ITV is offloading up to half of its 2m sq ft portfolio to help cut £100m in costs, writes Lisa Pilkington.
The move follows the £3bn Granada/Carlton Television merger last year, which formed ITV plc.
Property director Mark Stretton said: “We’ve had the amalgamation of TV companies, and studios of this scale are simply not used as much as they used to be.”
ITV’s portfolio, which comprises a mix of freehold and leasehold buildings, is worth £163m, but has not been revalued since 1993. Assuming an 84% capital appreciation, the average for commercial property, the portfolio should be worth almost £300m.
ITV is selling more than 760,000 sq ft of space across the country as it moves to smaller sites. Sites already confirmed for new offices total just 190,000 sq ft, a quarter of the space it is selling.
The firm sold the 230,000 sq ft (21,400m2) East Midlands studios on Nottingham’s Lenton Lane to the University of Nottingham for more than £12m. It is also offloading its 80,000 sq ft (7,400m2) studios in Newcastle upon Tyne, where it had been based for more than 40 years, the 60,000 sq ft (5,500m2) Central TV studios in Birmingham, the 82,000 sq ft (7,600m2) former HTV studios in Bristol, the 150,000 sq ft (14,000m2) Granada TV building in Manchester and the 47,000 sq ft (4,400m2) Anglia TV studios in Norwich.
