Soaring point: the £220m Amro development of the former Croydon Park Hotel site, having bought it from the council for just £25m, has left local residents furious
Residents in Addiscombe are angry that the council has ignored hundreds of objections and granted planning permission for 36- and 33-storey towers – and demand a thorough police investigation into the tax-payers’ millions lost on successive Croydon Park Hotel property deals.
By BARRATT HOLMES, housing correspondent
Private business stands to make around £100million profit from redeveloping what was a publicly owned property that was flogged off for less than Croydon Council paid for it, as the fire sale of the cash-strapped authority’s assets continues to compound, rather than relieve, the bankrupt borough’s financial problems.
Amro Partners and Flemyn were last week granted planning permission (by Croydon Council, natch) to demolish most of the abandoned Croydon Park Hotel site and replace it with 33- and 36-storey residential blocks, the latest vast “build-to-rent” scheme to be approved for the town centre.
The Botanical House rental flats will deliver nearly 450 homes – a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments on Altyre Road, a short walk from East Croydon Station. Amro and Flemyn are claiming that the development of the site, bought from the council for just £25million in 2021, could now be worth £220million – giving plenty of scope for that nine-figure profit. Cushty!
Planning permission was granted by Croydon Council despite a nine-month campaign by Addiscombe locals and almost 500 objections against what they see as further over-development in their part of the borough.
Amro got a bargain when they bought the Croydon Park Hotel from cash-strapped Croydon Council late in 2021, paying only £25million.
The council’s purchase of the Croydon Park Hotel in 2018 remains a lasting controversy, not only because the then leader at the Town Hall, Tony Newman, and his finance henchman, Simon Hall, pushed the deal through without proper scrutiny and debate, but because they somehow agreed to buy the freehold of the 200-room, 4-star hotel for £29.8million – £5million more than the asking price.
£5m mystery: Just why was Tony Newman so keen to spend all that extra monty to buy the hotel site
At the time, it seemed very likely that the council was looking, mid-term, to redevelop the site for housing – possibly handing it to Newman, Hall and Jo Negrini’s in-house house-builders, Brick by Brick.
But covid and the hotel’s lockdown saw its operating company go bust in 2000, leaving Croydon with an empty hotel on its hands and no rental income. It was not long before the council, too, was effectively placed in a local authority form of administration.
There was further controversy when the sale to Amro went through two years ago and it emerged that the firm is a client of Terrapin, the developers’ consultancy that includes among its employees Stuart King.
King is a Labour councillor who was overseeing the council’s asset disposals at the time. King has always maintained that he had no involvement in the cut-price sale of the Croydon Park Hotel.
There is no suggestion of wrong-doing on the part of Amro, as they got what they saw as a valuable asset at best-price. But not for the first time, Croydon’s Council Tax-payers have been left seriously out of pocket.
People desperately in need of housing in Croydon are unlikely to get a look in on the new flats, either.
For all the PR spin of the developers and their architects, as they pat themselves on the back for sliding this latest scheme past Croydon’s planners, the stark facts are that of the 447 homes to be built, just 18 will be available at London Living Rent.
That’s only 4% social housing being delivered.
There will be another 68 – or 15% of the total development – which the developers say will be available at “discount market rent”, their concession towards “affordable housing”.
But however you cut it, Croydon’s Conservative-controlled planning committee has ensured that Botanical House will be providing less than 20% “affordable” housing when the London-wide target for large-scale developments is at least 30%.
The planning committee voted 9-1 in favour of granting permission. Five members of Croydon’s planning committee are Labour Party councillors. One of the committee, Clive Fraser, was part of Newman’s administration. He is now supposed to represent residents in Addiscombe West, where this development is to be built. Fraser is said to be the only councillor to vote against the scheme.
Construction at Botanical House is expected to begin in 2024, with completion scheduled for 2027.
Residents in Addiscombe West are furious that the scheme was approved at all, and they are frustrated with the planning committee meeting that only allowed one or two to speak for all of them.
“A flat on the 30th floor of a tower block in Altyre Road is not what most families aspire to,” one of the opposing residents, Gordon Taylor, said.
Plant life: the developers’ CGIs do not address residents’ concerns over Botanical House
“The recent high-rise tower blocks in Croydon are all rising higher and higher, competing for our attention, and collectively they present a formidable wall of development, on an inhuman scale, whether viewed from east or west.
“The best high-rise buildings are successful because they relate well to their environment, but this development seems to have been planned in isolation, just piling one flat upon another, higher and higher. A tower block like this, with more than 400 flats, raises many unanswered questions about the capacity of local facilities to provide essential services, such as schools, doctors’ surgeries, play space, etc.
“The developers and the council officers seem unconcerned about these questions and have brushed aside all the serious concerns of the objectors.”
The fundamental concerns of the objectors, Taylor says, is that “it’s still too tall – the wrong building, in the wrong place”.
Another resident who contacted Inside Croydon described the building as “more skyscrapers of unaffordable housing that serves to only benefit the property developer”.
And they added broader concerns relating to the buying and selling of the Croydon Park Hotel property by the council. “This issue is compounded by concerns about transparency in property transactions, potential conflicts of interest…
“Additionally, the urgency of improving infrastructure in the surrounding area must be prioritised before further population growth exacerbates existing strains on essential services.
“Local residents’ substantial objections for further build-to-rent flats underscores the imperative for a more inclusive and collaborative approach to urban development. Our voices are integral to the democratic process, reflecting genuine concerns about the liveability, character, and sustainability of the community.
“Addressing these almost 500 objections, which far outweigh support [for the scheme], should be the cornerstone of any future significant development plans, ensuring they align with the needs of the people who call Croydon home above the wants of large property developers.
“The lack of recorded minutes surrounding the property transaction of this hotel, which reportedly cost Croydon tax-payers millions, raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability.
“Any further development should be put on hold until a thorough examination of these issues is conducted, safeguarding the responsible use of public funds.”
Read more: Council planners push developers to add 9 storeys to tower
Read more: K-erch-ing! Lobbyists consult on £200m scheme for hotel site
Read more: Council flogs off hotel for less than £29.8m it cost to buy
Read more: Council starts the biggest fire-sale ever seen in south London
UPDATED Nov 28 to amend the voting record at the planning meeting
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