Brent preferred bidder to buy civic centre

He's a bit of a chameleon our Jimmy isn't he? All things to all men. As long as it turns a buck and gets him his own way that is.....

Calling the company West End (Resurgam) Ltd is pretty distasteful given HHP and the Civic Centre will impact on the true City Centre West End Independent Quarter

A bit like the oil companies using leaves and the sun as their logos?

It gives me a wry smile when every development he's involved in is dependent, either overtly or covertly, on grants. He's like an upmarket benefits scrounger  

green_genie wrote:

Cllr Mark Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance, said: "We will continue to look at ways we can attract people into the city centre."


Was he on Planning Committee? If it wasn't so tragic it would be laughable.

Wonder what the REAL fans will make of Brent cosying up to #educatedwankers

Make it a red light area like in Amsterdam or the Reeperbahn.

With all these "mini developments" being developed in isolation, what is the overall picture for Plymouth?

Is there an overall plan or are things being made up as they go along?

The Arts Centre bit is interesting. It must be about eight years since every tenant of Virginia House (given to the city by Nancy Astor for educational and community purposes, if I remember rightly) was evicted so the place could be turned into apartments. The trust running the place had pretty much gone bust. The Arts Centre, which was separate but effectively in the same building, was the only bit to survive. I seem to remember noticing some signs of construction work having started, at last, on Virginia House, but the promise of a new home for the Arts Centre will make that project a lot easier.

Meanwhile:

Moist_Van_Lipwig wrote:

With all these "mini developments" being developed in isolation, what is the overall picture for Plymouth?

Is there an overall plan or are things being made up as they go along?

Hopefully the bold bits answer your question

Charlie Wood wrote:

It gives me a wry smile when every development he's involved in is dependent, either overtly or covertly, on grants. He's like an upmarket benefits scrounger  

I raised a chuckle at that. I hope it's not copyright - I may use it some time.  

Charlie Wood wrote:

It gives me a wry smile when every development he's involved in is dependent, either overtly or covertly, on grants. He's like an upmarket benefits scrounger  

Its interesting and I think Penz predicted the very same some while ago.

Dougie wrote:

Charlie Wood wrote:

It gives me a wry smile when every development he's involved in is dependent, either overtly or covertly, on grants. He's like an upmarket benefits scrounger  

Its interesting and I think Penz predicted the very same some while ago.  

Not just a pretty face is old Penz. I miss him. 

Dougie wrote:

Charlie Wood wrote:

It gives me a wry smile when every development he's involved in is dependent, either overtly or covertly, on grants. He's like an upmarket benefits scrounger  

Its interesting and I think Penz predicted the very same some while ago.  

I believe he did too.

He was a very astute judge of people and he had Brent's number from a very early stage.

Its a shame someone at the council did`nt stop and think for once when they sold PAFC to brent. If only at the time they had promised him the preferred bidder status for pavilions and the civic center but with one condition that he gives us the grandstand we deserve and not the mini stand.

A win win situation for both sides.

ps i miss penz to

Greenjock wrote:

Dougie wrote:

Charlie Wood wrote:

It gives me a wry smile when every development he's involved in is dependent, either overtly or covertly, on grants. He's like an upmarket benefits scrounger  

Its interesting and I think Penz predicted the very same some while ago.  

I believe he did too.

He was a very astute judge of people and he had Brent's number from a very early stage.

Not disagreeing at all, but a lot of construction works that way. I mostly only worked with housing sites, but a lot of the funding came from grants; the rest was bank loans, which is why construction went into meltdown when the banks stopped lending and some big names went bust.

cornysteve wrote:

Saw this on Breakfast news this morning. They had a brief interview with some bloke that I can only assume works for Plymouth council. These aren't verbatim quotes, but it was along the lines of, "Plymouth is so lucky to have a man like JB willing to invest. He's a national, nay international businessman and he's so brilliant. I personally would like to hug him and squeeze him etc etc etc."

Despite my mocking, it was cringeworthy beyond belief. Frankly it looked like he'd witnessed the second coming. (insert your own jokes there). This happening four days after the perfectly legal and upstanding planning meeting that wasn't a fait accompli before it started puzzles me. It was almost as if, and others may have noticed it before, the HHP development was the leverage that opened up the gates for the rest of a massive, lets call it £150m+ or so, development portfolio. Clearly this must be a coincidence. I look forward to the planning meeting for the civic centre, 'I'd like to state that this development that will make me no profit whatsoever, as that is not what philanthropists like me are interested in, is all about making the civic centre a bwilliant bwilliant place to work for the wonderful council workers.'

Steve

Think that was Tim Jones, or 'rent a quote' as he used to be known, (and still may be).

He's certainly made a lot of friends very quickly has our Chairman - similar to how quickly he became an Argyle fan.

