A Norfolk district council has established a new form of property joint venture that could see the development of more than 140 sites across the local authority area.
The joint venture – Breckland Bridge Limited – involves Breckland District Council and developer Land Group and is initially expected to revitalise Thetford town centre, bringing a new cinema, hotel, restaurant and retail units and improved public realm on the Riverside site.
It will also involve the development of new residential sites in Attleborough and Mileham. It is understood the JV could be used to develop a further 142 sites once those first three are delivered.
Law firm Trowers & Hamlins advised Breckland on the initiative. Helen Randall, the partner at Trowers who led on the deal, said: "This project is particularly innovative because the joint venture has been uniquely structured as an evolved and more sophisticated variant from the standard local authority asset backed vehicle (LABV) to give the council more flexibility, greater certainty of delivery and the ability to apply a funding model which provides better value for money than traditional LABVs".