Birmingham City have announced they have struck a deal to buy the former Wheels Adventure Park in Bordesley Green from the city council.
The project includes plans for a 'super stadium' and sports village and was revealed by BirminghamLive's Jane Haynes and has been subsequently confirmed by the club.
Soon after breaking the news Jane appeared on the Keep Right On podcast to discuss the news and give her take on what it means for Blues fans. Here's a transcript of her discussion with Alex Dicken and Brian Dick.
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Blues and the Wheels site
JH: It's a huge development, isn't it? What we know at the moment is that Birmingham City Council, in its attempts to get itself out of its financial crisis, is having to look at every asset that it owns and consider offers and sales of much of the, I think it's something like £3 billion worth of assets that it owns across the city.
It's one of the biggest landowners in the country, actually. So what we know is that at some point an unsolicited offer was made to it for the 48-acre Wheels site, as people know it.
We have not had confirmed from the Council or the club that it is Birmingham City, but we know that it is from other sources, that Birmingham City are the buyer, that they have approached the Council and made an offer for this land.
The detail of that will now be confirmed and worked out between the lawyers, the council officers for the City Council and Birmingham City. They have clearly set out to the City Council a plan for the land which meets their approval.
They talk in the document that I've read of a sporting centre of excellence being created there, of it having international significance. Essentially, this seems to fit in with the image that Birmingham City FC's new owners have created, that they are here for the long haul.
How much competition have Blues beaten off?
JH: For those of you who know the site, it was a karting and racetrack kind of set up there called Birmingham Wheels Park for some years. Now that closed in 2021 and in the work that the council then did on the land, they discovered it was quite badly contaminated. There was a problem with Japanese knotweed and there were other issues on the site.
So they actually withdrew it from sale back in 2022 to tackle these underlying contamination issues first. The people behind Birmingham Wheels then put together their own bid and a guy called Lyndon Rushby got involved.
He was very keen to revive the Wheels project and do some other sporting activities there and made a bid. Birmingham City Council rejected that just before Christmas, telling him it was way off the mark for the value of the land.
Obviously, what we don't know is whether Birmingham City at that point had already expressed an interest or were in negotiations with the Council. But clearly they were not impressed with the original offer they had. Again, they seemed to give the impression that they were in no rush to sell this land. They wanted to deal with the contamination problems, which are still there, before they put it up for sale.
Something has obviously changed in the few months since. As I say they described the offer they received as unsolicited, they weren't out in the marketplace for it but clearly it's been good enough to meet the Council's best value restrictions. Some people will be pouring over those figures when they are finally released to make sure that we've done a good deal here for the city.
But that will all emerge in the coming weeks and possibly even months before we know what exactly Birmingham City have paid. Unless, of course, they tell us.
What happens next?
JH: So first step is that the Cabinet Property sub-committee meets tomorrow afternoon [Thursday, March 28]. This is one of about eight items on the agenda. It’s not flagged as a major development but clearly all eyes will be on that item.
At that meeting, the councillors will be recommended to approve the proposal of the buyer to take on this site. I think the assistant director for investment and the city solicitor finalise all the details of the purchase, essentially sign it off and get all the paperwork sorted.
After that, it will then go to the full cabinet meeting for final approvals. Only then will the details start to emerge of what Birmingham City planned for the site. They will then have to go through the planning application process and various other hurdles before this can become a reality.
This is not going to be a quick process, this is not going to happen overnight. This is, I believe, part of their long-term ten-year vision for Birmingham City and Birmingham and it may be some years even before there are bricks going up.
I may be wrong. They may be on a much more accelerated timetable. until the club speak to speak to the fans and tell them what they've got in mind we’re a little bit in the dark about the timetable.
Wheels site clean up
JH: The good news for Birmingham City and for the City Council is that the Government has already confirmed that it will fund some of that clean up. It's given a grant of just over £17 million. The council has had to top that up with just over a million pounds of its own money. That is for a levelling up fund grant that will essentially cover the costs of getting the site ready for a developer to build on. So those costs are already accounted for.
The City Council have said in their report that they intend to meet that commitment and to continue to give that promise that they will fund that, which gives Birmingham City a good place to get cracking.
How excited should Birmingham City fans be?
JH: Hugely, hugely. Somebody referred to it as the biggest moment in the club's history. This is going to see them, we believe, move from a hemmed-in site in Small Heath that they've been at since 1906, to potentially one of the best sporting complexes in the country. That is how big a vision this could end up being. But as I say, all eyes on the club now to hear the full detail of what they've got planned.
