London—Dentons has assisted Chase New Homes in securing planning consent for a 511-unit residential development scheme in Hertfordshire, UK, which is set to be the housebuilder's largest scheme to date.

The scheme – known as Times Square – will be built in Welwyn Garden City on the site of the former Xerox office complex on Bessermer Road.  Chase New Homes, which acquired the Xerox site in 2015, is currently undertaking phase one of the project to develop 210 residential units in three of the existing buildings under Permitted Development rights.  Now planning consent for the second phase has been secured, which will see the housebuilder add 66 penthouses to the buildings and also add four new apartment blocks in the grounds, collectively containing up to 511 residential units.

Alan Ward, Planning Director of Chase New Homes Limited, commented:  "This permission demonstrates our philosophy of being extremely efficient at optimising the potential of sites, which has allowed Chase to grow exponentially in the last decade.  We have created a genuine master plan for the Xerox site and are very much in the market to replicate to this formula elsewhere."

Jamie McKie, real estate senior associate at Dentons, added:  "We are very pleased to have advised Chase New Homes on securing planning consent for this scheme and look forward to working with them on finalising their plans for this exciting development."

Dentons advised Chase New Homes on the legal planning aspects, including the section 106 agreement.  The Dentons team included Jamie McKie and Rachael Herbert.  The Firm's UK Planning team was recently named Planning Law Firm of the Year at the 2016 Planning and Placemaking Awards for its outstanding achievements in the planning work it undertook on a number of significant planning and regeneration projects that will transform the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London.

Chase New Homes is building an impressive portfolio of housing developments around the Home Counties and London, including the 27-unit luxury Palace Wharf scheme on the Fulham riverfront, the 45-unit Danbury Palace development in Danbury near Chelmsford, the 31-unit Exchange development in Rickmansworth, and 150-unit Skyline development in Stevenage.  Its projects to date include new-build residential and conversion of existing, often listed, buildings into residential.

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