Revival hopes for disused sites

YORKSHIRE developer Keyland is in talks with a number of major landowners across the North to bring forward development on strategic sites.

Keyland Developments, sister company to Yorkshire Water and a subsidiary of the Kelda Group, has announced plans to look to offer its services, previously reserved for Yorkshire Water sites, to landowners across the region.　

Keyland has been operating across Yorkshire for over 20 years, regenerating Yorkshire Water’s redundant sites. With an extensive land bank of some 800 acres owned outright and a further 900 acres in Joint Venture partnerships, Keyland has an active development pipeline with over 6,000 residential units and in excess of 6m sq ft of commercial space.

Since the appointment of current MD Peter Garrett in 2011, Keyland has already changed emphasis substantially with a shift away from undertaking the full development cycle with site retention and more focus on maximising the value of sites in order to progress to sale.

The company says that, as a result, it has has built a reputation on its core strength of resolving highly complex development issues to facilitate the future development of sites.

Since 2012 the team has submitted 28 planning applications with a 100% success rate with planning permissions, Keyland said.

Peter Garrett, managing director of Keyland Developments, said; “Over many years we have developed a successful formula for maximising the value of strategic, and often very complex, sites and the next natural step is for us to seek to extend this reach beyond Yorkshire Water’s portfolio.

“Through working with regional landowners we hope to bring about the revival of strategic sites which have the potential to make significant regeneration contributions but have lain dormant. Often complexities involved with planning, legal and title issues, access or ground issues, contract negotiations and pro-active sales strategies create barriers to development but our expertise lies in overcoming these challenges.

“We also believe that there is a market for our services from major corporates who may have a cautious development approach and will value our experience of working within an organisation with a reputation worth protecting. It is incredibly exciting to be in a position where we can actively discuss opportunities to work in partnership with the region’s landowners to revive development across the north of the country.”