It has emerged at MIPIM that the six Nottingham City Council (NCC) buildings soon to be vacated have become some of the hottest property in the UK over the last few months.
Speaking at the MIPIM international investment fair, NCC's director of workplace strategy Geoff Hibbert commented:
'When it was announced that we would be relocating the council's head offices to a single location on Southside, we made no secret of the business case. The six key City Centre sites, we will vacate, were to be available for investment. The property market has been relatively flat and so we budgeted for a medium-term strategy which avoided the need to sell at 'fire sale' prices. I think it's fair to say that we probably won't now have any significant void costs. By July this year I hope at least half of the sites will have been snapped up, at the right price, by investors with very attractive ideas for their future use.'
Mark Hobson of maber architects, which has compiled the feasibility studies on the six sites, added: 'The availability of these buildings gives developers a chance to acquire a piece of Nottingham heritage. The sites are very architecturally diverse and offer a very wide variety of potential uses. I know Geoff has had some considerable interest, which we should take as an encouraging sign for the well being of the Nottingham property market.'
NCC is due to move most of its city centre operations into a single headquarters by the end of the year. Hibbert revealed that over twenty viable and serious expressions of interest had been received across the six sites, which include the Guildhall and Exchange buildings, in the last six months.
Hibbert concluded: 'There's little doubt that the timing of the purchase of Loxley House and the subsequent sale of the six current sites will take advantage of the current market. Three investors approached us about buying all of the locations within a matter of weeks of our announcement about Loxley House.
'I think there is very strong evidence that the market for good investment property remains very buoyant, and I'm pleased that we have a good product and can negotiate excellent sale prices and future uses for these important sites.'
Geoff Hibbert and the rest of Team Nottingham will be at MIPIM working to attract investment to Nottingham with particular emphasis on the six sites and Nottingham's exciting new business district, Southside.