
Tom advises developers, investors, land owners and major corporate occupiers on the delivery of complex and high value real estate projects, with a focus on major commercial and residential development schemes. Tom leads our UK residential development practice and is head of our market-leading real estate team in the Midlands
Advised Chalkdene Developments LLP, a 50:50 partnership between Hertfordshire County Council's property company Herts Living Limited and Morgan Sindall, on a £2 billion development scheme in Hertfordshire. This included acquisition of a site in Welwyn Garden City which had planning permission for 21 new homes.
Advising Folkestone and Hythe Council on site assembly of the proposed new 12,000 home Otterpool Park Garden Community, including strategic options and landowner collaboration agreements.
Advising London & Continental Railways on the development and letting of the Sidings, a 40 unit retail, restaurant and leisure destination scheme within the Waterloo International Rail terminal in London.
Advised on the development of the Brentford Riverside project, including advice on site assembly (including CPO) and acquisition of local authority land interests/use of section 203 powers.
Advising HBD in relation to Phoenix 10, Walsall the largest logistics scheme in the West Midlands.
Advised Waitrose on the acquisition and development of new stores across the UK
Advised landowners on the planning, promotion and development/disposal of the Drakelow Park scheme, a 110 hectare brownfield site with planning consent for over 2,000 new homes, community and commercial uses with a total value in excess of £360m. Work included negotiating the joint venture arrangements between Drakelow Developments and E.ON UK and the land assembly required for the new road and river crossing to serve the new development.
Advised Shepway District Council on the planning, promotion and development of the Otterpool Garden Park, a government-backed new garden village.
Advised Ballymore Properties on the Brentford Riverside project, a 4.79 hectare waterside site in the London Borough of Hounslow with planning consent for 876 residential units, 16,250 sq m of commercial space and a 3,000 sq m supermarket. Advised on the successful compulsory purchase order for the site and negotiated with the local authority for the acquisition of its land interests in the site.
Advising a leading UK home builder on the allocation of environmental liability in Scottish and English land acquisition transactions. Our work included advising on the legal mechanisms by which a land owner could be required to clean up historic contamination, the extent to which liability for land remediation can legally be transferred from a seller to a purchaser and the commercial position generally reached in Scottish land sale contracts on contaminated land liability as compared to England.
