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.

 

[Stagman]

You have got to remember that Peel publicly stated there was an offer accepted to sell the airport, but the bidder didn't come forward with proof of funds. Think that offer was either £100-150m. So there has been a figure publicly released of what Peel are willing to accept.

But remember the big show in the hangar with the Vulcan outside. Where all the Councils agreed to the Lease. But not after asking the questions are we going to have any of our funding used. When it was said it was just Doncaster's pot that was funding it, they all happily said yes.

So how is SYMCA going to fund purchase of freehold. If it means the other councils having to have some of their funding going towards it then there is going to be some wrangling and scratching of backs to be done to get all the councils to agree to this. Is SYMCA just going to take Doncaster's pot share for purchase, so that would leave very little in the bank to get the airport up and running.

This all looks to be another big delaying tactic.

If SYMCA buys the Freehold then CDC still has the Lease, but instead of it being paid to Peel, all the payments will go to SYMCA. So SYMCA would have to renegotiate the Lease or terminate the Lease. Or would SYMCA wait until the 2031 break clause before binning the lease.


This will mean that CDC Business Case for funding the project is completely out the window and binned. This is due to the funding not going to be forthcoming to CDC and rerouted via SYMCA. With the funding now being done by SYMCA.

CDC will have to pull the plug on it and as a result of no funding then the plug would be pulled on FlyDoncaster. If that's the case then with CDC/ FlyDoncaster name on the airspace application, then progress would be terminated. In which case SYMCA would be having to start it all from scratch once again. Would SYMCA want to take on FlyDoncaster, it could possibly but would be bumpy road.


If SYMCA do purchase the Freehold, I reckon they would want to start fresh clean slate to it all.
So options are:
SYMCA runs it themselves.
SYMCA brings in an established operator and lease it out to them.
SYMCA runs a franchise model and puts it out to operators to run.


Since Peel closed down DSA Limited and dissolved it. Means SYMCA are not buying an operational company. It is just a land transaction.

So it is totally different to the TVCA model with Teesside Airport, where TVCA purchased an operational company that owned the land.

SYMCA doesn't have that option, so is just basically a land transaction. Then SYMCA would have to build a company up from scratch, which then would become a sellable vehicle.

It doesn't seem an easy or quick task for SYMCA. But one thing it is looking like is the opening date will be pushed into the 2030's now.

So it looks like CDC's hands on role is going to come to a full stop.