Henry Boot has sold a two-acre development site in York to McCarthy Stone.
The site, at the Chocolate Works, has been bought to deliver a 72-home retirement scheme. The pair have been working together on the project since 2019 and finally got consent for the project in March this year.
Henry Boot’s development arm HBD will now work with McCarthy Stone to finish preparing the site for development. McCarthy Stone will solely lead on the development of the purpose-built retirement accommodation.
The new retirement community marks the final phase of HBD’s 27-acre development, which included the transformation of the former 160,000 sq ft Terry’s Chocolate factory into 163 flats, delivering a total GDV of £110m.
Henry Boot chief executive Tim Roberts said: “Securing planning permission and agreeing the sale to McCarthy Stone of the last remaining land site at the Chocolate Works will bring much-needed retirement living in York, helping address the huge demand for specialist retirement accommodation that exists right across the country.
“By adding retirement accommodation, which will also offer tailored levels of care, alongside the residential and other uses we have developed at the site, helps achieve our goal of creating a deep and multi-generational community at this transformed former factory.”
Henry Boot also announced an update on trading across the business this morning.
Roberts said: “We have begun the year well, trading in line with market expectations and continuing to crystalise profits from both land sales and delivering prime development and premium homes. We have started to see signs that the economy has turned a corner, with inflation falling and interest rates likely to fall, which has improved sentiment in our three key markets.
“While we expect our performance to be heavily weighted to H2 2024, as flagged at our results in March, our focus on high-quality land and development in prime locations, along with a renewed banking facility, leaves the group in a position to deliver full year performance as expected.”
The group said its Hallam Land business had completed the sale of 776 plots across four sites and exchanged on a further 792 for completion during 2024-2026, and that while activity had not recovered to the heights of 2022, land prices had remained stable in Q1 2024.
It added that its construction arm continued to experience challenging trading conditions but remained focused on building up its order book. To support the growth of the business, the group said it had agreed terms with existing lenders Barclays, HSBC and NatWest for a new £125m, three-year facility, with the option to extend for a further two years to May 2029. The margin payable under the new facility is 1.6% above Sonia. It replaces a £105m committed facility which had a scheduled maturity in January 2025.
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