By Don Mort, local democracy reporter
A derelict former woollen mill could fetch the council at least £250,000 after being put up for auction.
As reported by WLD on Thursday, St Ann’s Mills in Kirkstall could be redeveloped after bids were invited for the site, off Commercial Road.
Built in the 1830s, it has been owned by Leeds City Council since 1970 and was previously rented out to small businesses.
The council said it fell into disrepair after the last occupant moved out more than 20 years ago.
Pugh Auctions is advertising the five-acre site, which includes the mill, a yard area and woodland.
The company said on its website: “The historic mill premises are derelict and vacant, situated at the western side of the site.
“The wider site contains trading commercial premises which are not included in this sale.
“This lot is a rare opportunity for investors to acquire a substantial freehold and vacant brownfield site located just 2.5 miles from Leeds city centre.
A guide price of £250,000 was given for the mill site near Kirkstall Bridge Shopping Park.
The Pugh Auctions site said it was close to the A65 and Kirkstall Forge Railway station “making it ideal for both commuting and logistics”.
It said: “The site may be suitable for redevelopment and/or change of use, subject to all necessary consents.”
A sale of the site would raise much-needed funds for the council, which must save more than £100m this financial year.
Sponsored content
First reply had a typo-
£250,000k?
That’s extremely low as a starting point.
Leeds City Council need to be better at understanding the value of the assets they sell off.
We just sold off the famous U1 liscence plate yesterday for nearly £800,000. And yet the guide price for this piece of land where loads of unless im misled, luxury £250,000+ houses will be sold?
Nar.
Why do Political Parties seem to know the cost of everything and yet the *Value of Nowt*
We should be selling this for at least £1 million, it has potential returns of about £30 million just by selling it off to housing, shops, infrastructure and industrial development.
I hope the Mill can be recovered into modern housing mixed with commercial space.
exactly my thoughts 250k!!!
why are we giving away assets
It is just a starting price so will likely increase, but still, I’d start bidding at like 850k minimum then hype the area in newspaper adverts for the older businessmen and investors local to the region who might want to put in a punt, at least it would rise the final bid, most of which goes back to LCC and I cannot overemphasise how much the financial buget money situation for Leeds City Council is better than a lot of places, but a million miles than where we need to be and not everything can be blamed on political parties.
A lot of councillors who are labour are really good, likewise conservative and green and independent and Liberal, but they are forced into bats* decisions often cos of the pressure of this constant spiral of risk of a local government shutdown like in Donald John’s America now, if Leeds City Council runs out of money. Everything stops working. So why not drum up hype and potential multi tens of millions of pounds opportunity?
Start a bidding war and we are quids in, then the winner developer gets to build houses to sell and business premises to retain long term rent from, perhaps in a renewed St Anne’s Mill which could replicate the success of other places to maximize community benefit and rental revenue per square metre?
Mutual wins for the people of Leeds and right minded Corporations.
I’d take out a loan but doubt Yorkshire Building Society would let me have a punt lol
This would be such a great grand designs project! If only I had a spare couple of million…
Selfishly, I’d love it if we could turn it into something like Sunnybank Mills in Farsley with small shops, bars, workshops… I’d be in there all the time. But there’s a lot that needs to be done to turn it into something habitable/usable, so that might not be a viable business decision.
I don’t know, but I suspect that the reason the bidding is starting so cheap is that the building probably needs a ton of work to be done to it. If the cost of renovations is going to be in the millions, then to be honest, the value of the building in its current state is probably quite low. Bit like a bigger version of how old squat houses in Burley/Headingley are sold at auction for like £50k because it takes at least £150k of work to turn them into something sellable for £250k.
Sadly, I imagine whoever buys it will probably end up knocking it down and building something brand new there. It feels like a pity to waste the old bones of the mill, but ironically this is generally better for the environment than the amount of work required to retrofit old buildings like these. It’d be a shame to lose it, but I’d rather have a useful new thing that contributes to the local economy (houses, flats, business premises, whatever) than an dangerous old relic that does nothing.
That’s a sound analysis. I’d want more new things to be built, incorporate something of the past in like a info historical public plaque, and build new houses and businesses on a demolished and recreated Brownfield site.
But like you my heart is if the outer frame of the building could be retained in some way, even if they make it into 1 like mansion sized house to sell for millions to pay for perhaps a slightly higher % of affordable housing in the other likely homes which will come from this building.
Owts better than just seeing it rot on good prime real estate am sure we can agree