The Welsh Government has acquired a huge 900-plus acre land site at Baglan Bay in Neath Port Talbot. The site, which includes the former BP Chemicals plant, which closed in the late 1990s, has been acquired by the Cardiff Bay administration from regeneration firm St Modwen - through St Modwen Developments.
In what is one of the biggest land acquisition deals ever in Wales, the site - which extends to 911 acres and includes part of the freehold interest in the Baglan Energy Park - has been acquired for £1.75m. At Baglan Energy Park the Welsh Government last year intervened to provide a new electricity network for companies located there, at the cost of £4m, after the collapse of the previous utility infrastructure owner.
Neil Francis, a partner with the Cardiff office of property advisory firm Knight Frank acted for the Welsh Government on the deal, with Chris Sutton, of Sutton Consulting, acting for St Modwen. St Modwen acquired the Baglan site alongside a number of other BP assets, including the oil refinery in Llandarcy, where it is now developing the Coed Darcy residential scheme, in 2009.
Asked what it intends to do with the huge site, where not all of the land is developable like its foreshore area, a spokesman for the Welsh Government said: “Work to develop detailed options for the land will be undertaken. This will include a range of technical studies and consultation with stakeholders.
However, it can be seen as a key strategic development site, which benefits from its close proximity to the M4, rail’s South Wales mainline and the port of Port Talbot.
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There is currently a lack of large land sites in Wales that could accommodate developments of scale - including for an electric vehicle battery plant. Land assembly, to attract new investment into Wales, was a successful strategy of the former Welsh Development Agency, which the Welsh Government abolished back in 2004.The WDA was able to attract private investment often by de-risking land sites through remediation investment and planning.
Moreover, the Welsh Government’s near 100-acre brownfield development at Brocastle, next to the former Ford engine plant in Bridgend, has attracted strong investor interest. The vast majority of the land, which has been marketed as two separate lots, is now under offer. It is understood that one of the interested parties is a data centre operator.
A deal is also expected shortly on the sale by Ford of its former engine plant. The freehold interest in the factory, which extends to 1.67 million sq ft located within a 158 acre site - where Ford ceased production in 2020 after 40 years - is being marketed by property advisory firm CBRE.
Last year the Cardiff Capital Region - made up of the 10 local authorities of south-east Wales, used its £1.3bn City Deal to acquire the former Aberthaw Power Station. The 500 acre site, in the Vale of Glamorgan, was bought from energy giant RWE for £8m. The city region has committed a further £28.4m to demolish the power plant and fund remediation and redevelopment work with plans to develop a new renewable energy hub.
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