Council reveal sale price of office building

MIDLAND HOUSE WILL NET £755K

- By WILLIAM TELFORD

THE sale of the huge Midland House office block will net Plymouth City Council £755,000, it has been revealed. The authority disclosed how much it would receive from the sale of its former offices after speculation about the deal on social media.

The council said that had The Herald asked about how much cash it had pocketed it "could have provided this information". The Herald asked if the building had been sold but not the price or who the purchaser was because this sort of information is not usually given out due to commercial confidentiality.

Plymouth City Council has said that a special purchase vehicle (SPV) company has bought the property, on the corner of Notte Street and Princess Street Ope, and intends to turn it into flats over ground-floor offices. It stressed that the sale followed a "fully transparent process" and that five offers had been made for the building which were assessed against criteria before a decision was made.

The Herald has previously revealed that in June this year planning permission was granted for Midland House to be turned into 34 flats. The application was made by a real estate company called Midland House (Plymouth) Ltd, controlled by Christopher Pattison, a former deputy leader of the council, who served as a Labour councillor between 2000 and 2009.