The Tunbridge Wells town-centre scheme, 166 homes, brought forward after 21 years stalled
ADMG, Astrantia Development Management Group

Development Management

Development management for sites that have stopped moving.

Client-side development management for investors, funds, lenders and landowners. We reposition stalled and mis-positioned sites, step in to deliver schemes already under way, and take new sites forward from scratch, with single-point accountability from land through planning to exit.

Regulated by RICS

Firm no. 896860

Track record

Two decades bringing schemes forward, from acquisition and planning to delivery, for the investors, funds, lenders and landowners behind them.

20+

years in property and development: acquisition, planning, delivery and asset management

£1bn+

of development brought forward over a 20-year career

Retail, retirement, build-to-rent, market housing and mixed use

Sectors

Regulated by RICS

Firm no. 896860

What we do


ADMG is the client-side development management arm of Astrantia Group. We are appointed by the investors, funds, lenders, landowners and developers behind a site whose original plan no longer works, whether stalled, mis-positioned, or running down an ageing consent, and we take single-point accountability for turning it around: from land, through planning, to exit.

We are also brought in by developers and operators to deliver schemes that are already under way. When a live project needs an experienced, accountable pair of hands to protect the investment and see it through, we step in as development manager and carry it to completion, on programme and on budget.

Repositioning and stepping in to deliver are where we are strongest, but they are far from the limit of what we do. We also take new sites forward from scratch, carrying them through planning and construction, on schemes from £30m to £150m and beyond.

Clients always work directly with James Ahearne as their key point of contact. He takes personal responsibility for every scheme and assembles and leads the right specialist team around it, so senior accountability is never handed down to juniors: direct, senior and answerable, as the practice grows.

Worked with and for

  • AXA Investment Managers
  • Invesco
  • Oaktree Capital
  • Retirement Villages
  • Apo
  • Sagehaus Living

How we work

A single point of accountability, from land to exit.

01


Define and stress-test the strategy

We work out what the site can realistically become, and pressure-test it against planning, market and cost before any money is committed.

02


Assemble and direct the team

We appoint and lead the right consultants and advisers, holding the whole team to a single, agreed strategy.

03


Drive the planning case

We run the planning process actively and manage the stakeholders, through to a resolution to grant.

04


Manage delivery to budget

We take the scheme through construction to completion, protecting cost, programme and quality against an agreed budget.

Currently under development

The schemes on our desk right now.

In planning

~40 homes

Maybourne Rise

Woking, Surrey · Leigh Place Properties


A 3.5-acre site in Woking, brought forward for 40 new homes: a mix of detached and semi-detached market, affordable and shared-ownership housing. We are promoting the site through the local plan process and preparing the planning application.

Maybourne Rise, Woking, Surrey
In planning

Circa 40-acre estate

Northaw

Hertfordshire


A large, previously developed site in the Hertfordshire green belt, carrying an existing consent that no longer makes the best of the land. Appointed as client-side development manager, we are assembling the specialist team and leading the planning strategy to reposition it around a more deliverable residential scheme, taking it forward through a fresh application with the local authority.

Northaw, Hertfordshire: Existing consented layout
Existing consented layout
Delivery mandate

485 homes, build-to-rent · circa £100m+

Holloway Head, Birmingham

Birmingham · Invesco / Apo


A delivery mandate rather than a repositioning: appointed to take a 485-home build-to-rent scheme already under construction through to completion. We stepped in to give the client a single, accountable point of delivery, protecting the investment and driving the final construction stages of almost 500 rental homes, alongside extensive gym and communal amenities, in a major city-centre regeneration area.

Holloway Head, Birmingham

Repositioning in practice

Stalled, then unlocked.

Major repositioning schemes our team has led through acquisition, repositioning and planning. Each had run out of road under its original plan; a new strategy unlocked the site and secured the consent that carried it forward.

Stalled → consented

197 homes · circa £120m

West Byfleet

Surrey · AXA IM / Retirement Villages Group


A stalled 197-home site acquired from a Canadian UHNWI. We repositioned it around hyper-connected, town-centre living, reworking the consent through a section 73 amendment and then reserved matters, to unlock the first whole-life net zero carbon retirement scheme in the UK: a new heart for the town with a public square, public library, public car park and 17,000 sq ft of commercial space, 320,000 sq ft in all. The completed scheme is award-winning.

West Byfleet, Surrey
Stalled → consented

166 homes · circa £100m

Tunbridge Wells

Kent · AXA IM / Retirement Villages Group


An award-winning town-centre scheme, stalled for 21 years across five successive developers. Acquired from a family office and repositioned by a specialist team, overcoming difficult commercial underpinnings, a Network Rail tunnel running directly beneath and 9m of level changes. Planning was resolved inside 12 months through genuine stakeholder engagement.

Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Wider track record

Sites bought and brought forward, across London and beyond.

Beyond ADMG's client engagements, the experience behind the group runs decades deep: residential sites acquired and brought forward in some of the most demanding markets in the country. This is wider career experience, sites acquired and brought forward rather than delivered end to end, and not presented as ADMG work.

Hampstead Village

Residential

Belsize Park

Residential

Westminster

Residential

Bournemouth

Residential

Harpenden

Residential

In their words

“

James' knowledge of managing the delivery of retirement communities and regeneration projects in the UK is second to none. He understood our investment imperatives and delivered on his promises to us.

Private equity investor
“

James was able to overcome strategically outdated thinking to deliver a commercially successful outcome. His tenacity to find a deliverable solution where others had failed over many years is what sets him apart.

Private equity investor
“

ADMG has provided sector insight that has helped us to refocus our strategic direction in the world of retirement living.

Simon Westray, Sagehaus Living

Holding a stalled or mis-positioned site?

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