County Durham’s Hargreaves Services has sold a plot of land to York housebuilder Persimmon as the latest part of a disposal strategy.
The industrial and property specialist, based in Durham, first unveiled plans to breathe new life into a former opencast mine back in Scotland in 2015, detailing how the Blindwells development would create more than 3,000 homes, a school, community facilities and commercial units in East Lothian.
Hargreaves, which acquired the Blindwells site in July 2013 from the liquidators of collapsed Scottish Coal, has now announced the condition sale of a further phase of land to Persimmon.
It comes a month after it completed the first sale of land at the site to Bellway.
In a stock market announcement the firm said it has exchanged a conditional sale contract with Persimmon for a further 12.9-acre parcel.
Completion is conditional on receipt of detailed planning permission and the completion of infrastructure works to service the site.
The Persimmon phase has capacity for 192 homes including 30 designated as affordable.
The minimum sale value of this phase is £9.3m, with one third payable on completion and two further equal installments to be paid 12 months and 24 months later as infrastructure serving the plots is constructed.
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Completion is expected in the second half of the 2021/2022 financial year.
Roger McDowell, chairman of Hargreaves, said: ‘’The board was pleased to see the successful conclusion of the first plot sale at Blindwells and this second phase conditional sale continues the momentum at this high quality development.
“With multiple phases to follow, the strong market interest being shown by national house builders is very encouraging.’’
Blindwells is based less than 15 miles east of Edinburgh and the site has outline planning permission for 1,600 homes.
The deal comes a week after the Durham firm revealed it could sell its German business, while also revealing when the last coal would leave the North East.