June 25, 2018
Palmer Capital and its co-owners Trevor Cartner and Chris Musgrave have completed the sale of the residential/retail land around Discovery Park in Kent, the former UK headquarters of Pfizer.
The Palmer Capital Consortium sold the Core Commercial Estate at the end of 2016 but retained the freehold ownership of 60 acres of land to the south and west comprising most of the car parking, the visitor centre and undeveloped sites. During their ownership the Palmer Capital consortium had obtained planning consent on this land for 500 residential units and 50,000 sq. ft. of retail.
The sale was of the entire shareholding of two companies namely Discovery Park (South) Limited and Discovery Park (West) Limited which between them owned the entire 60 acres. The purchasers comprised Discovery Park Estates, the privately owned company that had previously purchased the Core Estate.
The purchase price for the shares is not revealed although it is understood that the company sales were based on a land value of £15m.
Commenting on the sale Ray Palmer, Executive Chairman of Palmer Capital said
“The sale of these two companies completes the disposal of all of the consortium’s interests in the 200 acres at Discovery Park following the original acquisition in 2012.
When we purchased Discovery Park there were only five tenants in occupation employing just over 500 people. When we sold Discovery Park, it was home to more than 150 companies employing 2,500 people and we had obtained planning consent for a substantial residential and retail development on surplus land.
I believe that Discovery Park is one of the UK’s most successful Enterprise Zones. It is a hub for life sciences, bio-tech and technology companies and there is a major new biomass renewable energy plant nearing completion, which will serve a large part of East Kent. The overall deal is one of the most interesting and enjoyable deals that Palmer Capital has ever been involved with. It is also a deal of which I am personally proud with the huge increase in employment generation that we managed to create, the biomass renewable energy plant etc.”