growing development value

communityfinancialenvironmentalcultural

To be considered successful, projects

changing the built and the natural environment

need to create value whether promoted by

private or public sector.

Value means different things from different

perspectives;

• For the environment, controlling pollution,

reducing greenhouse gas emissions,

enhancing bio-diversity and habitat creation

• For the community, enhancing the Public

Realm, recognising the needs of all sectors

of society, fostering a strong community life,

meeting housing and other needs.

• For the richness of cultural life, creating

places of beauty that mature well over time

and foster a meaningful community life.

• For the developers and investors, public

or private, creating value for money and

progressive value enhancement.

introduction

how its doneWhichever perspective is applied, value can only be achieved where each of the

following is addressed;

• Spotting opportunity

• Assessing and managing risk

• Applying value growth strategy

• Following through to delivery

Nash have over 20 years of experience in applying these principles to significant

opportunities we have identified or challenges we have been asked to take on.

The following pages demonstrate this...

growing development value:

We worked from 2003 to help bring

one of Birmingham’s most skilled

longstanding businesses back into the

city’s historic gun quarter. Westley

Richards, (whose name lies behind

many of the early patents for small

arms), have made exquisite sporting

pieces for the last 110 years from well

lit historic workshops. But compulsory

purchase under a road construction

programme forced them to be

re-housed. Maintaining a strong sense

of historical authenticity for their new

workshops, showroom and firing range

have been crucial for a business whose

worldwide customers come for fittings

and advice when they purchase guns

costing in the region of £100,000 a

piece.

We have steered the project through

many re-location hurdles to a successful

and much praised conclusion.

westleyrichards

On one of the major

thoroughfares in the World

Heritage City of Bath we showed

how an unattractive petrol filling

station could be replaced by

a development of apartments

that would complete one of

the many terraces half finished

amongst the banking crisis

of the 1790’s. This scheme,

recognised by a number of

awards, has enhanced the

setting of the existing listed

terrace, enriched the character

of the Conservation Area,

provided attractive new homes in

the heart of the City and value in

perpetuating Bath’s stone mines

and craftsmanship skills.

herschelplace

On a 19-acre industrial Conservation Area in

the Cotswolds, we showed how over three

dozen listed buildings could be put to new long

term use as dwellings and workspace. At the

time the scheme had many critics, adamant

that no one would want to live in a site long

overgrown and associated with manufacturing

industry.

Upon completion we found the scheme was

so attractive, sales values greatly exceeded

expectations and all the historic building repair,

conversion, infrastructure costs and profit

expectations could be met well before all the

bespoke new housing had been built. As well

as ensuring the survival of several centuries

of woollen industry history, the scheme has

removed considerable blight and pollution

and ensured the continuing management of

an extensive area of wetland, with waterfalls,

sluices and a hydro powered turbine.

longfordsmill

In a secluded walled garden beside the Kennet and Avon canal in the

World Heritage City of Bath, and within level walking distance of the city’s

centre, we have completed this large villa in the Italianate style offering

eight families an immensely attractive and convenient place to live. The

scheme has enhanced the canal, the security of those using its tow path

and added something beautiful to the rich skyline of this part of the city,

forming the backdrop to the Holborne Museum and Sydney Gardens 18th

century Pleasure Park.bath

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ace

In two well known North Devon

coastal holiday centres we are

invigorating the rural economy by

re-presenting the rich offering of the

Devon countryside and beaches

around new bespoke hotels.

The projects create value by bringing

new economic activity and jobs to

areas undervalued as a result of

cheap foreign travel. This stimulates

new enterprise amongst their

communities, and brings pleasure to

those who use them.

northdevon hotels

In the West Country, we took a challenging listed Malthouse with low ceilings and

showed how it could be adapted to become the headquarters of the managers

of this city’s Public Housing stock. We demonstrated how a riverside location

could be put to good use using a river water heat pump alongside many other

sustainability achievements to give the building an excellent BREEAM rating.

somerhousing

Once described as the factory to the world, England’s West Midlands region has seen a

loss of pride and identity as manufacturing has moved to new centres overseas.

When asked to advise on a modest expansion of one of the Ironbridge Gorge’s Industrial

Museums, we showed our clients how a far more effective celebration of the region’s

industrial heritage and inventive character could be achieved via a new World Heritage

Site Orientation Centre. Located where it could contribute substantially to critical mass in

the manner of the 19th century ironworks, the project was felt to add sufficient value to

secure £12m of grant aid from the European Regional Development Fund and the region’s

Development Agency. It has made a huge difference to the Museum’s Visitor numbers and

has been one of seven different projects to bring to completion over a five year period.

blistshill

Our clients ran a third generation family furnishings business

amongst the remains of Bath’s earliest 18th century workhouse,

so radically changed that its original function was no longer

apparent. We showed how value could be created and extracted

to put the buildings to new uses as flats around three attractive

urban courtyards. Two were created by reconstructing elements

of the complex demolished in the late 20th century for road

widening and car parking. The scheme has allowed the business

to fund more suitable modern premises elsewhere.

