The charity which tried to sell off the former Malcolm Sargent House for sick children to a housing developer is now lumbered with it.
The deal Clic Sargent struck to sell the land and buildings to McCarthy and Stone hinged on planning permission being granted and the Prestwick development going ahead.
But, with last week’s bombshell news that McCarthy and Stone pulled the plug on the project, the charity is stuck with a £1.5m white elephant.
Clic Sargent agreed to sell the buildings and land in 2017 and struck a £1.5m agreement with McCarthy & Stone.
But when the developers unveiled their luxury flat plans they became embroiled in a bitter fight with neighbours Prestwick Golf Club.
The club was opposed to the development on the basis of its scale and design.
The proposals were approved by South Ayrshire Council but last year Prestwick Golf Club successfully petitioned for a judicial review, meaning demolition work had to stop.
And last week the developers announced they had pulled the plug on the project.
Now it has emerged the entire deal was conditional on planning permission being granted and the development going ahead.
Kevin O’Brien from Clic Sargent said: “We are hugely disappointed that the sale hasn’t gone ahead as we’d hoped.
“Every day that this building sits empty it not only impacts on the people of Prestwick. It means that we are not able to provide vital support for all the children with cancer in Scotland who desperately need us.
“Selling Malcolm Sargent House was a really difficult decision because we are extremely proud of its history and the role it played in the local community.”
He added: “We continue to seek a buyer so that we can use this money to pay for vital services like our social workers and Homes from Home, which provide an essential lifeline for families when they hear the devastating news that their child has cancer.”
Prestwick councillor Hugh Hunter said: “We now have a site that’s going to lie empty and Clic Sargent have no idea what they are going to do with it.
“They also have a £1.5m black hole in their books.
“It’s been a shambles.”
In 2017 a petition to save Malcolm Sargent House received nearly 20,000 signatures in just a week.
Councillor Siobhian Brown, who launched the online protest, said: “I am sure in time it will be sold off again for residential development.”
