GRA Ltd, a company owned by Channel 4 TV chairman Luke Johnson's Risk Capital Partners, is looking at bids to buy the site along with five others around England.
The 15-acre Belle Vue site is the jewel in the crown of GRA, better known by its old name as the Greyround Racing Association. It is owned freehold and could be redeveloped for housing or commercial use. i
Also included in the sale are greyhound tracks at Wimbledon, Portsmouth, Oxford and Hall Green in Birmingham. A sixth track, at Perry Bar, Birmingham, is held leasehold.
In total the sale puts around 55 acres of well-located urban land on the market.
Investors have been focusing on the property assets of companies seeing them as a quick and efficient way of returning a profit to shareholders. Supermarket giant Sainsbury is the most conspicuous target in a UK-wide trend which has now widened to include Manchester's greyhound track.
The appointment of surveyors King Sturge to advise GRA on a sale suggests redevelopment of some of the six sites is a real possibility.
Modern
Greyhound racing began at Belle Vue in 1926 becoming the first oval dog track in the world. GRA has since invested £20m in Belle Vue and its five other stadiums to provide modern racing facilities. It is also used for speedway and is the home ground of Elite League team Belle Vue Aces.
Fergal O'Reilly, director of financial services at surveyor King Sturge, which is advising GRA, refused to rule out redevelopment of some sites.
"We're helping GRA to assess the options after a number of unsolicited approaches and we're assessing the value and the potential for disposal of sites - but no decision has been taken on what to do with their interests in their business."
"Potentially the land is valuable, and although used as greyhound tracks at present, any thing is possible. At present, the business is carrying on as normal."
"There's no timetable - we're simply looking at the approaches that have been made."
A spokesman for GRA said: "King Sturge have been appointed to oversee the possible sale of Risk Capital Partners' interest in GRA. Over the last few months we've had 9 or 10 interested parties make approaches to us, and it was felt that now was the time to see how serious that interest is."
Luke Johnson is best known for his involvement with the Pizza Express chain which he acquired in 1993 and sold in 1999 for a substantial profit having overseen a massive expansion.
His private equity company Risk Capital Partners took a controlling stake in GRA in 2005.
Johnson is now chairman of Channel 4 TV.
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I hardly class Greyhound Racing as a sport. It may have been socially acceptable 81 years but is the 21st century and now that the romantic image of greyhound racing has been exposed for the 'blood' sport that it is.........then I for one, would say, 'bring on the developers'!
An end to Greyhound racing at Belle Vue? Best news i've heard in a long time, would only be surpassed by every other track closing with it!!
Greyhounds deserve better.
Although I agree with Trudy and Sundaygirl's comments and share their concerns (I had a friend who worked as a kennel maid and left after experiencing some unsavoury goings-on), what impact will this have on the Belle Vue Aces?
The Catcher makes a good point. there was a farmer in the North West somewhere who was letting greyhound racers use his land as mass graves for dogs which had been 'retired'. this is a ruthless sport. if i didn't already have a cat i'd take a couple of them home with me.
Hoorah! marc and I have found common ground - we're both animal lovers.
I'd have a couple of greyhounds too but I have a pet hare. Can you imagine the mayhem.
'I have a pet hare'
interesting choice of pet. don't they need lots of space to run around in?
marc: they do, but I have large grounds attached to Catcher Towers so no problem. He runs for miles, sometimes disappearing into the rye and giving myself and Mrs Catcher quite a fright - but he's always in for tea.
well he's bound to disappear into the rye. he'll be chasing that holden caulfield off your property. you have to watch out for that lad.
marc: sadly Holden is ..erm ... waya at the moment. He's often away but when he comes home we have a houseful of wickerwork and wine bottles cleverly converted to table lamps by the neat application of tiny tiles. Can't you tell my dad was on the block in Withington when I was a kid.
to be honest i'm more of a Hubert Selby man.
marc aka the last exit, brooklyn
Fantastic news - yet another nail in the coffin for the vile 'sport' of greyhound racing
I am delighted to hear of the potential demise of Greyhound racing!!!
