Urban Regeneration Consultants

TPL Associates (“TPLA”) was formed in 1990 as a partnership between five professional management consultants and Widnell, a long established firm of quantity surveyors, to provide a range of advisory services to organisations in the tourism, leisure and property industry involved in urban regeneration. TPLA became a subsidiary of Widnell but continued to operate under that name until 2000 when Widnell was acquired by Currie & Brown, another major firm of quantity surveyors.

Dr Geoffrey Seeff, a founder partner of TPLA, joined Currie & Brown with the transfer of Widnell and headed up its regeneration consulting division, providing similar services to those originally offered by TPLA. In 2006 he re-established TPLA as an independent practice.

TPLA now offers its services in association with McBains Cooper a leading multi-disciplinary firm of architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and project managers.

Dr Seeff is a chartered accountant in practice as a management consultant for over thirty years, for the past twenty as a specialist in the economics, management and funding of major property development and urban regeneration projects. He has extensive experience of advising both public and private sector clients at the highest level, leading or working with multi-disciplinary teams comprising both technical and commercial consultants.

Dr Seeff's profile is set out on a separate page of this site and a detailed curriculum vitae is available on request.

Summary of Services

TPLA services are focused on the needs of public and private sector organisations involved in urban regeneration, in particular through the development of property serving the tourism, leisure and cultural industries.

• Strategic and Framework Studies for public sector bodies and private sector corporations seeking to identify opportunities for regenerating and developing their landholdings.
  
  
• Market and Financial Feasibility Studies to establish whether investment in a proposed regeneration project is supportable in the context of its commercial returns or offers value for money from the perspective of the public sector.
  
  
• Appraisals for public sector bodies, charities and financial institutions considering applications for regeneration funding to provide an independent review of studies carried out by third parties prior to making any commitment.
  
  
• Assessment and Monitoring for commercial funders, insurers, and public sector bodies who have committed funds to a regeneration project subject to the achievement of agreed milestones during the course of design development, procurement and construction.
  
  
• Evaluation on the completion of a project for funders to determine or verify regeneration outcomes or to review operations if performance is below expectations.

Key Issues that typically arise in urban regeneration projects linked to a more detailed description of the consultancy services TPLA offers are described on a separate page of this site.

Summary of Experience

Key assignments undertaken by TPLA include:-

• Tourism studies for the governments of Nigeria, Malaysia, the regional government of East Malaysia and other related work for the European Commission with the objective of delivering regeneration and economic development.
  
  
• Market and financial feasibility studies for hotel, leisure and related projects on behalf of international investors and operators located in, inter alia, Chile, Turks and Caicos Islands, New Zealand, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, Greece, Spain and UK.
  
  
• Appraisal, assessment and monitoring of major regeneration projects for seven of the ten Urban Development Corporations, several City Challenge and SRB organisations, three of the Lottery Distributors, the Department of the Environment, the Department of Trade and Industry and for the Department of Food and Rural Affairs.
  
  
• Property rationalisation and development options studies for a local authority, a government agency, a major industrial corporation and a large estate in Trinidad and Tobago.
  
  
• Advice on regeneration funding generally and on applications for various forms of grant aid in particular to private sector landowners and developers. Also provided the practice input for a study for the European Commission on the effectiveness of Regional Development Funding.

Dr Seeff has appeared as an expert witness on public funding for urban regeneration in planning inquiries and in two high profile court cases concerning compensation following compulsory purchase orders. In April 2007 he was appointed to the London Development Agency's panel of specialist consultants to advise on project development, risk management and due diligence in the context of regeneration.

Descriptions of some Selected Assignments with which TPLA has been involved are set out on a separate page of this site. We will be pleased to discuss details of the issues presented by these cases and the outcomes of the work carried out if you would like to Contact Us.