Regeneration of North Street Quarter, Lewes. Planning and Development Consultancy leading to site sale.
Protected planning value via implementation. Comprehensive marketing campaign for best value, Negotiations and transaction management.
Residential Development Case Study - North Street Quarter Ltd
17.3
acres
Brownfield site earmarked for residential development
416
residential dwellings
plus new health hub, public square, commercial uses and underground public car park
14
bids received
unconditional sale secured April 2021, with a staged payment
Challenge
We were appointed to advise North Street Quarter Limited (NSQL) part way through a project to regenerate a 17-acre brownfield site in Lewes, East Sussex, following a change in ownership.
At that point, the site had a hybrid planning consent for 416 dwellings, a health hub, café and associated public realm, but development terms with Lewes District Council, who owned part of the site, had not been agreed.
Our client, NSQL, wished to dispose of their interest in the land and we supported in them in achieving this.
How we helped
- Brought together a multi-disciplinary team to advised NSQL
- Agreed land collaboration terms with Lewes District Council as the second largest landowner
- Adopted a disposal strategy enabling our client to sell their interest unconditionally prior to Lewes District Council concluding the sale of their land
- Provided strategic planning advice and political engagement in the face of negative public opinion, all the while, managing differing objectives and timescales between landowners
- Delivered efficiencies of process, ensuring reports and documentation were used for both planning (with collateral warranties) and the subsequent marketing of the site
- Led on the preparation of a dataroom (hosted by the lawyers) to assist the sale
- Undertook a comprehensive marketing campaign targeting all the relevant market sectors
- Discharged pre-commencement conditions and demolished a building on behalf of our client to secure an extant planning consent for the later phases, to enable the unconditional sale.
Results
- A comprehensive, high-quality marketing campaign resulted in 14 bids for the site, and its unconditional sale in 2021
- Thanks to our relationships with and knowledge of the local authority planners, we protected our client from emerging CIL, a 50% affordable housing threshold and other sustainability requirements that would have made the scheme unviable
- The success of this disposal was driven by the collaboration between our development, planning and agency teams and the various stakeholders involved.
Get in touch
If you think you may need similar support to that described here, or you would simply want to have an informal chat with a member of our team to discuss your property needs, get in touch.
CrawleyLondonWoking
London
WokingCrawley