We live in a Capitalist World and grants are handed out in the vast majority of cases so this in Plymouth is hardly earth shattering news is it. Call it grants or insentives or whatever you want but it's that that gets a load of things being built. I don't know of any businessman who would not be looking to turn a buck on their work or else they wouldn't be in business long. It's again not earth shattering that he is one of them. Other contracts or developments outside of HHP is hardly anything to do with Argyle fans and is more for the citizens in general of Plymouth to agree on and not just the domain of supporters of a football club to decide. Some of the supporters are both that and citizens but the merits are not combined.

I don't understand your logic lawnmowerman with the PCC should have insisted on anything when Argyle got taken over. They were nothing much to do with the sale it was the Administrator's job to find a buyer not their's. Maybe they could have put something on the table when agreeing to the purchase of the ground but that would be as far as their influence went and even then it would have been dubious they could have.

Iggy wrote:

I reckon that when Akkeron goes bust it will be feckin stupendous. Half of these big developers have no cash of their own, borrowing against assets that are already pledged against another venture, the domino effect waiting to happen. The resources needed to deliver development on this scale would stretch an already established national developer, where is Brent's CV on this scale of project?
#accidentwaitingtohappen

I've brought all this up many times - as I see it Brent left Citi group in 2009/10 to start a group of businesses, has anyone ever seen such meteoric business accumem in such a short time in business? I will be in awe if any or all of this is pulled off, especially in the worst economic crash experienced with worst to come!! Nothing good will come of all this!!

But isn't this also the best time to be building things as well? It seems to me that HM Gov is quite kean on making it easy for business to do something, anything, to provide a few jobs and make their figures look better. What do they call it, aiding the recovery or something along those lines. Some real fortunes were made during the 20/30's crash. Wartime austerity saw a few more being made. In every disaster time somebody walks away with a shed load of cash so why not him.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

But isn't this also the best time  to be building things as well?     It seems to me that HM Gov is quite kean on making it easy for business to do something, anything, to provide a few jobs and make their figures look better.     What do they call it, aiding the recovery or something along those lines.     Some real fortunes were made during the 20/30's crash.    Wartime austerity saw a few more being made.    In every disaster time somebody walks away with a shed load of cash so why not him.  

Toss a coin and Argyle may win - 50/50!!

I might even be there now and again, but do I believe, nah!!

I wonder if Akkeron will build the HS2 extension to Plymouth?

Richard Blight wrote:

I wonder if Akkeron will build the HS2 extension to Plymouth?

Well, he's the only show in town you know - its just amazing, almost too good to be true!! 

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

I don't understand your logic lawnmowerman with the PCC should have insisted on anything when Argyle got taken over.    They were nothing much to do with the sale it was the Administrator's job to find a buyer not their's.    Maybe they could have put something on the table when agreeing to the purchase of the ground but that would be as far as their influence went and even then it would have been dubious they could have.

When argyle was sold to brent by the administrator PCC was very very heavily involved with the sale behind the scenes. It was just a bit of blue sky thinking, these kind of deals happen all the time around the uk but not in plymouth it seems.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

But isn't this also the best time  to be building things as well?     It seems to me that HM Gov is quite kean on making it easy for business to do something, anything, to provide a few jobs and make their figures look better.     What do they call it, aiding the recovery or something along those lines.     Some real fortunes were made during the 20/30's crash.    Wartime austerity saw a few more being made.    In every disaster time somebody walks away with a shed load of cash so why not him.  

Because he appears slipshod in his approach, I don't believe he has had the time to develop a team of people that are able to deliver projects of this scale. I have worked for some massive developers, people like them always have a few people behind them that have grown with the business and are 100% reliable and an expert in their field, Alan Sugar has Margret and Nick, Brent has Newell and Webb, I rest my case M'Lud.

Iggy wrote:

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

But isn't this also the best time  to be building things as well?     It seems to me that HM Gov is quite kean on making it easy for business to do something, anything, to provide a few jobs and make their figures look better.     What do they call it, aiding the recovery or something along those lines.     Some real fortunes were made during the 20/30's crash.    Wartime austerity saw a few more being made.    In every disaster time somebody walks away with a shed load of cash so why not him.  

Because he appears slipshod in his approach, I don't believe he has had the time to develop a team of people that are able to deliver projects of this scale. I have worked for some massive developers, people like them always have a few people behind them that have grown with the business and are 100% reliable and an expert in their field, Alan Sugar has Margret and Nick, Brent has Newell and Webb, I rest my case M'Lud.

Case Proven.

with the news another posh hotel is being built up at royal william yard i have to ask is Plymouth that awashed with tourists/visitors that every other building going up for planning permission has a hotel involved. Seeing as many hotels plymouth has now are either shutting down or seeing business decline it does beg the question why more hotels :S

Add to that a travelodge just a few hundred yards away from where this new posh hotel will be.

People don't have much money these days so I imagine a cheap travelodge will do better against a rich man's bedroom at £100+ a night.