The North East
Brett Devenish is a Director in the Newcastle office of AspinallVerdi – Property Regeneration Consultants, a specialist firm of Chartered Surveyors and Town Planners.
- provided due diligence services on behalf of the North of Tyne Combined Authority and the North East LEP;
- successfully marketed phase 2 of Merrington Lane in Spennymoor on behalf of Homes England;
- worked on Future Place II in Gateshead;
- worked on a business case for the Campus for Aging & Vitality site in Newcastle;
- prepared an office workspace study in Darlington off the back of the upcoming Treasury move, as well as a similar study in Hartlepool;
- undertaken a number of valuations in relation to the Energising Blyth project;
- prepared viability assessments on behalf of private developers in Sunderland and the Ouseburn, to name just a few.
Stockton Town Centre
What is AspinallVerdi’s niche in the market? We’re a development consultancy, with particular focus on making regeneration happen. As an independent practice, we pride ourselves on providing robust evidence-based advice. We offer pragmatic consultancy and deliverable solutions to the most difficult of challenges, based upon our extensive involvement in property development.
Our focus is on the end user, ensuring that projects and proposals are attractive to tenants, purchasers and users, through six critical success factors – site assembly; financial viability and funding; planning policy and consents; delivery mechanism; community engagement; and sustainable design. By always ensuring we have that end user in mind, we can make sure that development is deliverable in the real world.
We’re also proud of our reputation as a leading planning viability consultant, carrying out whole plan, CIL and site specific viability appraisals across the country – our co-founder and Executive Director Atam Verdi was part of the working group which established the RICS guidance on viability, so we have an intimate understanding of the technicalities that practitioners should be adhering to.
Your Newcastle office was established in 2021, how have the first couple of years been? It’s flown by! We’ve grown the team and our client base considerably in that time. We’ve worked on:
- the successful Levelling Up bid for Wansbeck Square in Ashington;
The proudest achievement for the Newcastle office and the whole firm has been securing a place on the Homes England Property Professional Services Framework, one of only a small number of independent property practices to do so.
What’s the next exciting regeneration project you’re working on? We’re just at the starting point of the Stockton Blueprint. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is already progressing with the transformative Stockton Waterfront Park – having acquired and demolished a former shopping centre to create a landmark riverside park. It now wants to continue this ambitious approach across the wider central area, so we’re working with architects BDP to produce a framework to guide future development. Crucially we will be preparing a Delivery Strategy to sit alongside the Blueprint to support investment and ensure a funding strategy in place to support delivery.
The public engagement for the Blueprint has just gone live https://
stocktonblueprint.commonplace.is By beginning engagement right at the start of the process, we can ensure that the views of stakeholders and the public are taken on board at an early stage and can influence the direction of the Blueprint.
What’s the biggest challenge the north east is facing? Development viability is a challenge everywhere right now because of rising build costs, interest rates, and a fall in values. This is particularly acute in the North East where viability was already marginal due to low values in northern towns, but the additional squeeze on costs has exacerbated the issue, and public intervention is needed more than ever. The key is to ensure that the limited public funds that have been allocated from Levelling Up and similar projects are used on the right projects that can deliver the best ‘bang for your buck’ and act as a catalyst to leverage in private sector investment. The creation of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority in 2024 should bring with it a significant pot of investment, without the requirements of having to compete with other towns nationwide, and authorities would be wise to already be underway to create oven-ready business cases to draw down on that funding. I’m also looking forward to seeing how Homes England’s new focus on place supports regeneration in the area.
Merrington Lane, Spennymoor 30
What’s next for AspinallVerdi? We have appointed Mathew Forster as a Director and Head of UK Land & Development Agency at AspinallVerdi, to grow the development agency business with private and public sector clients nationally across our offices in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool, as well as establishing a new office in Cambridgeshire.
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MONTHLY 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
