Former St Helens Chamber HQ up for sale - with hefty price

As reported last month, the business support and training organisation collapsed into administration last month, with the loss of more than 70 jobs.

Now its most valuable asset - the three-floor office space created in 2009 on the back of significant Local Enterprise Growth Initiative funding from government - has been listed for sale.

Manchester-based agents Sanderson Weatherall are handling the sale.

The listing on Right Move, says the building - one of the most impressive and modern office developments in St Helens - has a guide price of £2.75m and generates  ‘all-inclusive’ rental income of £235,131 pa from the business centre where it houses tenants.

However, with the significant change to working patterns since the Covid pandemic, which led to many organisations adapting to 'working from home' models, it is unclear what demand will be like for the site.

St Helens Council, which has bought the Chamber's Clickworks building on Hardshaw Street as part of plans to create a health and innovation hub, is thought to be unlikely to enter the bidding, according to sources.

The former Chamber HQ building, which is a short walk from St Helens Central railway station and the town centre,  has a total floor space of 28,620 square feet and parking for 94 vehicles.

On the ground floor is the business centre, divided into 31 small offices, while on the first floor are conference, meeting, training rooms and café facilities.

The offices are on Salisbury Street (Image: St Helens Chamber)

As news of the administration was announced in March, the Chamber cited a "perfect storm" of reductions in government funding, difficulties in generating a surplus from its external services and a hit to its balance sheet from the nationwide fall in office values.

Grant Thornton UK LLP have said were appointed as administrators and, in a statement, they said: “I can confirm that Jason Bell and Philip Stephenson were appointed administrators of St Helens Chamber Limited (the organisation) on 14 March 2024.

"The organisation provided a range of training and business services to its members and the local community; however it faced increasingly difficult trading in recent years and despite its directors' best efforts, they have elected to place the organisation into administration.

"The administrators will now oversee an orderly winddown of the organisation, with limited services remaining in operation in the short term.

"Regrettably, this has resulted in the loss of employment for the majority of the organisation’s c.70 people workforce and the administrators are supporting these individuals through this process.

"Further information will be made available in due course.”