Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tiverton House still for sale

There has been some bad news on the empty property front - all the potential buyers of Tiverton House have fallen through, and the Council has now put the building, former sheltered accommodation for the elderly, back on the market.

Rather than make expensive refurbishments to bring up to current standards, the Council decided to try selling the building with a view to using the money to fund other refurbishments elsewhere in the City. A number of bidders proposing different uses were in the frame, but they are now back to square one.

I have raised concerns for a while that the Council wouldn't be able to sell the building, and was also worried about some of the proposed uses from potential purchasers. They better have a plan 'B' in place in case they can't sell at the right price, to bring the property back into use.

The Council leaving residential property empty makes it all the harder to put pressure on private developers, like the owners of the shops and boarded up flats on the Perne Rd/Radegund Rd junction. Clearly there are huge problems in both the residential and commercial property markets at the moment, but I am trying to (re)arrange a meeting with the owners via their agents to see what the prospects are for bringing forward a redevelopment scheme.

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