A decade-long legal wrangle to recover the cost of bulldozing an “eyesore” Teesside office block has taken an unexpected turn after the site was acquired by an American drug manufacturer.
The former ICI headquarters building on Billingham’s Belasis Avenue had suffered from vandal and arson attacks almost from the day it was vacated in 1995. Five years later, and already branded “infamous” by the local council, the 10-storey building was bought by Bizzy B Management.
Despite refurbishment plans the London-based company continued to neglect the site and Stockton Council finally announced it was spending half-a-million pounds to demolish the 50-year-old building. Bizzy B objected, claiming it had viable revamp plans, and took the battle to the Court of Appeal which ruled, in 2012, that the authority could take control of the entire site.
At the time Mike Smith, the authority’s cabinet member for regeneration and transport, said: “It has been very frustrating to have to deal with the series of legal challenges by Bizzy B. For their part, they have put every possible legal obstacle in our way and done little or nothing to maintain Billingham House in a safe condition.”
By the time the building was eventually flattened late in 2012 the council had spent £95,000 in legal fees and the demolition costs had more than doubled to £1.2m. When Bizzy B went into administration soon after the council began working with the liquidator to recover its costs by selling the land on the open market.
Efforts to dispose of the cleared site remained unsuccessful until this week’s announcement that it had been sold to Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies to allow it to expand its neighbouring offices and production facilities.
Seimi Satake is chief operating officer at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, one of the world’s leading cell culture manufacturers. “Our current multiple research and development, manufacturing and support facilities are on a site on the other side of Belasis Avenue which is landlocked with limited room for further expansion,” he explained.
“Being able in the future to develop the newly purchased land will be hugely beneficial in terms of logistics, communications and integration.
“We look forward to sharing the next stages of our growth plans with Stockton Council and the local community, which we anticipate will not only contribute to the revitalisation of the immediate vicinity, but also benefit the wider area in terms of business development opportunities,” said the executive.
Although he admitted the Billingham House saga now looked over, Stockton Council’s leader Bob Cook confessed: “We are very pleased the site has been bought by a local company and look forward to hearing more about Fujifilm’s ambitions for it.”
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