Birmingham industrial site sold for £25m to support HS2 development

A PRIME industrial site on the fringe of Birmingham city centre has been sold in a deal worth around £25m.

Longbridge-based St. Modwen has sold the 50-acre Heartlands Park site to the Department for Transport for the delivery of the HS2 high speed railway scheme. The company said it could extract no more value from the site.

The site is designated for the £56bn project’s proposed Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot (RSMD).

The site, capable of accommodating more than 880,000 sq ft of industrial accommodation, will continue to be run as a managed estate prior to work starting on the proposed RSMD.

Heartlands Park was acquired by St. Modwen in 2002 as part of the Alstom sale and leaseback transaction, whereby approximately 19 properties were acquired from the electronics company across 500 acres of land. When Alstom surrendered its lease in 2012, St. Modwen continued to lease the estate to a range of tenants including BEKO, PHS Group and Network Rail.

Ian Romano, Senior Development Surveyor for St. Modwen, commented: “Following the safeguarding of the site for the proposed depot, we have worked with HS2 to reach an agreement for this important UK infrastructure project.

“Heartlands Park perfectly illustrates St. Modwen’s proactive approach to asset management. Since taking ownership of the site 15 years ago we have transformed it from an underlet property into a thriving industrial estate with 15 tenants leasing over 800,000 sq ft of space.

“In line with our business strategy, we have concluded that no additional value can now be added to the asset and we will reinvest the proceeds from this transaction into new opportunities in the region.”

The designation of the site for HS2 use attracted strong criticism several years ago by politicians who said the land would be better utilised to create opportunities for workers who lost their jobs following the closure of the LDV van making plant in Washwood Heath. The ward is one of the city’s most deprived areas with high levels of unemployment and social deprivation.

The sale coincided with a year-end trading update by St. Modwen in which it said its diversified portfolio and business had continued to perform well over the past few months, despite broader market uncertainties.

“Taking account of all activities across the group, the board expects performance for the second half of the financial year to be broadly in line with that reported for the first half,” it said.

 

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