Britain’s Olympians have been invited to set up training camps on one of the country’s biggest commercial estates.
St Modwen Developments says its 478-acre Long Marston Estate, near Stratford-upon-Avon, has space to spare; including accommodation, an indoor shooting range and gymnasia.
The offer has been made to the Olympic Committee through Warwickshire County Council’s leisure services department.
The news came as Porterbrook signed a five-year lease on a 26,000 sq ft warehouse at Long Marston as a national depot for rolling stock.
St Modwen restored rail links to the Oxford-Worcester line – after a gap of ten years – after paying Defence Estates £12m for the site’s freehold last year.
Long Marston, first developed in 1941, housed the Central Engineers Depot, which supplied the Army and RAF.
St Modwen director Peter Robbins says Motorail Logistics will operate the reopened railway and maintain the infrastructure, including 35 km of track.
“We’d been after this site for eight or nine years, because we had a gut feeling it would be a good place to store rolling stock,” he said.
Porterbrook is paying a knock-down rent, understood to be in the region of £30,000 pa, and Motorail is now looking for other rail-related companies to take space.
Three-quarters of the industrial buildings are let, and King Sturge’s Birmingham office has been brought in to identify further commercial tenants.
Discussions with Stratford Borough Council about a long-term redevelopment strategy are at an early stage, although leisure uses have been highlighted, which is being examined by St Modwens and King Sturge.
References: EGi News 27/09/05
