Agenda item

Further to Minute 78 of the Cabinet, the City Council considered a report of the Director of Business, Investment and Culture which sought approval for the acquisition of the IKEA premises and adjoining land and property at Croft Road, Coventry (the Premises) for the purpose of creating a nationally significant Collections Centre for the storage, care and management of cultural, arts and historical artefacts. The report was further seeking acceptance of capital grant towards the ‘New Collections Centre’ project, along with the design and professional fees that will be required to take the scheme through detailed design and tendering.

A corresponding private report was also submitted to the meeting setting out the commercially confidential matters of the proposals (Minute 91 below refers).

The IKEA premises closed for business in March 2020 and the long leasehold interest was available for purchase.  The purchase price, plus fees and taxes, were set out in the Private section of the report. The Council already owned the freehold of the site. The Council had been working with Arts Council England, the British Council, Culture Coventry Trust and more latterly, Coventry University, to explore options for converting the building to a new shared national Collections Centre facility, along with associated education, skills and learning facilities to provide opportunities for much greater public access and engagement with these extensive and important collections. The modelling of the options within the building had arrived at a ‘base’ option which has proved to be technically deliverable and financially viable, with the capital expenditure, fees and costs of capital financing being serviced through the rent received over the length of the leases, subject to agreeing terms with the partners.

However, there was ongoing feasibility work to explore the deliverability of more expansive options, such that the report was seeking only to acquire the Premises and obtain further fees for detailed development, on the basis that a further report would be brought before Cabinet and Council once further feasibility had been undertaken as to these more expansive options.

Having arrived at a base option that is technically deliverable and financially achievable, the timing to acquire the Premises is being driven by the small window of availability to secure proposed capital grant funding towards the acquisition, the details of which were set out in the private section of the report. 

The following amendment, was moved by Councillor Lepoidevin seconded by Councillor Bailey and lost:

That the Recommendations in relation to Agenda Item 10 –“Property Acquisition and Acceptance of Grant” be amended by the insertion of the following additional Recommendation after Recommendations 1) and 2):-

 3)  Instruct officers to explore the feasibility of including the Coventry Police Museum within the new facility

RESOLVED that the City Council:

1)  Approved capital expenditure in the sum specified in the Private section of this Report for the purchase (plus acquisition fees and Stamp Duty Land tax) cost to fund the acquisition of the leasehold interest of the site shown edged red in Appendix 1, and to include this within the approved capital programme funded from a combination of capital grant and prudential borrowing.

2)  Delegated authority to the Director of Business Investment and Culture and the Director of Finance, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources, the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration and the Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, to identify and bid for grant assistance, where available, that supports the aims of the Collections Centre Project.  The delegated authority given under this recommendation shall include the power to accept the terms and conditions of grant funding and the entering into all necessary legal agreements to secure such grant funding. 

(Note: A vote on the amendment was taken by name)