Eversheds reveals role in BMW contract

Nine months after it was first instructed, Eversheds has revealed its involvement in safeguarding hundreds of car engine workers jobs in the Midlands with the decision by BMW, which recently took over Rover, to build a factory there.

Commercial property partner Stephen Sorrell was instructed in March by the government urban regeneration agency English Partnerships to help it find a suitable site for BMW/Rover's planned new £400 million engine plant.

The UK was in competition with Austria, whose government had offered a larger incentive package, and the project was seen as important to safeguarding existing Rover jobs in the Midlands.

Sorrell said it required the usual commercial property work in agreeing the purchase of the site by the government from Powergen but it also meant matching the requirements of the government for continuous monitoring of the development and its environmental impact with the requirements of BMW.

Norton Rose partner Jonathan Oddy represented BMW/Rover and Wragge & Co property partner David Askin represented Powergen.