About the Project

The Place, Kempston

Conversion of mansion into four apartments plus construction of 51 apartments and family houses, completed in 156 weeks. 

Determined and highly experienced, Jon Kelly brought his A-game to this scheme. Rather than setting up a crane to bring in the steel for one of the house types, he located a heavy-haul truck with a 17.5m reach that could do the job, giving much quicker access to the build for other trades. 

Jon made sure each contractor knew how critical their individual package was, and hit the key delivery dates through meticulous programming and rigorous monitoring. He walked every plot and every room daily to keep the programme moving and the quality high. 

By making an independent contractor (rather than the plumbers and electricians) responsible for the fire-stopping for service penetrations, he achieved the most cost-effective, engineered and suitable solutions. He brought the same compliance professionalism to fire doors, introducing complete certified door sets rather than splitting the package to shrink the budget. 

And when the groundworker fell into administration mid-project, with all plant, machinery and operatives disappearing in the space of a day, he brought a small team in to carry on with external finishings and service connections on a day-work basis. It kept the project moving until a deal could be struck with a new contractor to finish the remainder of the works.