Birmingham's famous former LDV site is set to rise from the ashes – over four years after the last van was rolled out from the assembly lines.
A two-year programme of demolition and remediation work will finally end in March – breathing new life into one of Birmingham’s most historic factory sites.
The sprawling 45-acre complex is being marketed for industrial use, with hopes of generating new jobs through manufacturing or a distribution operation.
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The two-year demolition and remediation programme followed the end of van-making in 2009, when LDV finally collapsed after racking up debts of £75 million.
The demise of the van maker cost 800 jobs at the factory and several thousands more in the supply chain when LDV collapsed into administration in June 2009.
The plant had previously been mothballed for six months, with production at a standstill as the 2008-09 recession bit.
Stephen Morgan of Birmingham-based agents Savills – project manager for the demolition and remediation work – said: “We have recovered thousands of tons of concrete from below the site and we are onto the final bits and pieces of remediation work.
“We have been dragging out oil and diesel tanks and the like and there are still a couple of pits – one is bigger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool – but the remediation work is more or less through.
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“We aim to complete operations in March and, by that stage, the site will be ready to be developed.”
Mr Morgan said there had already been a flurry of interest in the Washwood Heath site. “There is interest in the market – it is not all doom and gloom.
“This is a well-known site; Longbridge is probably the only one that could eclipse it in Birmingham and Washwood Heath would run it a close second.”
The Drews Lane complex boasts a proud industrial heritage pre-dating the LDV era – and was home of the luxury Wolseley car company from the 1920s.
Wolseley was later swallowed up by the former British Leyland group which in turn became Austin Rover.