Gateway receivers clarify bidder status

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 27 April 2001

Suggestions that the St Andrews University Students’ Association Is a “preferred bidder” for the ill-fated £9.5 million Gateway building In the town have been dismissed by receivers trying to sell the property. The news came yesterday from Edinburgh-based Grant Thornton, which has been at the centre of a worldwide search for a new owner for the spectacular building.

It is now clear the term “preferred bidder” has been used only to describe the preference of the internal university court and it carries no weight outwith the university itself.

Standing beside the western approach to St Andrews, the building has been lying empty and unused since ambitious plans for a private members’ club and leisure complex fell by the wayside last summer.

The building, which was also to house a prestigious museum and first port of call for the university, is for sale at the knockdown price of £2.5 million, but so far no deal has been struck.

Several potential buyers have viewed the property, including the students’ association and commercial companies.

Last month rector Andrew Neil was quoted as saying that the university had named the association as preferred bidders. This, he said, put the body in as “favourites”, and he described the development as “wonderful news for the students, the university, and the people of the town.”

The statement was made after a meeting of the university court, which meets again next week and. is likely to have the issue high on its agenda.

However, a spokesman for Grant Thornton yesterday said there was no preferred bidder and there never had been one. There had been some surprise, he said, that the term had been used.

He said that the receivers were still meeting potential buyers and that a number were still interested.

The spokesman said that as landlords, and because any potential deal could have a tie-in to providing a museum, the university had to be consulted.

“This does not, however, indicate that it will necessarily be the purchaser and no decisions have been taken. The matter will be discussed again when a further meeting is held next week.”

Students’ association president Marcus Booth, who has described the Gateway as an opportunity the association cannot afford to miss, said yesterday that it was still hoped the association could make a successful bid.

“It would have been prudent for the university and the receivers to carry on talking to commercial operators, because there was still an awful lot of work that needed to be done, even at that stage.

“We may be preferred by the university but, as the receivers rightly point out, the university does not own the building.”