PegasusLife buys Wilmslow ex-council site
RETIREMENT housing provider PegasusLife has has exchanged contracts to build a scheme of apartments on a former council site in Chapel Lane, Wilmslow.
The 1.9-acre plot off Chapel Lane, known as the Remenham buildings, has been sold by East Cheshire Engine of the North, an agency set up by Cheshire East Council to manage and develop the council’s land assets.
The site consists of two empty office buildings – a three-storey former house built c1870 and a two-storey building, located within half a mile of Wilmslow town centre.
The developer aims to provide a mix of one and two-bedroom apartments with complementary care facilities and will now prepare a planning application for the site – already designated as suitable for residential development – and if successful, aims to start construction in the spring of 2015.
PegasusLife, based in Winchester, Hampshire, has a portfolio of schemes throughout London, southern England and the Midlands and the development in Wilmslow would mark its debut in the North West of England.
The Manchester office of Colliers, appointed to handle the sale, said it received more than 100 expressions of interest and 20 offers prior to Engine of the North selecting PegasusLife as preferred bidder.
The sale is one of several asset disposals via Engine of the North, launched last year to manage and develop the Council’s land assets.
Darran Lawless, managing director of Engine of the North, said: “Working on behalf of the council a programme has been prepared in respect of a portfolio of sites to deliver over 4,000 homes and 3,000 jobs generating major capital receipts for the authority – some £40m in the next three years (potentially in excess of £80m over a 10 year period) net of development costs and the sale of Remenham to PegasusLife is another important step in achieving those goals.”