Great another Manchester Landmark going
Will be a shame for the belle vue aces i use to go when i lived in stockport but good on the greyhound side of things.
Time for Manchester Council to step in and place some kind of protection order on this historic stadium.
Speedway, Stock Car Racing and Greyhound Racing are three great sports which can be enjoyed by the whole family with never a hint of crowd trouble or violence.
A true asset to Manchester's claims to be the sports capital of Britain.
Come on Manchester Council. time to take some action to protect our heritage.
Whilst I appreciate peoples thoughts on greyhound racing. If the site is sold for anything other than leisure facilites it is just another nail in the coffin by Manchester City Council for leisure facitites in the area. Having built the hockey facility next to the Greyhound stadium, surely it makes sense to develop and update the factilities and keep the area designated for lesiure. After all the area once housed the famous Belle Vue zoological gardens, fun fair, dance halls, speedway, etc. until they began to be sold off by the then Trust House Forte Group. And then finally in 1987 the speedway stadium was sold to British Car Auctions even though the site had a covenent on it stating the site had to be used for lesiure, amazing what a few back handers to the council can do, will this happen again. I think every one will agree that the state of all the empty showrooms along Hyde Road is disgraceful, when the old Speedway stadium could have been developed and brought up to todays standards and used for many sporting occassions not just speedway and stock cars, if this had happened we could have used it for the commonwealth games. Lets hope Manchester City Council block any moves to have a supermarket or houses built on this site. If they should decide in their infinate wisdom to allow it to happen, then I would hope that they would look at building at stadium perhaps around Eastlands that could accommodate Speedway and Greyhound racing and perhaps a few other sports as well.
It doesn't matter what is in the covenant or any protection that gets applied. Look at what happened at Cradley Heath when Barratts bought the land. They were prepared for the long haul and just sat on the land until people started complaining that it had fallen into disrepair and so got their planning permission anyway, albeit a few years behind schedule.
If you look at the size of Tesco's 'land bank' they have the money and the patience to see out any objections.
i go 2 stock cars at belle vue an the stock cars dont have alot of shale tracks left .An the drivers all enjoy this track !!! DONT SALE IT
Whilst I have no affection for greyhound racing or the gambling associated with it I would be devastated to see the end of speedway racing, the only exciting and affordable family sport left in the area. Took all my children over the years and now they take their own. Although much reduced in stature since the Council shamefully agreed the sale of the Hyde Road stadium, the Belle Vue Aces are known world wide and have been a credit to the city. Please keep it that way.
When the City of Manchester Stadium was built, why the hell was it not built to take: a) more spectators and b) a dedicated speedway track which would have hosted world class events as happened at Hyde Road. Talk about missed oppertunities.
What shall we sell off next?
I know, the TOWN HALL if Belle Vue can be sold off, a place where people go to relax and get away from the pressures of modern life for a few hours. Then the town hall should go, because the councilors only go there to escape the realities of life, so why should they have all the fun, don't they realize what we lost when the gardens, dance halls and the old speedway track were sold off. Instead of finding ways to rip off the public
(congestion charge)do something useful.
Yours Rick Wilde
The council talk about increasing leisure facilities in the city, surely they cannot let this land be sold for housing. The Belle Vue aces are the most famous club in the world. With land in such short supply it would be very difficult to find a new home.
I hope everything works out for the staff of BV who ensured my disabled Mother in Law had a great time on tuesday night. Nothing was too much trouble for them and each and every one played their part. Good luck for the future to you all.
I have read comments of other people and quite frankly I am amazed at there selfishness. The stadium is not only for greyhound racing, it is also the home ground of the famous Belle Vue Aces and provides speedway racing and stockcar racing for it's many fans. Having been a fan of Belle Vue Aces for many years we would be really sad if this proposal goes ahead. Come on M/C City Council, do something about it this time and don't let the developers have their way by telling you what to do again. We do not need anymore supermarkets or houses in this area, but we do need the stadium for speedway.
I also do not agree with greyhound racing, but that is something that should be dealt with in the proper manner and not by closing down this stadium.
Saddened if you read some other postings on this site you will see most of us are not big Ace fans, and where did you dig this story up from?