£20 million business centre empty after a year

A landmark £20 million business centre on the Black Country Route was today still empty - almost a year after being unveiled in a blaze of glory.

The Citadel building, a 321,000 sq ft distribution centre featuring a striking eagle emblem, was launched last July and put on the market to buy or rent. The development in Bilston was the culmination of two years of work and bosses claimed that "many hundreds" of jobs could be created as a result.

But today they admitted that no company had yet set up home in the imposing building. However, they insisted they are in final negotiations with a firm that wants to take over the site and hope it will be occupied by September.

Mike Price, of property agents Knights Frank, said: "There are negotiations going on and we are probably looking at September for them to be moved in.

"Everyone has seen that the market has been difficult for the last two years and people haven't wanted to make big financial investments.

"There has been activity but it hasn't been as constant as it was two years prior to that."

The Citadel was created by Hertfordshire-based John McKenna, who has produced several other notable pieces of public artwork for industrial sites in the Black Country. It was paid for by Australian pension fund Goodman Group. A further £3 million was pumped into the scheme by regional development agency Advantage West Midlands to help get it off the ground.

The site, at one time a sewage works, had been disused for many years.

The development is near to Bilston's £200 million Bilston Urban Village project, which is now facing an uncertain future after the Government froze cash for scores of housing projects.

Eleven housing developments in the region, which had been promised a total of £43 million from Labour to get them off the ground, have been told the money is on hold.

Bilston Urban Village and its first wave of 130 homes was turned down for the Kickstart funding in December. And fears have now been raised for the key housing element of the regeneration project, which is reliant on government funding.