Campus sold off as part of college plan

Sandwell College has sold its West Bromwich campus ahead of planned moves to a new site.

The Oldbury and Smethwick campuses have also been put on the market.

The deal for the West Bromwich High Street campus was completed on June 20, with Regeneration Agency Advantage West Midlands taking on the site, which it will lease back to the college until the new £80 million Spon Lane campus is completed.

The remaining sites, in Pound Road, Oldbury and Crocketts Lane, Smethwick were put on the market this week by agents Savills.

Both sites are expected to be bought and leased back to the college in the same way, prior to the opening of the new combined campus, expecting to see the first students through the door in 2010.Lucy FitzHugh, associate director - commercial development for Savills Commercial Ltd, who is dealing with the sales said the sites are likely to be snapped up by developers, particularly because of their good transport links to the motorway network.

She said: “Savills has been instructed to dispose of the colleges’ remaining two campus’s at Oldbury and Smethwick.

“These have just been released to the market for sale.

“Combined, they offer over 12 acres of development land suitable for a variety of uses including residential, hotel, leisure, car showroom, care home and other commercial uses.”

The £80 million plans for Sandwell College, which have recently been granted planning permission, will see all three campuses brought together in Spon Lane.

The seven storey, 250,000 sq ft building, will include a food hall and bar with a European-style piazza to be created outside.

It will be one of the first schemes to be given the go ahead as part of the £500 million regeneration of West Bromwich town centre with work due to start on the site later this summer.

Once completed the college will be one of the largest further education establishments in the West Midlands.