St Modwen acquires former smelter site at Avonmouth to create a £150 million Employment Park

St. Modwen Developments Ltd, the development subsidiary of St. Modwen Properties PLC, has agreed to acquire Britannia Zinc Ltd’s 212-acre zinc smelter plant site at Avonmouth, Bristol, for redevelopment as a major employment park within half a mile of Junction 18/18a of the M5/M49 motorway.

St. Modwen previously had a development agreement with Britannia Zinc on 77 acres of the site, which was surplus to Britannia Zinc’s operational requirements. A first phase (Access 18) of 4 acres has been developed with two speculative distribution/production units and a planning application has been submitted for the next phase of 34 acres.

This acquisition gives St. Modwen control of the entire 212-acre site, which it intends to bring forward in phases as a £150 million employment park, capable of supporting over 2 million square feet of space and helping to create over 4,000 jobs.

As part of the transaction, St. Modwen is taking over responsibility for the environmental clean up of the site and the demolition of buildings. Britannia Zinc, a wholly owned subsidiary of MIM Holdings Ltd, is paying regeneration specialists St. Modwen £2 million towards the costs of preparing the site for redevelopment.

The agreement is subject to the transfer of a waste disposal licence, which is scheduled to take place shortly.

John Dodds, regional director of St. Modwen, said: “This is a very exciting acquisition. The location is the best in Avonmouth and we already have a good understanding of the site and the market through our work on Access 18.”

MIM Holdings Ltd is an Australian-based mining and mineral processing company producing copper, coal, zinc, lead, silver and gold in Australia, UK and Argentina.

For further information contact John Dodds of St. Modwen on 0121- 456-2800

or e-mail: jdodds@stmodwen.co.uk. Issued by Paul Raymer of Howle Chapman Raymer (0121 236-7771)