The owner of Reading Football Club is in pole position to win one of the largest development sites in the town.
Sackville Properties, the property company that is chaired and 70% owned by John Madejski, is in detailed negotiations to buy the 3.25-acre site on Station Hill in central Reading from Land Securities.
It will pay in excess of £25m for the site, which could house a mixed-use scheme of up to 900,000 sq ft.
Adjacent to Reading station, the site is just 2.5 miles away from the Madejski Stadium, Royal Berkshire Conference Centre and Millennium Madejski Hotel, which are all owned by the football club. Madejski is ranked 38 in the EG Rich List 2004, with £305m.
Tim Mash, associate director of CBRE, said: “Madejski is the face of Reading. He has been a Reading man all his life and he’ll be interested in the Station Hill site, as it’s what the town needs.”
LandSec’s selling agent Strutt & Parker said the site was not yet under offer, but that a decision was “imminent”. LandSec put the site on the market in October as part of its move to focus on central London offices and retail.
References: EGi News 17/01/05
