Services
We have a dedicated team, with the necessary entrepreneurial flair, experience and
drive to generate value in a competitive and complex marketplace.
In addition to the traditional property development role, we are able to offer a facilitator role.
Project Facilitator Role
In most situations, there are alternative uses for land and/ or buildings that are more valuable. Millngate have the skill and experience to release this value and are keen to work with landowners to share in the increase.
Many years of working with professional teams on complex projects have honed Millngate’s skills to enable them to quickly identify opportunities and maximise land value within realistic timescales. A thorough knowledge of occupier requirements and considerable experience in the planning and development process means Millngate is very well placed to fully realise pent up development potential.
Working with teams of architects, planning and highway consultants, environmental, structural and civil engineers, quantity surveyors and agents, Millngate are prepared to make an initial assessment of the likely value that can be added. They will then make a proposal to share in the increased value. The level of share will depend on the landowners aspirations in terms of:
- Timescale
- Level of investment
- Risk exposure
- Ongoing operational requirements
Millngate will fund all the upfront costs, including professional fees, planning application costs and survey fees, in return for a share of the increased value.
Millngate will then prepare the land and/or buildings for sale to achieve the best price, but are also prepared to build out the consented development to enable the landowner to also share in the development returns.
The above is only an outline of the facilitator role and every opportunity will be different and require a corresponding structure. In summary, Millngate are very keen to work with landowners to release pent up land value and are more than happy to invest their time and money in return for a share in the uplift.
There are many examples where Millngate and its team members have worked on land to release added value. A good example is The Courts shopping Centre in Stockport where a site belonging to Stockport Council lay idle and derelict for some 13 years before Millngate took up the challenge. Working with the Council and their development partner AWG, Millngate successfully regenerated a long standing ‘gap’ in the High Street within a three-year period and paid a significant overage payment to the Council.
The Funding of Development Projects
The success of early development projects generated significant profit share payments which enabled Millngate to grow, take on new staff and increasingly more complex and substantial schemes.
Millngate has strong relationships with a number of high street banks, including Metrobank, Clydesdale and Nat West.
Millngate appointed Moore Kingston Smith as their accountant in 2005 who are highly respected within the property industry as being one of the Country’s leading specialist property accountants.
Millngate adopts a flexible approach to the funding of property development, by using a combination of debt, equity and forward sale to institutional partners. The funding of the Courts, Stockport Shopping Centre is a good example of this.
Millngate entered into a 50:50 joint venture with AWG Developments Limited, setting up a special purpose vehicle, AWG Millngate (Stockport) Limited. This Company, guaranteed by AWG Plc, raised circa £9m from the Bank of Scotland, to fund 100% of the construction cost of the 60,000 sq ft shopping centre. The completed development was then forward sold to Allied Dunbar who then completed the purchase shortly after practical completion in April 2004. The Bank of Scotland was then repaid and profit distributed in accordance with the joint venture agreement with an overage payment paid to Stockport Borough Council, in accordance with the terms of the Development Agreement.
At Millngate’s Beccles, Suffolk site, Millngate funded the speculative upfront expenditure on planning, legal costs, site investigations and design from their own resources and upon obtaining planning consent and the signing of an agreement to lease with FocusDIY were able to raise the remainder of the development costs with Clydesdale Bank. The development was completed, Focus took occupation and the resulting investment was forward sold to a Danish investment consortium.
In summary, Millngate have a number of options to finance property development and the decision on which route to take will depend on the complexity, size, timescale and risk assessment of the project, and the resources available at any point in time.
A financial reference is available upon request from Millngate’s accountants, Moore Kingston Smith.
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