During this scheme, many attractive, quiet and convenient new

homes have been created, the original setting of the historic

buildings has been enhanced and renewed and the character of

the Conservation Area enriched by new frontages in Bath stone,

new views and a restored historic urban grain. sutc

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In the Cotswold market town of Wotton Under Edge, we showed how a polluting

factory building, completely surrounded by housing, could become a new Retirement

Village opening up a large previously closed site to offer new pedestrian networks.

We showed how the needs of the community for elderly care of a different kind could

be provided and justified in the heart of an established settlement, maintaining and

growing social contact whilst creating new employment.

potterspond

The Council of Cheltenham College, a leading Public School, appointed us to

create a long term Development Plan to guide the investment programme of their

facilities over two decades. Operating from a campus in the heart of Cheltenham’s

Conservation Area and a host of high status listed buildings, they faced a complex

task of facilities management analysis which we led them through over a period of

many months.

We created value by showing how their buildings of greatest cultural and historic

value could be fully utilised through conversion and funding improvements in

disability access and maintenance. We showed how more peripheral buildings

could have patterns of use able to generate external income and how essential

car access, car parking and pupil security could all be addressed. We then

added value in obtaining endorsement from planners and English Heritage to the

programme well ahead of the College needing to secure the separate planning and

Listed Building consents for individual projects.

cheltenhamcollege

In 2003 we were selected to solve the problem of regenerating Bradford on Avon’s

historic town centre since the closure of the town’s major industrial employer 12

years previously. It was clear a host of technical difficulties and risks had coloured

developer’s views on what could be done on the site and investment confidence

was at rock bottom. The local community had many views, expressed through a

surprising number of special action groups promoting and protesting different ideas.

We set out comprehensively to understand the site’s technical and value challenges

whilst exploring how values could be grown through a complex pattern of mixed use,

redevelopment, conversion and Public Realm enhancement. As we understood

what could be achieved, we presented a vision to the community and the site’s many

stakeholders on how high density reuse could be delivered and would blend well

with the historic town’s character. Despite its challenges the scheme will deliver

30% affordable housing, a wide range of non-residential uses and Public Realm

improvements, as well as new movement networks alongside the 175 new dwellings.

kingstonmills

New businesses face many financial

challenges as they are trying to get off

the ground. They need premises without

these commitments being too onerous,

they need money for working capital but

may be funding a large mortgage at a

time when income is constrained by the

responsibilities of a young family. They

also benefit greatly from working amidst

a network, sharing ideas, problems, skills

and a readymade customer base. Social

entrepreneurs, Verve responded to these

needs with dramatic success at Bristol’s

Paintworks scheme where 70 creative

businesses, from one-man-bands to firms

of 50 staff ,now occupy 130,000 sq. ft. of

creative and hub workspace alongside

social and community activities. Rental

values on the site have grown by several

factors over the project’s life.

Nash were engaged in 2008 to design

and project manage the all new build next

phase, applying these principles to 380,000

sq. ft of new floor space designed to be

built incrementally (as all good towns were)

over 10 to 15 years; taking the benefits of

living and working in a well located, well

linked creative environment to a much

wider audience.

paintworksphase III

In Wiltshire the extensive grounds

and arboretum of a Georgian country

house, demolished in the 1950’s, lay

redundant when its owners closed a

longstanding visitor attraction. For

a speculating developer we showed

how its fine trees and water features

could be preserved and managed as

the grounds of two magnificent new

country houses.

Although without any support in

planning policy we showed the local

planning authority how much could

be achieved by the comprehensive

landscape management such

development would bring. In doing

so we created value for its developer,

a pension for its former owners, we

have retained its trees as a significant

feature of the local landscape and a

wealth of new and enhanced wetland,

arboricultural and grassland habitats.

rodemanor

When the World Heritage City of Bath expanded dramatically in the 18th century on

the back of royal patronage of its hot water mineral springs, it would not have done

so without the entrepreneurship of Ralph Allen who first began stone extraction on a

large scale. 250 years later his underground stone mines beneath the hilltop village of

Combe Down have been the subject of a £155m stabilisation programme funded by

the Homes and Communities Agency (formerly English Partnerships).

Nash were selected to design a Visitor Interpretation Facility and Community Centre

to make the areas heritage part of the social and cultural identity of the village and its

residents. Located on a prominent road junction, its community value will be tangible

and will act as the gateway into the mines which remain beneath the heart of a village

now no longer at risk.

ralphallenyard

rodemanor

Nash Partnership23a Sydney Buildings |Bath | BA2 6BZ

www.nashpartnership.com | mail@nashpartnership.com | (01225) 442424