MORE details have emerged of the crucial make-or-break attempt by debt-hit Jarvis to raise £25 million through selling off its leases and other land interests in York, including its headquarters in the city.

Last March, the company announced it was shedding 90 jobs at Jarvis House in Toft Green, leaving 200 staff.

The giant land sell-off, announced in later editions of yesterday's Evening Press, will entail the troubled rail, construction and engineering group offloading its lease at Toft Green to Network Rail for what is hoped to be £3.5 million and moving into a smaller, five-storey HQ, Meridian 2, at The Crescent, off Blossom Street where rents will be £1million a year cheaper.

Jarvis Plc has also reached a conditional agreement with Network Rail on arrangements over five of its leasehold interests at the York Central site, plus 39 other property interests. The £25 million is being negotiated as part of a framework agreement covering all the properties.

The five leaseholds at the York Central site near the railway station cover about 20.2 acres, and include facilities for rail plant hire, maintenance and storage, as well as land for Jarvis rail renewal activities. These would generate about £4.5 million which Jarvis has already received in cash.

Four of the sites are on long-term leases, one for 125 years and the remainder for 50 years, although parts of two of these sites are already leased back to Network Rail plus a third party for a yearly rent of £65,500.

A fifth site is leased from another third party with Network Rail as the head lessor and is on a lease of nearly 50 years.

Under the York Central deal, Jarvis will continue to occupy parts of its sites, but will surrender its four leases back to Network Rail, and assign the fifth site to the railway logistics company.

Jarvis will then enter into new ten-year operating leases for all parts of the sites it then occupies at an initial rent of £320,000 per year.

Other long-lease sites that Jarvis is hoping to pass on to Network Rail include 1.2 acres at Poppleton Nurseries straddling Station Road, Upper Poppleton, and 19.3 acres of former branch line at Middle Lane Test Track in Brayton, Selby .

But any attempt by Jarvis to escape from its cashflow problems will need to be approved at an extraordinary general meeting which it is proposed to hold "some time before Christmas".

Agilisys examines options

IF Jarvis moves into the new £4 million Meridian 2 building in York "lock, stock and barrel", what will happen to Agilisys, York's largest IT company, which earmarked three of the five storeys there for its own headquarters?

Agilisys, which broke away from Jarvis to tackle a multi-million project to bring "e-government" to local authorities in North Yorkshire, planned to house 150 of its staff there, while still maintaining a floor within Jarvis House in Toft Green.

Only two floors were to be handed over to Jarvis, which still owns a 40 per cent share in Agilysis, but all that has changed. Now Charles Mildenhall, chief executive of Agilisys, is examining the options. These include negotiating with Network Rail, new lease owners at Jarvis House, to continue; possibly having some presence at the newly-built Meridian 2 in The Crescent, Blossom Street; or moving into new offices altogether.

"Whatever happens we will continue to base ourselves in York and continue to support and supply Jarvis. There are a couple of locations close by which we are studying," said Mr Mildenhall.

Updated: 10:08 Tuesday, December 07, 2004