QPR’s plans for a new 40,000-seater stadium have hit a major stumbling block, after the owner of a second-hand car dealership sitting right where the stadium is supposed to sit pulled out of talks with the club over the sale of the land.
The plans by architecture practices Populous, Farrells and CZWG include the redevelopment of the Old Oak Common, which includes thousands of new homes to be delivered with easy access to the planned Crossrail/HS2 interchange, as well as a commercial space to include a 350-bedroom luxury hotel, studios, offices, cinemas and restaurants.
The Premier League club
last week sent out 50,000 letters to local residents and businesses as part of a consultation process and has now assembled its design team to prepare plans for the stadium and kick-start the first phase of the wider regeneration project.
As well as the 24,000 homes and the commercial space, Tony Fernandes, chair of QPR, said the club wanted to create a “new destination” for London, an opinion shared by London mayor Boris Johnson, who has made the Brownfield site one of his top priorities for regeneration.
The plans have hit a wall however, in the face of Car Giant – a business sitting on 180,000sq m (1,937,503sq ft) of land that has called Old Oak Common home for more than 30 years – which is adopting the classic football chant which has often rung out from the terraces of “we shall not be moved.”
According to Tony Mendes, managing director of Car Giant, QPR will not have a new stadium in the area “in a million Sundays.”
Speaking to the
Kilburn Times, Mendes revealed the car dealership was not interested in selling the site in the near future and was in fact drawing up plans to redevelop it themselves.
“We know that we will potentially be on this site for the next seven to 10 years, he said. “The ball is in their (QPR’s) court – they can use the Greater London Authority (GLA) for leverage as much as they like, but effectively we are going to be in the GLA’s vision when we bring forward our plans.
We don’t want to take the club on – we very much have the club in our heart,” he said. “I have supported the club since I was a kid, 1977 was my first game and I have been a season ticket holder for years.
“To be offered the kind of money QPR put forward is a non-starter. We paid for the last 10 acres we bought here 10 years ago – we paid £5m an acre.
“It is as if someone tells you that you are leaving your three-bedroom house and we would like it if you could move to a studio flat down the road.”
