Education company PGL Travel is planning to sell the freehold to the 138-acre former Pestalozzi International Village in East Sussex.
The company, which provides school activity courses and summer camps for children, has appointed Christie & Co to find a buyer.
Pestalozzi was a children’s educational and residential establishment that attracted children from around the world for more than 60 years until it was acquired by PGL Travel in 2019.
The estate comprises a range of former residential and educational buildings providing 36,467 sq ft of accommodation, together with a lake, former sports pitches and agricultural land.
Pestalozzi’s permitted planning use is as an educational and residential institution, and there is an existing consent allowing for the development of a further 31,453 sq ft of accommodation on the site. However, the site is also marketed with scope for change of use.
Christies said the site may have potential for a variety of healthcare and education-related uses falling within class C2. In addition, parts of the site may also have potential for health and wellbeing, places of worship or non-residential education and training centre uses, subject to the necessary consent and permissions.
Alternatively, planning consent could also be sought for the redevelopment of what is known as “previously disturbed land” including such uses as tourism, housing or as a natural/woodland burial ground. Elements of residential development on the site may also be possible.
Anthony Jones, chief executive of PGL, said: “Following a review, we have decided to dispose of the Pestalozzi site in order to focus our investment plans elsewhere.”
Jon Patrick, head of leisure and development at Christie & Co, which will market the site across its leisure, care and childcare teams, said: “Opportunities to bring to market estates at the scale of Pestalozzi, in the south of England, are exceptionally rare.
“The amount of current on-site accommodation, as well as the opportunity to extend this under existing planning permission, will appeal to a wide range of potential purchasers within the leisure, health and wellbeing and tourism industries, along with residential developers and we anticipate the site will generate significant interest.”
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Image: PGL Travel/Christie & Co
