The stalled redevelopment of a West Midland’s town centre looks set to start this year after the site was sold in a £6.4m deal — with more than 50 developers and investors scrambling to buy the “oven ready” plot.
Salmon Harvester Properties — a joint venture company between Salmon Developments and National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance — beat off the competition to acquire the Sutton Coldfield site from administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) after the 2009 collapse of the retail and leisure scheme’s previous developers, Castlemore. It bought the site through its urban regeneration arm SpringUR for around £11m in 2006 from Sutton Coldfield Municipal Charities.
Rorie Henderson, development director at London-based Salmon Harvester, confirmed construction work on the £17.5m scheme is slated to start in July with the first tenants moving in by the summer of 2016. Permission for a 68,624 sq ft retail-led development was secured by Cordatus Real Estate, acting as asset managers on behalf of PwC, while the 2.7-acre site was still in administration.
“This is a superb oven-ready development opportunity in an affluent location and as such we had to fight off some stiff competition,” he said. “We are delighted with the pre-letting success to date and there are numerous discussions taking place with other potential occupiers.”
Henderson also announced that more than a third of the scheme — which fronts the Birmingham suburb’s Mere Green and Lichfield Roads — has already been pre-let.
Marks & Spencer has signed a 20-year lease for a 16,178 sq ft food store, with Boots and Greene King, operating as Old Speckled Hen, both committed to 10-year leases. The national chemist is taking a 3,544 sq ft retail unit while Greene King is extending the tenure on its existing 4,500 sq ft unit. Three other stores in the 11-unit scheme are also under offer.
“We are delighted that we have secured the sale of this site to Salmon Harvester,” commented Matthew Hammond, a partner at PwC and joint administrator for the site which has lain empty since 2007.
“The price achieved fully justifies our strategy of holding this asset through the planning stage and securing the pre-lets to major retailers. Salmon is a very credible developer and very well placed to deliver this scheme to the community.”
The farmers union-backed Salmon Harvester has earned a reputation for creating architecturally attractive, environmentally sensitive and user friendly office, hotel, warehouse, retail and business park schemes which range from £10m to £80m. It has so far undertaken more than 60 projects with an end value in excess of £1bn.
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