Brownfield specialist St Francis Group has been selected as preferred bidder to purchase Rolls-Royce’s 65-acre East Works in Bristol.
A price of around £24m has been agreed for the site, which is near Filton Airfield.
The site has permission for 1.2m sq ft of industrial development, but plans are expected to be reworked into a mixed-use scheme.
It has been up for sale since 2009 when, owing to the recession, Prologis walked away from a £40m deal to buy the site after reaching a settlement with Rolls-Royce.
The East Works site was cleared of existing buildings in 2009.
St Francis Group’s bid was spearheaded by director Gareth Williams, who joined the company from Opus Land in 2014.
Marcol Group, through investment manager and subsidiary Industrial Securities, is expected to back the deal when completed.
The site formerly housed Rolls-Royce’s factory plant, which employed 750 staff at the time of closure.
Investors that were approached on the sale included SEGRO in partnership with Stoford, Muse Developments, and Graftongate.
Gerald Eve acted for Rolls-Royce; St Francis Group was unrepresented.
