A new airport.... South Yorkshire Airport City?

[radar]

That’s very true, however I would caution that money lost isn’t necessarily how the valuation would work.

No, of course not. But broadly, they have no reason to sell it if they’re not getting their investment back in some form.

 

[pug]

No, of course not. But broadly, they have no reason to sell it if they’re not getting their investment back in some form.

No exactly, so with them seemingly refusing to budge on the turnover top slice then it either means they are holding firm and are not necessarily in alignment with SYMCS (I.e they said if you want the airport you’ll have to buy it) and/or the financial risk of reopening the airport under a lease regardless of terms is unacceptable to the financial officers so the only option available is to purchase the freehold. I’m tending towards the latter here, and either way I can’t see Peel being keen to let it go for a song unless there are some justifiable reasons line significant concessions on offer elsewhere.

I have far more faith in Peels negotiation team than SYMCAs. In fact this is likely to be noise to drown out a clear negative.

 

[Eusebius]

Broadly, Peel would have been willing to sell the site for A LOT of money, reflecting their investment in the site and of course the profit they could realise from developing it. Obviously we don't know what that figure might have been but you'd have to suspect a few hundred million pounds. If they really have suddenly agreed to sell it for a few tens of millions then that's weird. As I said earlier, the lease was very obviously engineered to ensure Peel got the site back as soon as possible.

Just guessing obviously, but I can only think they'll write some sort of buy back agreement where the site can only be sold back to Peel at a very cheap price when the airport project collapses again, or else some environmental or geological problem has come to light that effectively renders the site worthless. Although it's hard to imagine that such a problem would only just have come to light.

 

[pug]

Broadly, Peel would have been willing to sell the site for A LOT of money, reflecting their investment in the site and of course the profit they could realise from developing it. Obviously we don't know what that figure might have been but you'd have to suspect a few hundred million pounds. If they really have suddenly agreed to sell it for a few tens of millions then that's weird. As I said earlier, the lease was very obviously engineered to ensure Peel got the site back as soon as possible.

Just guessing obviously, but I can only think they'll write some sort of buy back agreement where the site can only be sold back to Peel at a very cheap price when the airport project collapses again, or else some environmental or geological problem has come to light that effectively renders the site worthless. Although it's hard to imagine that such a problem would only just have come to light.

Think that’s perhaps looking too deep into it at the moment. Peel will know by this point whether there are any geological or contamination risks at this point. There was a long held belief that the site may be at risk of subsidence but think that was blown out the water years ago as the MOD had prevented any mining within a set vicinity of the site to prevent this. What Peel do know is under there is significant mineral extraction potential, the quarries quickly encroaching the 02 threshold prove this.

 

[Eusebius]

What Peel do know is under there is significant mineral extraction potential, the quarries quickly encroaching the 02 threshold prove this.

Well quite, which makes this all very odd. I suppose a deal in which SYMCA buy the site and then sell it back to Peel in a few years when the project collapses might suit everyone's purposes. I don't know. The only other thing I can think of is AFFF decontamination. It seems to be a new problem and although it sounds like a nothing burger a bit of Googling suggests it can cost staggering sums to clean up. That could account for the low price and Peel's sudden interest in offloading the site. If it's that then they might not be able to do anything with the site without a very difficult and hugely expensive cleanup project.

 

[northsouth]

This seems a bit strange regards the proposed purchase I thaught this was the first option the council tried back in 2022/3 but was unaffordable as peel were unwilling to sell at a reduced price and they could not afford anyway - so the lease was the best option, now what this becoming even more complex and as previous posts where is all the funding coming from

 

[White Heather]

This seems a bit strange regards the proposed purchase I thaught this was the first option the council tried back in 2022/3 but was unaffordable as peel were unwilling to sell at a reduced price and they could not afford anyway - so the lease was the best option, now what this becoming even more complex and as previous posts where is all the funding coming from

Wouldn't a purchase mean that the entire Business Case would need to be revised and reconsidered by the Council Auditors, resulting in even further delay? Leasing and buying are very different in terns of risk.