April 2009 Archives

The behind-the-scenes wrangling over the Legacy aspect of the development of the venues at the 2012 Games has claimed its first high-profile victim.

Tom Russell, the London Development Agency's group director of Olympic Legacy, has left after just over a year in the role. He is quoted in the Standard as saying he is "disappointed" and found the legacy aspect of the plans for the media centre and stadium particularly difficult to resolve.

From this The Standard has decided he was sacked. The LDA's official press release suggests he is handing over the baton to the newly created Olympics special purpose vehicle headed by Baroness Ford after a job well done.

Boris Johnson is quoted congratulating Russell on a "gold medal" performance.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

It's an open secret that there has been a deal of tension between the ODA and LDA over what exactly is going to be done with the venues post-Games.

Russell it seems has been fighting the corner for idea that the media centre ought to be built to a high enough standard to attract media occupiers to Hackney Wick post Games. He was also evangelical about the need to build a stadium that could attract a significant football or rugby club to Stratford post-Games.

The ODA's problem is clearly that it needs to get the things built on time and on budget and there is a deadline.

This week has seen a number of parties - CABE, Hackney council and the East London Business Alliance - suggest that the ODA is paying too little mind to legacy and too much to cost cutting and meeting deadlines.

The ODA is wound up in 2014 after all.

That tension was always going to be difficult to align and Russell seems to have unfortunately suffered because of this.

In EG's dealings with him he has always been calm, approachable and highly plausible - exactly what the Olympics masterplan team needs.

Workers on the Hackney Wick part of the Olympics site downed tools on Monday and fled for several hours.
They weren't however hot footing it in response to the kerfuffle about the ODA's "extremely weak" designs for the site's 2012 media centre (CABE's words by the way, not mine).
They disappeared because what looked like another unexploded bomb had been spotted.
The Leabanksquare blog has some illustrative pictures.

CABE has come out against the ODA's scaled back ambitions for the media centre, describing them as "extremely weak". See my EGi News story here for the comments of its 2012 design panel. The full statement can be read on CABE's website here.

It's an important move as their ought to be open debate over whether enough thought is being given to the "Legacy" aspect of the media centre as the ODA tries furiously to cut costs.

Potential tenants looking at the space from the media world and Hackney council are all understood to be concerned that in its haste to get the building completed the ODA has jettisoned important design features and by implication the legacy impact of what after all was intended as the main jobs driver post-Games.

The East London Business Alliance and Hackney council are all expected to post similarly concerned responses to the ODA's outline plans.

CABE's 2012 design panel says it is concerned that the designs create a business park model rather than a state of the art media complex.

The major concern for many involved just now is that the ODA, which is wound up after the Olympics, just wants to get the venues built and is not particularly interested in the Legacy implications.

Several sources tell me there is a great deal riding on Margaret Ford's Olympics Legacy Vehicle which needs to get up and running quickly to fight the corner of legacy.

A number of interesting ideas emerged during my visit to the Stratford site last week, where I met urban design experts Paul Finch and Frank Duffy and Westfield's development director Simon Cochrane.
Most interesting was probably news revealed by EGi that the mayor and the ODA want to see a major 60th anniversary of The Festival of Britain take place on the site in 2011, featuring a multi-million-pound replica of the Skylon , the acclaimed tower that was the centrepiece of the 1951 show on the South Bank.
The idea of using the festival as a dry run for the Olympics a year later is a great idea, particularly as the focus is no doubt going to be regeneration following a traumatic downturn in the economy. The circumstances may be different but such a Festival is likely to prove just as useful in 2011 as it did in 1951.
And of course, the shopping centre will be opening at the same time as the Festival brings in significant numbers of potential shoppers.
Apparently, the mayor is as much behind the idea as any one else, evidence again that Johnson is making the Olympics and the regeneration of east London his priority.

The IOC has been suitably impressed with progress on the Olympics site this week and, having walked around the site myself on Monday, it is clear that they have every right to be.

There is plenty going on at the site that is for sure. This Saturday's Estates Gazette features a three-page interview I have conducted with the crack team of architects and urban designers that have been advising the various landowners and developers on the 800-acre site for the past three years. I'll give further updates next week on what they told me, but just to say the mayor and the ODA are currently pushing for a particularly innovative "road-test" event for the site in 2011, which in principle sounds great.

The fall out from news that the government has secured a £255m loan from EU state lending arm the European Investment Bank - first revealed by EGi back at the beginning of April - has continued with Olympics minister Tessa Jowell on the end of a Commons grilling from her shadow on the Tory side Hugh Robertson.

In Commons Question Time yesterday Robertson asked: "The European Investment Bank website has revealed that an application for a £255m loan for the athletes' village was lodged in February and approved on April 7.

"Given that this was the first that many of us have heard of that are you able to throw some more light on this in the House today?"

He then asked for details of the interest rate of the loan and what effect it would have on the Games' balance sheet would be.

Robertson is clearly right to probe for details particularly as it has been ratified by EIB and the ODA has not exactly had a great record on transparency about the amount of public money likely to be needed to prop up the project.

Equally clearly however Jowell is not going to be able to start openly talking about sensitive negotiations that are yet to be finalised.

