adam
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Jam Factory red herring - 2007/06/22 10:02
It's dawned on me. Perhaps I've been a bit thick, but I've finally realised all this stuff about the suitability (or not) of Angel Property to carry out the Phoenix Quarter development, as per the sorry Jam Factory saga, is entirely irrelevant. It's so obvious - Angel Property has no intention of carrying out the development itself (ok, maybe one juicy building). In any case, Angel Property couldn't organise a cream tea in a jam factory :-)
No, Angel Property's whole raison d'etre is to get the outline planning permission and sell on the project (i.e. the land it owns and the options it's negotiated) at enormous profit. Just like the Southdowns Road site on the the other side of the river, only five times as big. That's why Charles Style doesn't care whether LDC would sell him their land or not - it's irrelevant.
What's so wrong with that, you may ask, after all, we live in a capitalist society?
What's wrong is that if that's what happens, then the whole process will in effect start again, with the new, and much more heavyweight, developers re-negotiating their Section 106 agreements with the council, increasing the heights/densities, dropping the affordable housing etc on the grounds that the deal struck by Angel Property was unrealistic. But by then the council will be in a weak position, because it will have given permission for the development. And Charles Style will be living in the Bahamas.
Prove me wrong.
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