Previously owned by electric-vehicle battery business BritishVolt Properties, this 95-hectare site near Cambois, Northumberland, was acquired by Blackstone Group, from the receivers.
The deal has been selected by a panel of local industry professionals to be a winner of the CoStar Impact Awards Sale of the Year for the North East.
The £110 million deal paves the way for the construction of one of Western Europe’s largest data centres. Data centres are big business, with the gross-value-added contribution to the United Kingdom economy of each centre being an estimated £400 million.
The brownfield site was formerly a coal stocking yard for the Cambois or Blyth Power Station.
About the project:
In April 2021, BritishVolt purchased the site to build a giga-plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles and signed an unconditional buy-back option if the project did not materialise. The company went into administration in 2023. Blackstone states its plans to revitalise the site hold the potential to create and support thousands of jobs.
What the judges said:
Tony Wordsworth, director, Avison Young, said the project is underwritten with “significant capital investment in new technology with the potential for investment in the wider local economy”.
They made it happen:
Michael Vrana, senior managing director, real estate, Blackstone.