Project Overview
Development Partner
Hammond Rutts Investments Limited
Scheme
Haverhill Business Park, Bumpstead Road, Haverhill, Suffolk
Asset Class
Logistics, industrial, trade counter, office, car showroom,
builder’s merchants and roadside uses
Size
24 acres net developable/495,000 sq ft gross external area
Type
Acquisition, earthworks and new development
Taurus Developments worked in partnership with Hammond Rutts Investments Limited for our maiden development project together. In May 2015, we purchased the remaining development land at Haverhill Business Park from Carisbrooke Investments. This comprises 27 acres gross in seven separate plots.
Haverhill Business Park is strategically located on the boundaries of Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, being 19 miles south east of Cambridge and 15 miles from M11 (J9) and is the principal employment site in Haverhill.
At the time of site acquisition, none of the plots were capable of being developed without major earthworks being undertaken. Our first work stream was to formulate and instigate an earthworks strategy and move 160,000 cubic metres of inert, site-won earth which had been placed on the land we acquired as other plots on Haverhill Business Park had been developed prior to our ownership. Our strategy involved retaining all the earth on site without the need for any removal off-site.
Following receipt of planning permission for the earth moving and associated works, we undertook the earthworks contract between May and October 2016 and created plots and development platforms ready to be developed. The net developable area in total is 24 acres, capable of being developed for up to 495,000 sq ft.
Haverhill Business Park had not seen any development since 2008. With the earthworks completed and a fresh Outline Planning Permission granted for development, we completed our first development on Plot 4 in September 2017 – the pre-let of a 20,000 sq ft builder’s merchants’ unit on a 2 acre site to MKM Building Supplies.
In March 2019 we sold 14 acres to Hillwood / Trebor Developments and, in June 2021, two further plots of 1 acre each to owner occupier purchasers.
Timeline
- April 2015
Acquisition exchanged - May 2015
Acquisition completed - October 2015
Earthworks planning application submitted - November 2015
Outline Planning application for development submitted - January 2016
Earthworks planning permission granted - May 2016
Earthworks start on site - September 2016
Outline Planning Permission for development granted - September 2016
Exchanged Agreement for Lease with MKM Building Supplies for 20,000 sq ft pre-let on Plot 4 - October 2016
Earthworks completed - November 2016
Reserved Matters application submitted for development of Plot 4 - February 2017
Commencement of development of Plot 4 - September 2017
Practical completion of development of Plot 4 & completion of lease with MKM Building Supplies - October 2017
MKM open for business - March 2018
MKM building investment sale
Taurus Developments has looked after the interests of Hammond Rutts Investments Ltd for the last six years. The Directors first met Michael nearly twenty years ago when he was at Land Securities PLC. His practical, sensible approach and attention to detail always stood out, as did his determination to see projects finished. We continue to work with Taurus today.
John Walsh Hammond Rutts Investments
