Swift Engineering Move Adds Client Value

A keen technical eye and three months of sharp negotiation, has added value to a client property portfolio just 18 months on from when engineers conspired to move a flood embankment five metres, creating an additional 400 square metres of useable land.

The scheme at Swift 13 industrial park on Creek Way in Rainham, Essex, has now delivered 13 industrial / warehouse units varying in size from 2,800sq ft to 6,800 sq. ft. All have been let.

“This has been another technical triumph,” said HBPW Partner, Emyr Parry “but, when you consider how expensive land can be in Essex it also becomes a numbers game, enhancing land value and, ultimately, the resulting scheme.”

Ahead of the original land purchase Newable Developments Ltd asked one of HBPW’s geoenvironmental engineers to review the plot they were thinking of buying.

It was subsequently discovered that the land had originally been used for dumping sewage sludge during the Victorian era.

And, there was an 80m long earth bund, dating back to the late 1800’s, running the length of the site, and maps suggested it was there as a flood defence from the nearby Thames tributary, although this was debated.

Nevertheless, the Environment Agency insisted that it still had to be treated as such and, after three months of negotiation, it was agreed by all concerned that the so-called ‘flood embankment’ would be retained but re-positioned five metres closer to the tributary.

The soil alone that had to be moved weighed in at 2,500 tonnes, however, by moving it engineers were able to create an additional 400 square feet of development land which increased the plot’s overall value.