Eden buys Wolverhampton icon for £70m resi reimagining

Eden Property Group has bought the former Beatties department store in Wolverhampton for a £70m, 400-home scheme. The group has paid just over £6m for the 376,636 sq ft property, which also includes a multi-storey car park. Three additional buildings and a yard were included within the sale, but are excluded from the approved planning consents, offering further development opportunity subject to planning permission. The site’s redevelopment has support from the West Midlands Combined Authority, which has produced a letter of intent providing levelling-up/gap funding and is working with the Eden Property Group to bring the site back into use as quickly as possible. Antony Antoniou, chief executive of Robert Irving Burns, which advised on the sale, said: “The site represents a fantastic investment opportunity for the Eden Property Group. This scheme, with its combination of centrally located housing and wealth of additional amenities, will unlock the wider regeneration of Wolverhampton city centre and it is good to see that the WMCA has continued to be so supportive of the redevelopment.” The property had previously been sold to private investor SSYS for £3m in February 2019 and planning permission was granted to convert it into 306 flats in March 2021. Administrators were appointed to SSYS Beatties in October last year. Beatties was part of the House of Fraser empire, which collapsed into administration in August 2018. Alexander Lawson Chartered Surveyors instructed Robert Irving Burns to sell the Beatties store for £7.5m last November. Image from PR