Ainscough confirms Ski site sale
AINSCOUGH Strategic Land (ASL) has confirmed the sale of the 15-acre former Ski Factory site at Cuddington in Cheshire to housebuilder Taylor Wimpey.
As reported in TheBusinessDesk.com’s property email last week, Taylor Wimpey has already submitted a reserve matters planning application for the site to Cheshire East Council in a bid to bring forward the site once the land sale completes in 2012.
The site has been empty since Nestle withdrew its yoghurt-making operations to mainland Europe in 2007. ASL bought the site in 2009 and worked up a masterplan for its redevelopment, gaining outline planning consent for a 156-home development on the land in February this year.
The firm did not disclose how much Taylor Wimpey has paid for the land, but said the sale marks the biggest residential land transaction since 2008.
Land director Paul Martin said: “This was a highly sought-after site and has achieved the largest single residential land transaction in the North West since the recession.
“The deal is also marked by the fact that the developer is paying all consideration upon completion with the benefit of an outline planning permission, without needing recourse to deferred land payments which are more commonplace for land transactions of this scale.
“This represents a very successful conclusion to our long-term investment in Cuddington. To take a complex brownfield site within the greenbelt through planning and to development inside of two years is a notable achievement.
“We are actively seeking new opportunities across the UK in 2012.”
ASL was set up in 2007 by Martin Ainscough following the £255m sale of his family’s crane hire business to a management buy-out team. The company was advised on the sale of the Cuddington site by Jones Lang LaSalle.
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