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So, what if the Castle Bromwich site came available – would you try and buy it? The question is aimed at Bill Oliver, the chief executive of regeneration specialist St Modwen, and follows the announcement that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will ditch one of its two Midlands plants, with the former Spitfire factory favourite to go.

After all, the Birmingham developer is redeveloping Longbridge, the former home of MG Rover, and has made redeveloping former manufacturing sites into something of an art form. Alstom, Marconi, Corus, Goodyear – the company has bought once iconic factories, employing thousands of people, from all of them. Might Castle Bromwich follow?

Oliver is circumspect, stresses that no approach has been made and says the company already has a land bank of 6,000 acres, enough to keep it going for ten years. But you can almost smell his dealmaking instinct: “We have specialised in buying sites that sadly have become redundant from manufacturing,” he states. “Hopefully creating jobs and homes... and, of course, we would be very interested. We are still buying, but our appetite is severely reduced.”

There would be a precedent for such a deal – St Modwen acquired 100 acres of the Whitley site in Coventry from Ford, JLR’s owner at the time, and is developing it as a business park. It has built 70,000 sq ft of offices so far and tenants are being attracted. A 262,000 sq ft facility has also been earmarked for a major food manufacturer. What then of the Birmingham base of van-maker LDV – suppose that were to come available?

St Modwen has 50 acres next door having bought the former train-making operations of Alstom in 2002. “There would be some logic in combining the two,” says Oliver. “We are always in the market if a site makes sense and is in the right place.”

There is planning permission on the former Alstom land for large distribution, but it may take a couple of years before the button is pressed. Nearer a start is former Goodyear and in Wolverhampton – bids are in for a first six acres, destined for housing. And Longbridge is edging ahead, albeit not as fast as envisaged.

As anyone heading down the Bristol Road can see, much of the old factory founded by Herbert Austin has been bulldozed. And, in terms of remediation, 450,000 litres of petrol has been removed, providing enough fuel to make eight trips to the moon and back in the average family car – and returned to oil refineries for recycling and reuse.

The first phase of the £100m, 40-acre Longbridge Technology Park was completed in June 2007. Part of this, the 45,000 sq ft Innovation Centre, is more than 80 per cent let. But the big push comes with Bournville College. Approval was granted in March for the £66m campus, spread over 4.2 acres. Work is expected to start on the college – forming the first phase of the new Longbridge Town Centre – in a few weeks.

In all this change St Modwen has almost seemed to regret the demise of so much manufacturing industry even though it is its bread and butter. “It’s sad the way the car industry has gone,” admits a phlegmatic Oliver.

It is a bit of a surprise then that a company with a conscience should find itself embroiled in a “bribery” scandal. Chairman Anthony Glossop was alleged to have approved a £100,000 "bribe" to an associate of the Phoenix Four. The allegation – which St Modwen vigorously denies – was in the 850-page report into the collapse of MG Rover, commissioned by the government, and related to the Longbridge land purchases.

St Modwen subsequently charged the figure to the taxpayer by invoicing regional development agency Advantage West Midlands (AWM), with whom it is working closely on the regeneration project, for £100,000 of “estate costs”. Independent QCs were appointed to carry out an “independent investigation” and concluded that nothing improper took place.

So, how much damage has been done to St Modwen’s reputation? Because it has certainly knocked its squeaky clean image. Oliver would not respond, pointing me to the statement issued at the time. But AWM has mounted its own probe and we may not have heard the last of the matter.

It is also bad news for St Modwen that government cuts are forcing AWM to reduce its regeneration efforts. Similarly, Regenco, the urban regeneration company for Sandwell, has confirmed it is to wind up by March 2010, following the withdrawal of funding from central and local government agencies. And Transforming Telford recently had its contract withdrawn.

Oliver says: “It is a worry. Public sector-funded development has helped our trading performance in 2009. It just means we will have to work harder to get private sector demand to replace that business.”

The property downturn and the wider recession have been “very, very painful”. And that was reflected in its half-year figures to May 31. The net asset value per share fell 20 per cent and the interim dividend was scrapped. At the trading level St Modwen remained profitable, but the overall loss before tax was £98.3m. But successful equity issue, raising £102m in net proceeds, and a refinancing of bank facilities strengthened the balance sheet.

The company never actually broke any banking covenants but feared that were the recession to get any worse that might be a possibility. Hence it acted. Oliver says: “We would have survived without the money from our shareholders but we would have been managing the company in a different way. We would basically have been doing whatever the banks wanted us to. It was not a rescue rights issue but it has reinvigorated the business.”

Have we reached the bottom of the market, then? Oliver thinks valuations are near the bottom but fears the recession has more bite left, pointing to rising unemployment, public expenditure cutbacks, VAT hikes and a possible change of government.

“I think 2010 is going to be difficult,” he says. “There are occupiers out there and we are managing to keep our shopping centres and industrial estates full. However, we may have to do deals on rents and be more tolerant of businesses facing a shortage of work. We are really working hard at retaining people.”

If St Modwen thinks it can make money, it will tackle almost any regeneration project. Take Trentham Gardens in north Staffordshire, for instance – the pay-off being building a business park. But not even St Modwen managed to do anything with Dudley Zoo. “Sometimes even we cannot deliver,” admits Oliver. “It took far too long and missed the market.”

And Brighton West Pier? “We would have been happy to develop it. It wasn’t our fault it burnt down.”