viewpoint
Published: 11 May, 2006
== The Stratford saga ==
Stratford City is much more than a shopping centre - it's a mixed-use development on the scale of Canary Wharf and most importantly it's the gateway to the London Olympic site. It's retail content alone means that it will be Britain's biggest mall.
It should be a showcase to the world for what the British shopping centre industry can deliver, and it should be a flagship for the Government's urban regeneration programme. Right now it's an embarrassment.
It's not unusual in the property world for massive egos to clash from time to time and such things usually go on behind closed doors. But the natural media interest in anything to do with the Olympics means this time Westfield, the Reuben brothers, Stanhope and Multiplex have been squabbling like pre-school children in the full public gaze.
It's not been an edifying spectacle.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone and the landowner, London & Continental Railways, have been growing increasingly nervous. The Olympics mean there's a real deadline for the scheme to open and the inability of the consortium members to agree on almost anything means Stratford City looks like being late off the starting blocks.
Livingstone didn't help matters with his ill-informed comments about the Reuben brothers, suggesting that if they didn't like the British planning system they might like to go back to Iran. Of course they're of Iraqi descent and Ken was probably confusing them with the Tchenguiz brothers.
At last we've seen decisive action and LCR has started the legal process of terminating its contract with the developers. It says it intends to keep the professional team in place and navigate the project through the planning process itself. But inevitably it's going to need a development partner to actually deliver the scheme.
So one of the biggest development prizes is once again up for grabs. Let's hope the next custodian can behave with a little more dignity.
Graham Parker, Editor
