London-based architect McDowell & Benedetti has beaten Glenn Howells Architects in the final stage of a competition to redesign a 9ha factory site in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

The RIBA contest, for a town centre site owned by construction company JCB, was whittled down to two from a shortlist of six, including Bauman Lyons, DEGW, Letts Wheeler and Robert Adam Architects at the design stage in July.

The masterplan for the Pinfold Street site, occupied at present by JCB Heavy Products, includes 260 homes, offices, a petrol station and 5,000 sq m of retail development.

Sir Anthony Bamford, JCB chairman, said: “These are tough economic times but we have to plan for the future and this masterplan delivers a long-term vision for the development of a very important site in the heart of the town which I hope people will welcome.”

The construction company is moving from the site, where it was founded in 1945, to a purpose-built £40 million factory next to the JCB World Parts Centre in the town’s outskirts in 2009.

JCB has committed to taking the project through to the detailed planning stage, after which it hopes to sell the site to a developer.

An outline planning application, which must now be amended, was submitted to East Staffordshire Borough Council in August last year. A full application is expected to be ready by the end of 2009.