BRDC Announce £32m Development Deal for Silverstone

The British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) has confirmed that British commercial property company MEPC has taken a 999-year lease on the Silverstone Industrial Estate and the development land around the outside of the circuit.

MEPC has paid £32m ($50.4m) for the lease, which does not include the management or development of the Silverstone Circuit.

New hotels, wharehouses, a museum and a technical college will all be built as a part of the deal.

The BRDC said the payment ‘has allowed the BRDC to pay off its long and short-term loans from Lloyds Banking Group and Northamptonshire County Council, to whom the BRDC is grateful for support.’

Stuart Rolt, Chairman of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, said: “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with MEPC, which was selected on the grounds of its financial standing, reputation, the quality of the developments it has undertaken – and continues to own – and the price it was prepared to pay.

“We have every confidence that their vision for our land will see the realisation of a high-quality development, which will add to the ever growing status of Silverstone as a world class centre for motor sport and vehicle engineering. We are also confident that in MEPC we have a partner which fully appreciates the status of Silverstone as a race circuit, its history, the ethos of the BRDC and the importance of doing everything to ensure that reputation is enhanced in the future.”

Rick de Blaby, Chief Executive Office of MEPC, added: “When we were approached with the BRDC’s vision of what Silverstone might become in its next iteration, it was easy for my colleagues and I at MEPC to relate to such ambition; the creation of great business estates, with clusters of particular commercial activity that have a sense of place and community, is what we do.

“That the BRDC had secured planning consent for its Masterplan is to its great credit and we are, of course, hugely cognisant of the immense history of Silverstone and its current standing today, not just as a venue for world-class motor sport, but as a centre for high-end precision engineering.”

Development partner agrees terms

In terms of the development and management of the circuit, the BRDC has said ‘it has agreed terms with a suitable partner to further develop and invest in the circuit and circuit-related facilities. Under the terms of non-disclosure agreements the BRDC is not able to comment on any details, but the aim is to bring these negotiations to completion before the Club’s Annual General Meeting on 04 October.’

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