Commercial Property Experience
Parc Derwen, Bridgend
Acting for the Consortium comprising the Welsh
Government, Gallagher Estates, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey on the
Parc Derwen village project in Bridgend. The sensitive scheme
with a capital value of £225 million has been designed to create “a
village for the 21st century” with “an interconnected network of
“people-friendly” streets to encourage walking and cycling and open
green spaces, parkland and formal and informal play areas”.
The 200 acre site will provide 1,500 new homes a small shopping
centre, community centre and a new primary school for 330 pupils
with 30 nursery places. The Hugh James team are advising on
title, property and construction documents, consortium documents,
planning and infrastructure agreements.
Barry
Waterfront
Acting for a Consortium of Taylor Wimpey,
Persimmon and Barratt Homes on the acquisition of the Barry
Waterfront Site. The transaction involves the acquisition of
the 41 hectare Barry Waterfront Site. The complicated nature of the
transaction is structured with a view to ensuring the Consortium
achieve Eco Homes Excellent rating for all new homes, BREEAM
Excellent rating for all commercial units and carbon neutral status
by 2011. This prominent scheme will see the continued
regeneration of the Barry Waterfront Area with 2000 new homes and
around 300,000 sq ft of commercial and leisure facilities.
Ffos Las
Racecourse
Acting on behalf of Ffos Las Limited (part of
the Walters Group) in connection with the new racecourse
development in Carmarthenshire, one of only three racecourses in
Wales, and the first National Hunt course to be completed in
Britain for over 80 years. The 600 acre complex is situated near
Trimsaran, in West Wales, on what used to be the largest open cast
mining site in Europe. Peter Hurn has dealt with all aspects of the
Site including a sale of residential land to Persimmon Homes and
all infrastructure and planning agreements. The site provides for
an all-weather, oval track one mile and four furlongs in length, in
line with Jockey Club specifications, and will host both National
Hunt and Flat racing meetings. The racecourse is expected to create
over 100 jobs and bring up to £600 million pounds into the local
economy and the first race has been scheduled for June 2009.
Watkin Jones Group, Victoria
Dock, Caernarfon
This involved a regeneration project with
the Welsh Government and the redevelopment of Victoria Dock,
Caernarfon. This is a high profile mixed residential and commercial
development overlooking the Menai Straits. The scheme involves the
building of 50 eco-friendly apartments and maisonettes, two hotels
and various commercial opportunities and office lets, including
S4C, a Celtic retail centre, doctors surgery and crèche
facilities.
In a twelve month period between 2007 and
2008 the commerical property team sold circa £250,000,000
worth of student schemes and acquired sites the length and breadth
of the UK for future student accommodation. Some of the schemes
have been bought, developed and retained, others have been bought,
developed and sold whilst some have been bought and forward sold.
The average acquisition price of the land is in the region of
£5,000,000 and the average sale price is about circa
£30,000,000.
In addition to the student
accommodation, the team continues to work on mixed
commercial/retail schemes which involve not just development work
but also landlord and tenant.
WRU Centre of Excellence
Acting on behalf of the Welsh Rugby Union in
connection with the two million pound Centre of Excellence at the
Vale Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort in Hensol near Llantrisant, which
boasts the best national team preparation facilities in world
rugby. The Indoor Arena, and the office accommodation will
now be used to exclusively house Welsh Rugby Union teams and
backroom staff, while three, new, full size pitches will be laid
for exclusive use of Welsh Rugby Union teams, along with two half
pitches and a new artificial, 3G pitch inside the Indoor Arena.
The project was the result of a three way
partnership, with investment from the Welsh Rugby Union, Leekes,
the owners of the Vale Resort, and the Sports Council for Wales who
have allocated a £1.5 million National Lottery grant into the
project. To meet exacting deadlines, the transaction
exchanged within 7 days of receipt of contract papers and completed
at the end of October 2008.