High expectations on Battersea project
SEPT 5 a cocktail party is in progress in a tent at the Battersea Power Station to introduce the new owners of the site.
Right after Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala and London mayor Boris Johnson complete their speeches, a man goes up to the London mayor. Both him and his wife are informally dressed, and they stand out among the guests who are formally attired. His wife stands a little distance away.
He tells the mayor: “We have attended such parties three to four times. Nothing happens after the party is over. Can you please promise us, assure us, that this time something will happen? We have been living here more than 35 years and we want this place to be developed,” the man says.
During the last three years, over 300 presentations and meetings with the local community groups and community forum were held. Several past owners have tried to develop the 39-acre iconic site. The last one to try to do so was Real Estate Opportunities but the Irish developer became a victim of the global financial crisis.
Battersea Power Station comes under the Wandsworth local council. If there is such a thing as being located at the wrong side of the bridge, this must be it. Because across the Chelsea Bridge, a mere 15-20 minute walk away, is one of London’s most sought after address both in terms of retail and residential Sloan Square and Chelsea. Here, the people look different, the air smells different.
But there are two huge plus factors over at the Battersea site. One is the 200-acre Battersea Park. The other is the power station itself, one was built in the 1930s and the adjoining one in the 1950s. Both became non-operational in 1983. Since 1985, for 27 years, one developer after another tried to redevelop the site.
“It would have been great if the Irish had pulled it off,” says Savills London director Edward Lewis.
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