Hope for 1,500 jobs in plan for axed Jaguar plant

Mar 28 2007

MORE than 1,500 jobs have been promised as part of a long-awaited plan to redevelop Jaguar's redundant car plant at Browns Lane in Coventry.

A new office and warehousing park is to be built on the site by property partners Macquarie Goodman and Birmingham-based Stoford Developments.

Australian property giant Macquarie Goodman, which currently controls more than 30 office and logistics developments throughout the UK, including Birmingham Business Park at Solihull, has bought 100 acres of the 117-acre site from Jaguar's parent company, Ford, for an undisclosed sum.

It is doing the deal through Arlington Securities, the London-based international property developer it acquired in 2005.

Arlington's interest in Browns Lane has been common knowledge within the commercial property sector for some time.

It comes two years after Jaguar vacated Browns Lane, its historic home, in favour of consolidating production at its two other sites at Castle Bromwich and Halewood on Merseyside.