January 2011 Archives

In all the hullabaloo around the Stadium bids and apparent deadline postponements I have missed a significant new development that was revealed in last Friday's bid documents.

It turns out that Westfield, the Australian shopping centre giant that is fairly synonymous with backing winning horses, is advising West Ham on design and construction of the Stadium.

It's a real shame that the stadium could not have been designed with the eventual tenant in place is all I will say again for now - particularly when one thinks of the success story that is Manchester City's Commonwealth Games built stadium. 

Anyway, my colleague Nathan Cross has been down filming at the Olympic Park to coincide the OPLC bringing to market the aquatics centre and the multi-use arena. I have included the film above and the story below. But I will digress on an interesting aquatics centre story that will be doing the rounds soon no doubt, plus pass on my two favourite Olympics stadium jokes.

Just to throw into some relief the feeding frenzy surrounding the Olympics Stadium battle, it turns out the general public does not want a football club to move in. Almost three-quarters of Britons want the Olympic Stadium to remain as an athletics and multi-sport facility after the 2012 Games, according to a survey by Bettor.com.

The survey of 1,000 people, revealed that 72% of those questioned did not want the stadium to be handed over to a football club after the Olympic Games.

Just 9% of those surveyed said they would be happy with Spurs taking over the stadium. Spurs want to pull the Olympic Stadium down and rebuild a football club. It would refurbish Crystal Palace National Stadium in south east London for athletics meets.

Two interesting stories are filtering out in Olympics development land today.

Firstly, the Olympic Park Legacy Company is working up plans to own and build the affordable housing element of the 8,000 or so homes it is proposing at the Olympics site.

What they are talking about is innovative and aimed at ensuring consistency and quality in the affordable housing provided at the site over a long-term period as well as tapping into institutional interest in the rental market for affordable housing.

Anyway more on that later this week. The other story is the OPLC is talking about taking over control of the retrofitting of the Park for use in legacy from the Olympic Delivery Authority immediately post Games - effectively winding down the ODA two years earlier than currently proposed. Here is the story I have written for EGi News:

Here's an interesting development for all landowners who feel they did not get enough compensation for moving to make way for the Olympics Park and Stratford City.

Cripes, it's all kicking off at the Olympics development again. It's all proof that the world and his wife will be trying to get involved this year as the event moves ever closer.

Any way - here is the latest development:
The Olympic Park Legacy Company has removed former Olympic Gold medallist Tessa Sanderson from its Board just days ahead of final submissions for the Olympic Stadium after it emerged that Sanderson has a personal consultancy with one of the bidders.

Just had this through from a new start-up looking to cash in on the 2012 property effect.

I think we can expect a lot of other examples in the coming months and no doubt the first to launch will do very well:

Start-up company Accommodation for the Games has launched a website to help property owners earn what it is calling "recession-beating rental income" by advertising private homes or rental investments as a holiday rental during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

www.accommodationforthegames.com showcases accommodation for visitors looking to stay in London Boroughs and details "orbital areas" that are hosting Olympic venues.

It seems to have taken a while but I suppose these things alwasy do. Lend Lease and London & Continental Railways have received European Commission clearance for their 4m sq ft office district around Stratford International Station.

Here is the story:

Just had a very interesting chat with a clearly irate Antony Spencer, the head of Stadium Capital Holdings, the group that was instrumental in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium scheme and the redevelopment of its famous Highbury Ground.

His view for some time on the Olympic Stadium is that the initial spec for its construction was fundamentally flawed because it was designed for two weeks in the summer rather than for legacy.

There has been much made today of Tottenham's plans to demolish most of the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium and replace it with a £250m purpose-built stadium of its own should it be selected by the Olympic Park Legacy Company to take on the site.
The first thing to say is Tottenham has never hidden its belief that it would be cheaper and more sensible for it to demolish the Olympic Stadium and start again at the site.
The point is that speaking to experts in such matters I am reliably informed that there are very good reasons for Spurs' stance which suggest at the very least that it was more than a little unfortunate that government did not line up a football anchor for the stadium back when construction begun.

Here are a couple of stories out today that I have put on EGi News that show progress continuing apace at the Olympics developments - a significant investment in Westfield's Olympics hotels and  a new MD for John Lewis Stratford:

 Westfield has sold two hotels at the 1.9m sq ft Stratford City shopping centre at east London's Olympics site to ES Properties (Stratford) Limited, a joint venture between Cycas Capital Hotel Partners and Patron Capital.

I revealed in October that Australian shopping centre giant Westfield had teamed up with InterContinental Hotels Group to open two hotels across an 11-storey, 186,000 sq ft complex.

The Patron jv is understood to have paid around £50m.

The HKR Architects-designed property will feature a 188-bed Holiday Inn hotel and a 162-bed Staybridge Suites hotel featuring serviced apartments.

Well that was a long break.

Olympics wise I think perhaps most interesting has been the escalating battle between West Ham and Tottenham as the clubs bid for the Olympic Stadium.

It's clear that Spurs are deadly serious about the whole thing and what seemed like a shoo-in for the Hammers is rapidly becoming anything but.

Expect plenty of news this month too about the Olympic Park Legacy Company's plans for the various other venues at the Olympic Park - there is plenty to play for there.

One interesting story I have just published on EGi News shows again the speed at which key personnel in any Olympics property story seem to change.