Norton Motorcycles Acquires Donington Hall

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Norton Motorcycles has purchased the Donington Hall estate from British Airways including the Hall and its surrounding 25 acre grounds and the modern 45,000 sq ft Hastings House facility.

British Airways acquired Donington Hall and its’ surrounding 25 acre grounds as part of its deal to takeover Bmi in April 2012.

Stuart Garner, CEO of Norton Motorcycles, said “Donington Hall conjures up a uniquely British way to show style, strength and quality which are all great attributes of the Norton brand. However, beyond the drama and romance of Donington Hall is a thoroughly modern 45,000 sq ft building (Hastings House) which will become the new Norton Motorcycles production facility and design offices. It became clear some time ago that we had outgrown our current location, to be able to move less than a mile down the road to an outstanding facility like Donington Hall is ideal. It will allow Norton to grow our manufacturing business with focus on ‘built in Britain by British hands’, export growth and job creation”.

http://www.nortonmotorcycles.com/news/n ... gton-hall/

Next up, OIF Nortons! Oh, I think they are already. :mrgreen:
 
Mark Twain's famous quote " the reports of my death were an exaggeration" fits nicely here.

Glen
 
Wonder if we're invited to Tea .

Norton Motorcycles Acquires Donington Hall


Norton Motorcycles Acquires Donington Hall


Nasty german P.o.W.s taught cricket , The Great War . Circa 1915

Norton Motorcycles Acquires Donington Hall


Some Work required to see Lamposts are truely Vertical , unfortunately .

Norton Motorcycles Acquires Donington Hall


If they get rid of all those forign automobiles , Lowering the tone of the neigbourhood .
 
Now if I could only afford a new Norton on a civil servant's salary.
Then my aging frame probably wouldn't let me enjoy it to the extent of a young'n.
Excuses excuses i just can't afford anything newer than a 1972 :roll:
Marshal
 
MarshalNorton said:
Now if I could only afford a new Norton on a civil servant's salary.
Then my aging frame probably wouldn't let me enjoy it to the extent of a young'n.
Excuses excuses i just can't afford anything newer than a 1972 :roll:
Marshal

At the rate that Commandos are going you could sell yours and get a new one.
 
No-one has yet explained where the £££ required for this has come from ?
£6m is the price being bandied about.
If they are struggling to pay suppliers, where has this secret stash come from....

As someone said, Mr Bloor started in real estate, and went into motorcycles.
Mr Garner seems to have started in motorcycles, and gone into real estate.
Somewhat divergent business plans ?

Be a cool place for the Gathering of the Nortons though....
 
The price is right at least.
Seems a lot of building and land for about 9 million $, but then I am used to overinflated Vancouver Real Estate prices.
For the price he gets the lovely new 45,000 square foot facility plus the even lovelier old Donington Hall with 25 acres of land that must have at least some commercial designation.
I hate to think what all of this would be worth here in Vancouver, but my guess is somewhere around 200 million.
If he can generate rental income from the hall and possibly also rent out some of the new 45,000 sq. Ft building, he might get enough cash flowing to keep the Nortons coming!

Glen
 
The maintenance on such a property is immense. NO company would buy such a property as part of their manufacturing effort - they would lose their A$$ in no time at all. There is something else going on; I'd bet they won't own it long (and never planned to).
 
Garner added, “We have worked with our local authorities and politicians to put the project together, special thanks go to N W Leicestershire Council and Andrew Brigden MP. We are also working with LLEP [Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership] to put together our job creation and export growth plans, by working with LLEP we are able to put together a Regional Growth Fund application to enable further funding to help accelerate our growth plans and bring more job creation to the area as soon as possible”. We must also thank ASC Commercial Finance Nottingham for helping Norton arrange the best commercial funding for the purchase.

I sense a lot of tax breaks and incentives helped out the purchase. It's not like Norton had to go in there with £6m cash...
 
PR and write off make sense, converting ancient mansion and grounds into manufacturing facility is just plain silly - unless just a few one offs produced now and then. Garner does knows real estate values though.
 
The ancient mansion has already been converted to offices. It was the HQ of BMI from 82 on.
The manufacturing will be done at Hastings house, a new 45,000 sq ft building that is on the property.
See the original post and link. Why do the Brits know how to make a warehouse look like a Castle?
Our commercial/warehouse buildings are all concrete tilt ups-serviceable, cheap and hideous.

Again, 6 million pounds for this much building and land is very cheap. The new building alone is worth more than that. By local comparison, neighbour just sold her parents old house in Vancouver- a tear down 50s house on a 1/4 acre lot - 4.2million!

I don't know how much Garner paid for Norton but I'll bet it was a lot less than the 11 million that various investors had poured into Dreers effort. Garner's purchase of this property is likely also an opportune one.
He is a very clever man.

Glen
 
I did not read past the few paragraphs so didn't realize it was already converted to offices and on site shop. I hope its a bargain for Norton and not a big white elephant. Its pretty cool if Garner can pull it off in the long run.
 
hobot said:
PR and write off make sense, converting ancient mansion and grounds into manufacturing facility is just plain silly - unless just a few one offs produced now and then. Garner does knows real estate values though.

He will not get planning permission to use hall for any kind of manufacturing.
Is this the same person who takes deposits for new Norton Commando’s and doesn’t deliver the bikes, then we all see what’s on his agenda don’t we :?:
 
Bernhard said:
He will not get planning permission to use hall for any kind of manufacturing.

Well, he is unlikely to have bought it otherwise!

http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Derbyshire ... ngton-Hall
However, beyond the drama and romance of Donington Hall is a thoroughly modern 45,000 sq ft building (Hastings House) which will become the new Norton Motorcycles production facility and design offices.


Bernhard said:
Is this the same person who takes deposits for new Norton Commando’s and doesn’t deliver the bikes, then we all see what’s on his agenda don’t we ?

Do we? I think you need to catch up with what's been going on?
 
The airline BMI was run from this hall so it already has been kitted out with modern offices, not sure if the workshop space is there but assume that would be easy to add. This is either a timely deal at a low ebb in commercial property prices or a vanity project that will go bad. If the valuation is higher than what was paid then 85% finance should be easy as surplus funds are appearing, all he has to do is cover the financing and right away he saves the rent on the previous building. If money gets short he can get his 15% by selling on and releasing back.
 
That's correct, the Hall is already set up for office use, but no additions to it are needed for manufacturing.
It is likely not suited to that type of usage. No problem though because Garner also got this brand new gargantuan facility, Hastings house, thrown in with the purchase, three phase power and all. You couldn't hope to build this for 6million pounds here in Canada. 20 million at least for 45,000 sq ft and that doesn't get you this kind of quality. With 45,000 Sq. Ft he can rent out half and still enjoy double the space Norton currently occupies.
Oh, I see Les has already included a photo . Maybe two photos are needed anyway. Actually three including the first post!


Norton Motorcycles Acquires Donington Hall
 
Well, hope it works out. That shop looks large enough to actually produce real motorcycles at a competitive performance/price-point as opposed to boutique motorcycles that aren't.
 
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