Bath Road, Worcester

K1, Worcester

K2, Worcester

Commercial Property

19th April 2004

Mr Peter Luff, Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire today officially marked a new era for one of the Midlands fastest growing developers, Neil Grinnall Homes by opening the doors to the firm’s new headquarter offices at the landmark Hadzor Hall development in Worcestershire.

More than 100 guests were on hand to help celebrate the achievement for the company, which is set to inject over £320 million into the Midlands region over the next three years. Currently employing 30 people and with plans to increase the team due to corporate success, the company is responsible for conceptualising Worcester’s city living phenomena. Established in 1989, Neil Grinnall Homes is currently setting its sights on large-scale brownfield regeneration opportunities with an aggressive strategy for acquiring derelict, previously used sites.

The new offices lie within the 54 acre estate of the Grade II listed Hadzor Hall residence, just outside the spa town of Droitwich. In addition to refurbishing the Hall as a fine mansion house and reclaiming an existing outbuilding for their business premises, Neil Grinnall Homes successfully sought approval from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to convert the 18^th Century stable block and construct Georgian style townhouses to provide 82 new homes.

Neil Grinnall commented:  “Today is a celebration of how far the company has come in the last 15 years and marks the beginning of the next era. The Hadzor Hall development is hugely significant to us as it epitomises the complexity of work we undertake.  It was an obvious location for the centre of our operations.

“Our expansion to date has been predominantly in the Worcestershire area, where we’ve optimised our strong local reputation, vision and branding. With the move to new premises and growth of the in-house team, this has opened up new opportunities to broaden our remit to encompass larger brownfield regeneration projects with not only a regional, but also a national focus.

“On a local level within Worcestershire, our new multi-million pound land portfolio will enable us to transform a vast quantity of neglected, derelict space in Worcester city centre, reclaim waterside frontages and provide new leisure, retail and commercial facilities for local people. I am very excited about the opportunities we have to make such a significant impact to the region, however, our strong portfolio has also opened up new opportunities on a national playing field which could see us making a difference to many of the UK’s prestigious urban areas.”

In addition to Hadzor Hall, the company is currently converting the former Kay’s Catalogue Headquarters in central Worcester into 24 spectacular loft apartments and individual office suites, known as ‘K1’.  Behind the Grade II listed façade of an adjoining Kay’s building on The Tything, Neil Grinnall Homes is also building new townhouses and apartments at ‘K2’ to meet the increased demand for city living.

On the other side of the city, Worcester’s first canalside apartment scheme at Diglis Road has just reached completion and its sister development of 41 canalside apartments at Bath Road is currently under construction. The next scheme due to be launched is the £15 million Albion Mill conversion at the Diglis canal basin in the city centre. Formerly occupied by Worcester Royal Porcelain the building, which dates back to the 1800’s, is set to be transformed into prime waterside loft style apartments.

Neil Grinnall continued:  “During the last few years the company has grown from strength to strength and it is the expertise and personalities of the team that have made a definite contribution to this success. I have hand selected a dedicated team of professionals with key experience of large-scale urban regeneration schemes and I plan to use this expertise to capitalise on the Government’s policy of encouraging mixed-use development on brown field sites.

“We have built up a solid reputation in Worcestershire since 1989 and we now have a prime opportunity to become a major player in the industry, not only regionally, but also on a national level. We are passionate about regeneration and am determined to make a real impact on Worcestershire and the West Midlands and deliver schemes that will be considered some of the best in the UK.”

The popularity of Neil Grinnall Homes’ developments has been proved not just by phenomenal off-plan sales achieved at each of their schemes, but also by the high resale values achieved after completion of the apartments at Diglis Road and the family houses at Grange Manor in Fernhill Heath. Purchasers who have chosen to sell their properties at Diglis Road have benefited from capital growth of up to 50 per cent of the original sales value.

Neil Grinnall and Peter Luft MP launch the new office headquarters