Acting on behalf of a private West Midlands developer, the JLL Healthcare team in conjunction with JLL’s Birmingham based Capital Markets team, have completed a £8.5m sale of a new medical centre and pharmacy in Stourbridge, West Midlands to Primary Health Properties PLC (PHP).
Developed from the ruins of the historic Foster and Rastrick foundry famed for being the birthplace of the famous Stourbridge Lion steam engine, the grade II listed Georgian building had lain empty since 2003. Now re-developed into a state-of-the-art health centre for the Worcester Street Partnership covering 20 GP practices on a 2.05 acre site, the new Lion Health Centre on Bradley Road, which will also serve as a teaching practise, will be one of the biggest medical centres in the country.
The 27,986 sq ft (2,600 m²) centre will be wholly let for a 25 year term and will include 36 consulting rooms, nursing suite, minor surgery unit, physiotherapy suite, gym, dental practice, lecture theatre and teaching facilities together with a pharmacy sub-let to Murrays and car parking for 132 cars.
PHP originally purchased the site, that included the historic foundry, in 2012 and simultaneously exchanged a Development and Funding Agreement (DFA) with the developer. Construction of the new health centre began in the autumn of 2012 with thepractises circa 30,000 patients expected into the Lion Medical Centre next week.
James Hanson, Lead Director, JLL Healthcare, commented: “Over the last three years we have seen the building, previously listed on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk register, be transformed into a state of the art development that will be one of the biggest in the country based on the building size, number of doctors and sheer size of the patient list. Working in conjunction with Richard Goodall in the Birmingham Capital Markets team we were able to help the land owner work up planning, agree terms with the Primary Care Trust and source an appropriate medical investor.
“We are pleased that Stourbridge will soon reap the benefits of a medical centre and pharmacy within such an historic building.”