GROSVENOR House and Riverside will be offered for sale on the open market next week.

Wiltshire Council confirmed the news at Thursday night's Salisbury Area Board.

The property will be sold through the council's selling agent Myddelton & Major.

Any individual, organisation, community group, or company will be able to submit an offer for its acquisition.

The deadline for submitting an offer will be midday on Monday, January 24, 2022.

Rise, Resound, Rebuild

The building was listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), following a petition from a Community Interest Community (CIC) in February of this year.

It came following a meeting of the Economic Development and Planning department at Wiltshire Council.

The decision said: "Having considered all the information and submissions provided, Wiltshire Council has decided to enter the property onto the list of Assets of Community Value."

It adds that it is noted that the property is currently unused, but that its last use as a youth and community centre in 2017, a use that is "believed to have enhanced the culture of Salisbury through music where musicians would come together".

Pete Rushforth, 32, and Ben Whatsley, 42, who launched the petition, set up a CIC called Rise, Resound, Rebuild (R3), and want to turn the former youth centre into a "cultural hub that reinvests profits back into the city".

Pete said: "[It is] very exciting that bids will now finally get to be submitted. 

"We've barely begun our fundraising campaign, we have around 20k donated and we've not officially started asking!". 

He added that the group is "optimistic" it will have the funds in place to make a "good" offer by January. 

ACV status - What does this mean?

This ACV status does not mean that the group will get Grosvenor House as an asset transfer for free - the value is too high for that. They will now need to raise the funding to purchase it.

The owner of the property also does not have to sell the asset to the community interest group.

There is also a "protected period" (18 months from the time that the owner notified the local authority of their intention to dispose of the asset) – during this time there can be no further moratoriums on sale and the owner is free to dispose of the property as they see fit.

In July, Wiltshire Councillors voted unanimously not to support proposals from Rise Resound Rebuild.

Issues raised included the viability of the proposal and the knowledge that the commercial buyer of the properties and land is still waiting to purchase the properties.

This meant the group had six weeks to lodge a bid to purchase the property and then a further six months to raise the funds.

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