March 2012 Archives

Essex County Cricket Club has lodged a bid to become the long term tenant of the London 2012 Olympic stadium.

The club has launched a joint bid along with the University of East London to be the legacy occupier of the 80,000-seater stadium, which will be reconfigured to 60,000 seats after the Olympics.

Essex is competing with football clubs West Ham United and Leyton Orient to takeover the stadium.

Essex said in a statement: "We can confirm that the University of East London and Essex County Cricket Club have jointly put in a bid to the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) to utilise space in the Olympic Stadium.

"We cannot provide any further detail at this stage, as we are bound by a legal confidentiality agreement.

"We see this as a fantastic opportunity and are committed to supporting the achievement of the best possible outcomes from the legacy operation of the Olympic Stadium."

County Championship Division Two side Essex currently play in Chelmsford, their home for 87 years.

West Ham were initially awarded the Olympic stadium in a partnership with Newham Council in October last year, but the deal fell through following threats of legal action from rival clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge says London has "raised the bar" when it comes to delivering an Olympic legacy.

Rogge made the bold announcement today on what is his last inspection visit prior to the 2012 Games, which begin at the end of July.

To be able to reach a conclusion like that, a full four months before the Games begin is testament to the approach taken by London's Olympic organisers.

London has done as much as can reasonably be expected of it on the Legacy front ahead of the Games.

From the outset, preparation has seen equal emphasis put on the Games itself as well as the legacy.

Fitting then that the Olympic Park Legacy Company should offer another little reminder of that point today by unveiling a three-strong shortlist to develop the first neighbourhood at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a neighbourhood that wont be occupied until at least 2014.

The final shortlist for the 800-home Chobham Manor neighbourhood is:

• East Thames and Countryside Properties
• Barratt Homes and Le Frak Organisation
• Taylor Wimpey and London & Quadrant

The Olympic Park Legacy Company wants to pick a winner from the shortlist before the Games.

The same target has also been set for picking a long term operator for the 1m sq ft press and broadcast centre as well as the main stadium.

This would mean all venues would have their futures determined, before the Games has even begun.

But Prime Minister David Cameron is wise to sound a note of caution when he says "by definition, of course, the true legacy of London 2012 lies in the future". His statement came at the launch of the Government's new Beyond 2012 document.

Over the next 20 years, five new neighbourhoods will be built in the Olympic Park with up to 8,000 homes.

In reality, London has made a great start on the legacy front and rightly deserves praise for that. But the enormity of the project means there is still so much to do.

It really is a marathon and not a sprint...

But at least its not a triple jump...

The BBC ran an interesting piece this week about the results of a survey showing there has been a doubling of hotel prices in London this year ahead of the Olympics.

A study by Hotels.com found prices for booking in March this year for August are 102% higher than for the same months last year.

The website, which is part of the Expedia group of companies, says the average price of a hotel room in London will be £213 this summer.

Meanwhile Zoopla.co.uk has said that with only five months to go until the Olympics, searches for rental properties on its website including the word 'Olympics' have soared 161% over the last four weeks.

The first ever video showing the future of London's Olympic Park was unveiled in Cannes today at the international property conference MIPIM.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company unveiled the fly through showing the future of the 500-acre park.

OPLC chief executive Andrew Altman said: "MIPIM is the world's most important meeting of international real estate investors and we are here to demonstrate that the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park represents one of the safest and most exciting investment opportunities in the world right now.

"Plans for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are on track and investors are able to see the wide range of opportunities which are as diverse as building five new residential neighbourhoods to creating a new business district and international visitor destination for London."