Workaround (for singleplayer games): Enable the Magic Bulldozer in the cheats menu (Ctrl-Alt-C) and remove the industry, build a new one of the same type near the original location. Give yourself money if you think that would be more fair. Enable the option to modify industry production level for the re-built industry if required.

I think it would be difficult to implement actual moving, since it involves clearing the original tiles and then re-placing identical tiles in a different location. This kind of multi-step modification of landscape array data where the entire sequence of operations needs to be rolled back if something fails is not possible the way things are structured now, and it might not be possible to prove beforehand whether the operation would succeed.

Things can also be complicated by NewGRF industries that can have peculiar requirements on their construction location. Some of the most extreme examples are in the ECS industry set.

Hmm... Ok. Admittedly, I did not expect it to be that complicated to implement as I was more thinking along the way of using already existing features (e.g. industry closure and build-up as well as the new-industry generator). With that, I can imagine that it also scales well with other NewGRFs as they adhere to the same tactics for closing and regeneration during game play.

To detail what I meant:

1. the player would mark the target industry to relocate to a new location and pay the amount as if prospecting a new industry
2. the industry would announce imminent closure (or optionally an adjusted message for the impending relocation)
3. the industry would destruct as per "imminent closure" process
4. the industry would then start building up on the target location (this can also be after a delay of another month)

Target location:

Handling the target location could be either one of the two:

1. have the industry buy the land (plus a good margin to accommodate for building size changes) until the new building is started to build up
2. leave it to fate: If during that time anything else is built at the target location, which needs razing to build something else, the industry would would vanish (or optionally try building up at the original location if still possible), leaving the player with a loss (as money was paid in the beginning of this process).

Properties for industries as mentioned in my initial idea:

If implementing the added properties (e.g. original location) would be too cumbersome (especially since they would be required in NewGRFs as well), they can be left out and maybe simply reduce the production of that industry multiplied by the distance it was moved (maybe after a margin of 1-2 tiles) when "generating" the new industry at the target location.

Would that be possible to implement into the game or is it likewise (next to) impossible?

That idea would be possible to implement more or less as-is with my #7896 extension to Game Script, that lets scripts have player-initiated actions and point to a tile. I should maybe polish it a bit more and take it out of draft status.

Thank you! Looking forward to it.

Thanks for this. There's been no activity on this for some time, and as it stands, it doesn't look likely that it will go any further. I'm closing it as we try to keep the issue count low for OpenTTD, it helps us focus on things that are important and fun. Feel free to discuss in irc or request re-opening if you disagree. Thanks for contributing!