North West developer Citybranch has completed a £35m funding agreement with Canada Life for the development of an NHS Property Services medical hub in Trafford, Greater Manchester.
The South Trafford Health and Wellbeing Centre in Altrincham will be fully let to NHS Property Services on a 30-year income strip lease, a structure that allows NHS Property Services to acquire the freehold interest at the end of the lease term for £1.
The facility will be in line with NHS Property Service’s strategy to dispose of assets that are no longer fit-for-purpose and co-locate services in new hubs.
Adam Gross, director at Citybranch, said: “This is an entirely new approach to health and social care delivery that enables the co-location of services and creates an exemplar template for other public bodies to follow.
“It also allows the NHS to dispose of assets that are no longer fit for purpose and enter into highly favourable arrangements without the need to raise any capital.
“The income strip lease will give the tenant complete control over the management, running and future ownership of the building – a big step forward from the PFI model traditionally used by the NHS.”
Citybranch was advised by Christopher Dee; Canada Life was represented by CBRE; NHS Property Services was advised by Cushman & Wakefield.
NHS Property Services is a not-for-profit private company that controls 10% of the NHS estate.
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