Land sales to underpin TCS’s continued recovery

Property group Town Centre Securities (TCS) is looking forward to being able to announce the sale of development sites in Leeds and Manchester as part of its plans to strengthen its financial foundations.

The Leeds-headquartered group’s chairman, Edward Ziff, said it had been “another year of recovery for the business”, which suffered during the pandemic because of its dependence on retail and car parks.

However it has today confirmed it will receive up to £20.7m for its stake in YourParkingSpace, which has been sold to Flowbird. The payments will come in four tranches – £9.6m immediately, £4.4m in 2023, £3.1m in 2024, alongside a further payment of up to £3.6m based on performance in the next 14 months.

TCS has sold, subject to planning, its two car parks in Port Street, Manchester, which are part of the Piccadilly Basin development site. The £13m deal is expected to complete in October.

The group has also agreed a separate £14m sale of land at Whitehall Riverside, Leeds. The deal is part of a joint venture with Glenbrook, which saw the scheme’s masterplan submitted in April.

The masterplan includes a 500 unit build-to-rent scheme, a 12-storey office building, a 478-space multi-storey car park, and an outline for further hotel and office buildings.

Ziff said: “It has been another year of recovery for the business, with robust rent collection and further successes as we have sought to reset and reinvigorate our business for the future.

“Over the coming months we hope to be able to announce the completions of the Whitehall Riverside and Piccadilly basin development site sales.

“These sales, together with the YourParkingSpace sale, will allow us to continue to strengthen the balance sheet of the company through lowering our level of absolute debt and leverage, whilst investing in our development pipeline.”