Richard Hardie has acquired a lease for a property in Durham in order to relocate its Peugeot dealership.

The one-acre, 10,000 sq ft, former Land Rover motor dealership on Alma Place, opposite Durham City Retail Park, is to be extensively refurbished to provide a bespoke Peugeot dealership which will open later this year. The work is expected to cost £400,000.

Hindley Lawrence, which locates sites where planning permission could be achievable through negotiation with the local authority, advised Richard Hardie on the acquisition.

Tony Hindley, partner at Hindley Lawrence, said: “We identified a shortlist of properties and negotiated terms on behalf of Richard Hardie to initially lease the premises that fitted their specific requirements, including deliverability within the manufacturer’s specified timescale, a long-term but flexible lease, a low initial rent and minimal capital expenditure, and an option to buy the property at a fixed price in the future.”

An added complication to the acquisition was the fact that the local authority had imposed a condition, when granting the original planning consent, that all HGV deliveries were to be at a remote industrial property that was subsequently not in the control of Richard Hardie.

Hindley Lawrence successfully argued that, as a consequence, the premises would not be capable of “beneficial occupation”.

Hindley said: “We agreed a variation to the condition, satisfying the intent of the local planning authority through Richard Hardie’s redesign of the site layout and its proposed method of operation. In addition, the variation to the condition provided an enhancement value to the property which the client will benefit from should they exercise their option to purchase.”