JMA Barratt Homes South Wales - Copper Quarter, Swansea

Project Title: Copper Quarter, Swansea

Client: Barratt Homes South Wales

Description: A 563 unit residential development comprising traditional and timber framed apartments and houses, together with complete site demolition and remediation 

Project Value: £65m

Role: Project Manager and Cost Consultant

The Copper Quarter site in Swansea was so named due to the industrial heritage of the area, when Swansea became a world leader in the production and export of Copper.

JMA were appointed as external Project and Cost Managers for the scheme as there were considerable bespoke aspects to the project. With our considerable experience in similar high quality bespoke residential / apartment schemes, we added real value in terms of form of build, specifications and alternatives to achieve cost and time savings. 

Following site demolitions, extensive archaeology of the former copper works were uncovered - all of which required recording to discharge planning conditions.

To enable Barratt Homes to commence construction on the development, a phased build approach had to be adopted. This involved JMA and the site management team, undertaking considerable negotiations with the Archaeology contractor to enable 'pockets' of land to be released in mini-phases so that Barratt could continue with their main build programme, whilst the painstaking process of recording archaeology could continue unhindered.

Even with these considerable site constraints, the first block of 37 apartments were complete in less than six months, which was a remarkable testament to the site construction team. By continuing to work closely with the Barratt site team, JMA helped Barratt achieve a completion of over 190 units within the first 18 months of production. This representing a record site output for the region.