SHA,
Given there has been a large amount of chatter, and quite rightly so around this potential new ground due to the interest from Knighthead, I thought I would do some digging into the viability and potential options, of what might happen. I have a background in property and land use, so combined with being a lifelong Blues fan, I thought the below might be of interest to the forum. This is by no means a silver bullet, just merely a bit of googling, some experience in this sector and my thoughts.
Firstly, there have been the full spectrum of speculative theories about what Knighthead and Dale are contemplating when reviewing the Wheels site. The wheels site is approximately 38 acres. I don't have access to the Land Registry, thus the title boundaries maybe slightly off. We will come onto Land Values further on as at the end of the day, the current value of this site, and its potential value are key to Blues, and subsequently Knighthead.
According to the Birmingham Development Plan (BDP), (a documented created by Birmingham City Council in 2011 which runs until 2031 and provides a guide for regeneration and development across our City), the Wheels Site has two policies allocated against it, GA7 - Bordesley Park and TP19 - Core Employment Area. Links to these two policies can be found below:-
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www.planvu.co.uk]
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www.planvu.co.uk]
Two critical takeaways from this are that within TP19, Core Employment Use - employment use is defined as B1b (Research and Development), B1c (Light Industrial), B2 (General Industrial) and B8 (Warehousing and Distribution). Since the BDP was published, the user class B1c, has been changed to fall under user class E(g). This has no material impact on the potential use of the site as this user class is still for industrial.
Inner Birmingham Industrial Land Values are c.£500k per acre. This is assuming a rectangular site with no contamination and appropriate access. Now given the irregular shape of the site and limited access, this a value of £400k per acre would be sensible, taking into account the net developable area of the site. This gives a total value of £15,200,000 - which seems reasonable for the site. There are so many options with this site that I won't list what could be done here, but happy to elaborate if the forum thinks it is beneficial.
Looking at Policy GA7 - it clearly states that "Protection for and, where appropriate, enhancement of the varied sports facilities currently located in the area, including at Birmingham City Football Club and Birmingham Wheels Park." Now this is critical. Essentially no development can occur at the Wheels Park that would have an adverse material impact on St Andrews. It has been documented in the Birmingham Rag that the Wheels Site has had numerous bids from parties. Councils will happily sell off sites, where they can see a demonstratable benefit in line with the policy. This ties in nicely with the prospective new owners sniffing around as Knighthood already manage commercial property funds.
I have also reviewed the policies allocated to St Andrews itself. One policy is allocated to the St Andrews Postcode, GA7 - Bordesley Park. Full details of this policy below:-
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www.planvu.co.uk]
The policy itself is quite generic, usual mentions of further jobs, housing and infrastructure. However, crucially GA7 states "Protection for and, where appropriate, enhancement of the varied sports facilities currently located in the area, including at Birmingham City Football Club".
Given both sites have policies that include the protection of St Andrews, we can almost certainly say that the ground move is not going to happen anytime soon. I assume Knighthood / Dale are looking at the Wheels Site for the industrial redevelopment potential. Again happy, to elaborate further on this if the forum wants. I imagine Knighthood and Dale want to get the remedial works at St Andrews completed and signed off ASAP, get the regular gate back up to c.22-23K, and the look at enhancing the stadium dependant on the position and league of the club.
KRO
