Council to earn up to £16million by selling off old sorting office for new Bristol University campus
The sorting office has stood empty for yearsCouncillors are set to decide on a landmark deal with Bristol University on their new Temple Quarter campus.
As announced by the Bristol Post last year, the university has bid to take over the old Royal Mail sorting office near Temple Meads station.
The building has set derelict for more than a decade, and will be knocked down for the new £300 million campus for 5,000 students.
Bristol City Council's cabinet will meet next Tuesday, to consider the deal.
If agreed, the council will sell off their freehold interest and the remaining land on Arena Island that is not required for the new arena.
The net income for the council from the sale of the land is expected to be between £11million and £16million, once costs for land acquisition, remediation, demolition and other associated costs have been taken into account.
Bristol ArenaThe business incubator SetSquared in Engine Shed and the Engine Shed 2 development are also likely to form part of the broader campus.
This new campus is expected to include a business school and a student 'residential village'.
Sitting by Bristol Temple Meads station, it has provided an unwelcoming sight for travellers on trains pulling in to Temple Meads station for a generation.
It has been left empty since the Royal Mail left the site and moved to Filton in 1997. The huge building fell into disrepair, attracting squatters and vandals.
It became the site of a serious accident in 2005, when a 13-year-old boy fell 20ft through a glass roof while playing in the building. He landed on a concrete floor, fracturing his skull, and spent weeks in hospital afterwards.
In 2000, Shepherdess Holdings' sister company Media Office bought the site for £2 million, outbidding the former South West Regional Development Agency, which wanted it for the first Bristol Arena project.
The old sorting officeFive years later, Media Office won planning permission to convert the site into 107 flats, seven studio workspaces, walkways and offices. But that plan never came to fruition and three years later it was bought by Malaysian investors the Kian Gwan Group.
In 2011, there were plans to encourage independent tenants to take leases on the property after the building was given a makeover by the owners - but the project came to nothing.
For years it stood empty, until Bristol City Council, under former Mayor George Ferguson, bought the site for £6million, using a £5.4 million grant from the Government.
The new campus will be "an important anchor" in the regeneration of the area, the council said.
New campus for Bristol UniversityThe business rate income from the university is likely to be lower than from a "purely commercial deal" it added, but said it would give "more certainty" to the development of the other sites.
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said: "This is an important deal for consideration by cabinet that could see the development of a major new campus for the University of Bristol and the acceleration of development in the Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. The derelict land close to the station has been a blight on the city for too long, and this deal could offer an exceptional opportunity to create a flourishing and inclusive home of digital excellence, innovation, education and industry. It could also bring forward more quickly jobs and opportunities for our citizens from other sites in the area."
If approved, full transfer of the land would take place once demolition of the former sorting office has been completed and Bristol University has received planning permission.
The building has set derelict for more than a decade ...
