We have been working with Acorn Braintree Limited, a property developer and promoter. They purchased a £12m plot of land with the intention of developing it for residential housing, which is predicted to increase its value to £40m.
This is a high profile and contentious situation that has been ongoing for over 15 years since our client first agreed to purchase and develop the land. There was a public enquiry and an unsuccessful appeal against the planning application but now our client has permission to develop part of the site. We have acted on several agreement renewals during this time.
Our client has finally acquired the entire site, following tense negotiations with the owner over the sale price. We helped them to successfully reach an agreement, and we are currently negotiating completion arrangements.
While this has been ongoing, our client has agreed an immediate sub-sale of part of the site to another property developer, Crest Nicholson. We are changing this sub-contract to consider the change in property size.
Confidentially, we are currently negotiating with a separate third party farmer for the option to buy an adjoining part of the land. This would pave the way for a larger scale development.
