Birmingham City Council looks set to get a £300m windfall in the new year, following the sale of the Digbeth wholesale markets site.
Council leader, Mike Whitby, reportedly said there was ‘unprecedented’ interest in the 21-acre site. Land in the city centre is already fetching between £6m and £10m an acre, and in some cases as much as £16m.
This means the complex, on Bradford Street, could be worth between £126m and £336m.
The market itself is the largest of its kind in the country, and has been running at its present site since 1974. Work is now under way to find an alternative location, so the market can continue.
The council’s director of regeneration, Clive Dutton, had reportedly said the current buildings were not fit for purpose.
‘This is one of the most exciting projects that we have in the pipeline,’ said deputy leader, Paul Tilsley. ‘It will give us an opportunity to regenerate this area.’
It is thought £15m from the sale of the land could be used to help build the planned new Centenary Square library.
A leading academic, Professor Michael Parkinson, urged the council earlier this year to unlock its property portfolio to pay for the regeneration of central Birmingham.
The market site was singled out by Professor Parkinson, in his report, as an ideal opportunity for a regeneration scheme of national importance.
Speaking in March, Professor Parkinson said: ‘Birmingham has had a very good first act indeed, and has a lot to build on.
‘But since the world moves on and the competition sharpens, the city wants to find a second act to build on the huge sucess of the first.’
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