanisms and profit share arrangements that would promote good quality development and legacy for the Estate.

Working alongside Mather Jamie, Steven also secured delivery of land for housing at Parkgate Industrial Estate, with a site sale agreed to Bellway Homes for completion in Q2 2021.

Central Retail Park, Manchester

TH Real Estate

TH Real Estate enjoyed the benefit of a long leasehold interest over the entirety of Central Retail Park, a 10 acre site on Great Ancoats Street, with a freehold held by Manchester City Council.

The site holds huge strategic importance for the city and John and Steven, in their previous roles, worked with TH Real Estate, initially to re-gear the freehold interest to allow disposal of the long leasehold for residential-led, mixed-use development.

While re-gear negotiations continued, a soft marketing campaign brought in numerous unconditional offers for the site, before MCC stated their preference to purchase the leasehold, resulting in a re-focusing of the project.

When the sale was agreed, the deal represented the North West’s highest value, single land transaction of the 2010’s.

Pier 7, Salford Quays

TH Real Estate

After the successful disposal of Central Retail Park, John and Steven were re-engaged by TH Real Estate to dispose of Pier 7, Salford Quays, a site with outline planning permission to develop up to 600 residential units and taken to the market on an unconditional basis.

Marketing created interest from regional, national and international developers, leading to an agreed sale price that outperformed the vendors aspirations and, for the first time, brought Royalton, backed by Frogmore, into the North West.

As with Central Retail Park, Pier 7 was held on a long leasehold, with Salford City Council being the freehold beneficiary. John acted as intermediary between the purchaser, the funder and the freeholder, ensuring the long leasehold interest could be re-geared while providing sufficient comfort in planning terms that the scheme could be significantly increased in density.

North Leigh Park, Wigan

Comprising 185 acres of vacant land, surrounded by residential property, North Leigh Park had outline consent for up to 1,800 homes, a local centre, 18 acres of employment land and significant green infrastructure.

But it remained a challenging disposal for Cromwell Property Group due to its size, the complexities of the title, and ground conditions which included significant mine works across large swathes… a process further complicated by the sale being on behalf of an administrator and requiring a single purchaser, on an unconditional sale basis, significantly reducing the market.

Steven advised Crowell on the disposal, meeting all their requirements including a quick, unconditional sale to a single entity, Countryside Properties. From party selection to unconditional exchange took just five weeks and was the largest suburban residential sale in the region in the decade.

FITZROY PARK, DROYLSDEN

Once the home of the now demolished former Robertson’s Jam Factory, NAMA took control of the Fitzroy Park site which had been vacant for some time.

On the back of the outline consent secured on the site, Steven and John were instructed to seek out the best and most promising offers from potential residential developers.

The prime nature and location of the site attracted considerable developer interest leading to several rounds of competitive bidding, ultimately resulting in a record-breaking value deal on unconditional terms.

BEEHIVE, BOLTON

Acting on behalf of SJS, the owner of the Beehive site in Bolton, Steven and John negotiated a deal with PRS operator, Sigma & Countryside, for a rental model delivery of 160 suburban PRS units.

The deal involved a partnership approach, ‘collar and cap’ cost arrangement in respect of building demolition, remediation of the site, and reappraisal for savings in s106 and other viability costs.