Income from Clarence Dock

Readers might like some further information about the Clarence Dock development writes Stuart Mills, British Waterways Director of Property.

This is in response to the 9th January article, Clarence Dock failure, which implies British Waterways was the developer of this Leeds site.

Developer

Property Week magazine (6th January) reports that Crosby was the developer from 2001 until the 2008 opening; in the meantime, the multi-national Lend Lease inherited the development when it bought Crosby in 2005.

British Waterways didn't sell the freehold in 2001. It kept it and granted a 150 year lease to the developer. In doing so British Waterways not only benefits from a rental income of £260k per annum from the developer/owner, it has also received substantial capital payments together with assets to the value of £2.72m which have the potential to provide an additional income stream of around £300k per annum.

Benefit

In short British Waterways gets around £260,000 a year whether or not the property is let and, in the event that its tenant can't pay the £260,000 annual rent, then the 150 year lease could be cancelled, leaving British Waterways with the benefit of all the buildings constructed at someone else's cost together with any mooring income and rental income from its other assets in and around Clarence Dock.

The Income from Clarence Dock is part of the annual rents British Waterways receives from its investment property portfolio. All the net rentals are used towards paying for the maintenance of the waterways.