Her response was fair enough, as long as she keeps to it: "Once a decision has been taken about how much of that loan facility will be taken up and applied to those two projects then I will obviously make a statement to the House."

The odd thing is the negativity surrounding the loan. At a time when finding a bank of any hue to lend to development is next to impossible, surely this agreement, which could enable Lend Lease to bring some private sector finance to the table involving a further consortium of banks including Barclays, is to be welcomed in principle.

Interestingly Jowell confirmed this second element of the original EGi story in her statement.

"It is certainly the case that the EIB has given 'in principle' agreement to a loan, a loan in two parts, part of which would assist with the financing of the social housing, the other part of which would assist with the financing of the Olympic Village."

Just got back from a site tour of the Olympics Park and Stratford City with Westfield and DEGW's Frank Duffy and CABE deputy chair Paul Finch, both of whom are advising on design for the entire site.

Buildings are flying up at a startling rate and it is all pretty impressive, so the IOC ought to be happy with progress during its three-day visit this week.

The shopping centre is undoubtedly racing ahead, with the arched shopping boulevarde and two hotel buildings taking shape in between the M&S and John Lewis stores.

And while the two tallest buildings at the athletes' village have been shelved, there are a sprinkling of fairly imposing 12-14 storey blocks sprouting out of the ground nearby.

These latest pictures from the ODA show just how much is going on. There's a pretty useful flythrough just been posted by the ODA here too.

Lots of interesting things emerged during the tour about innovative plans for site uses post-Games, most of which I will update on over the over next week or two on the blog and on EGi.

One interesting snippet for now though is John Lewis, which will be able to start fitting out its store at the end of the year, has everything mapped out in terms of store layout.

However, it is leaving one slice of space as a flexible use zone until after the Games - the side of the centre on the top floor that overlooks the Olympics Stadium.

You can't blame them either. It's a magnificent view just now, peering directly into the stadium and the Zaha Hadid Aquatics Centre. Might be worth getting a job with John Lewis for those couple of weeks in 2012 when the Games are on.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspection team is in town on a three-day visit next week to monitor the London 2012 developments.

Not a surprise then that the ODA has send out a press release revealing that work on the foundations of the London 2012 media centre has started over a month early.

I will be at the Olympics site on Monday so will update on progress.

It's interesting that the deadline for responses from interested parties to the media centre plans has not actually passed yet - speed is of the essence with this project it seems!

Interesting Regeneration & Renewal interview with Peter Welton this week, the former Anglican priest who, in his role as executive director of the East London Business Alliance's (Elba) London 2012 legacy group, is trying to galvanise business interest post-Olympic Games in Hackney Wick's media centre.

While Welton is upbeat about "serious" interest from equally "serious" media companies - he says 35 such potential tenants have express interest - he is candid too about tenant scepticism about the building that the ODA is pushing through the planning system just now.

Welton says there are a number of "killer issues" with the building that are putting off potential tenants and then reels off a number of issues to do with such things as the ceiling height and a lack of heating.

All of this certainly backs up what I have been hearing, eg that the government is clearly up against it time-wise and financially and that is squeezing what can be achieved at the building - originally intended as a £400m, state-of-the-art digital media hub.

That's all understandable, but sources have been telling me for a while that Hackney council is concerned that the reductions in the quality of the building are compromising the "legacy" component of what after all was intended as the main employment driver created by the Games after it ends.

There are particular concerns that the building does not meet Part L energy-efficiency regulations.

The problem is the ODA ultimately has the planning authority to push through the scheme, and time really is running out, so Hackney's hands are tied.

That by the way has not been confirmed on any level by the council!

Talking of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and lending millions to the Olympics I notice much of the media has followed my Olympics story last week on EGi  and in Estates Gazette on the EIB approving a £255m loan for the affordable housing at the Olympics Village.

I've included a smattering of the best beneath, including The Guardian's front page. They all seem incredibly negative about it being a loan from the EU's state lending arm, choosing to ignore the fact that Barclays are involved and focusing not a jot on the fact that the financing is crucial for the entire project. And none of them give EG a tip!

• The Guardian: Olympic 2012 Village seeks £225m bailout from European Investment Bank
  
• BBC News: London Games Offered £225m Loan
  
• Reuters: EIB Approves £255m London Olympics Loan
  
• Daily Mail: £400m Funding Gap as private investors shun Olympic Village

Here's a curious one about the Olympics 2012 media centre and a missing £165m of bank financing. Right now there is no question that the two principal cornerstones of legacy development at the 2012 Olympics site - the Olympic Village and the media centre - are going to get built ahead of schedule.

That is, of course, in spite of the government's inability to raise any private sector funding for either project to date.

Lend Lease and the ODA have recently invited five firms to bid for work at the Village.

Ironically the five included Bouygues, the French construction giant, and Barratt East London, both of whom bid against Lend Lease for the entire project back in the days when raising bank financing was as simple as taking candy from a baby.

Separately, the media centre is being rushed through the planning system at breakneck speed, with construction group Carillion due to start piling early next month.

Certainty at these projects has arrived because the government has decided it will bail them out with taxpayers' money no matter what. Which brings us back to the mysterious missing £165m.