Retail property advisor Christie & Co has been instructed to sell one of the Midlands' biggest visitor attractions.
Last year, Birmingham developer St Modwen announced that it wants to offload Staffordshire's Trentham Estate after more than 30 years of owning the site, following a strategic review.
Now the Stone Road attraction - which boasts a shopping village, the Italian gardens, lakeside walk and a watersports centre as well as Trentham Monkey Forest and Treetop Adventures - is officially on the market.
More than 3.25 million people visit the site every year - including more than 760,000 paid-for visitors, making Trentham one of the top five paid-for attractions in the UK.
Christie & Co says Trentham's on-site management and operational teams will transfer with the sale of the business to ensure "operational continuity" for the incoming buyer.
St Modwen CEO Sarwjit Sambhi said: "We are proud of the investment and commitment we have made to The Trentham Estate over many years, bringing the gardens back to life and creating a highly popular shopping and leisure destination.
"Over recent years, St Modwen has focused on the core areas of housebuilding and developing logistics property and last year confirmed plans to sell Trentham. We are now targeting an organisation or individual that can continue to invest in the business and act as custodian to support its ongoing success."
Jon Patrick, head of leisure and development at Christie & Co, is overseeing the sale process.
Jon said: "Trentham is a unique asset in that it combines a mix of very stable investment income, as well as revenue from the gardens and events, whilst delivering numerous opportunities for further development.
"Having one of the busiest garden centres in the country, a vacancy rate of only two per cent in the shopping village and an easily accessible location with 7.5 million people living within an hours' drive-time, mark Trentham out as one of the most exciting assignments we've worked on in recent years.
"We anticipate that the British public's increasing interest in all things "outdoors" as well as investors' focus on long income opportunities with further potential for development and exposure to operational real estate, will see interest in Trentham coming from a diverse buyer group.
"Add this to the environmental and sustainable real estate credentials on offer and Trentham is very much a one-off opportunity not to be missed."
