Eighteen months is a long time to spend on the starting grid.
Long enough, it seems, for the British Racing Drivers’ Club to realise that if it wants to redevelop the 760-acre Silverstone estate, it needs to release the handbrake a little.
And that is what it agreed to do at its annual general meeting late last month. The owner of the famous Grand Prix track says it will provide fresh incentives to potential investors in the Northamptonshire development site to enable it to finally give the green light.
BRDC subsidiary Silverstone Holdings wants to develop more than 4m sq ft across the estate, including a 1.3m sq ft business park, a circa 370,000 sq ft education campus, three hotels, plus leisure and spectator facilities. It launched a search for a developer and funding partner for the £500m scheme back in February 2011.
Harrods owner Qatar Investment Authority, advised by Capita Symonds, had been in the frame to partner the BRDC, but its exclusivity period lapsed in May, sending the club back to the drawing board.
Potential investors say they were turned off the project by the strict conditions put in place by the BRDC and a lack of cohesion among its members.
Some, say sources, have such a strong emotional attachment to Silverstone that they are reluctant to hand over control to an investor, while others are focused on achieving the best financial deal.
One source says: “Anybody looking to enter this as a partner would likely want to follow through the vision for Silverstone. However, parties did not want to be locked into the rigid contracts the BRDC was offering – that all plans should be stuck to, and that the BRDC has the final say on development.
Move with the times
“Developers and investors want to have the authority to amend plans and move with the times. We don’t know for certain what the future holds. For example, we might see more hybrid technology, meaning perhaps plans should be adapted to include more manufacturing space and replace some of the proposed offices.”
BRDC chairman Stuart Rolt has now agreed to relax the strict rules that allowed the club to block development and stop the new leaseholder from using the land as security for debt financing. Instead, any party now interested in getting involved with the project will have more leeway to alter the plans and no longer needs permission from the club to develop sites across the estate.
“Now that the BRDC is prepared to be more flexible, I think a lot more bidders will express an interest,” says a party close to the deal. “The circuit alone is a marginal business, but with the masterplan, there is potential for great property returns to be leveraged from the Silverstone brand.”
And that masterplan has now been fully approved by South Northamptonshire and Aylesbury Vale district council, which means everything should be in place for the BRDC to start up its engine and drive the regeneration forward.
Bruce Usher, a partner at Bloombridge, which is advising BRDC on planning, says: “The approval has set the framework for an investor to deliver the potential of Silverstone over the next 20 years, maintaining its status as a world-class motor sports venue, but now with a development programme that will deliver substantial benefits to the local and national economy.”
The BRDC hopes that its new, relaxed approach to the project will enable it to have secured a partner by the end of the year, but, with just four months of 2012 remaining, it will need to drive a hard bargain to reach the chequered flag on deadline.
