An 18-year feud between developer Rifkind Levy Partnership, which owns a 125-ft wide strip of Lord’s cricket ground and the MCC, which owns the rest, is edging towards a £135m settlement, writes Peter Bill.
In September, 18,000 members of the world’s premier cricket club will be asked to vote on plans to build 97 flats in two 10-storey blocks, largely on RLP land at the Nursery End. The MCC will receive £100m in cash and £35m in kind, if the deal to build the 300,000 sq ft of David Morley-designed flats is approved.
Yesterday MCC chairman Gerald Corbett revealed to members that “confidential discussions” had taken place with Charles Rifkind of RLP. His firm bought the land lying over railway tunnels in 1999, paying £2.35m at auction. The circular says: “On 22nd February the club chairman wrote to the RLP seeking to ensure that the submission was their best and final proposal… Following a number of confidential discussions, the proposal has been refined.” The MCC said the plan, along with another which omits the flats, will be put to the vote.
Full details will be distributed by the MCC at the end of May. “It will be followed by a full consultation with members. Following this consultation, the MCC committee will then make a recommendation on which members will vote at a special general meeting later this year.”
One member said the fact that fact that the RLP/David Morley plans were to be put to the vote meant they have tacit backing. The plans include £35m of “in-kind” facilities built in the railway tunnels under the flats, as well as the £100m cash bounty.
The land has long been the cause of a bitter controversy. A 2006 masterplan by Herzog and de Meuron also envisaged building flats on the RLP strip. Lord’s would have received a similar £100m bounty from four blocks of flats. This “Vision for Lords’ was abandoned, leading to the resignation of backers, including former prime minister John Major. In 2011, Mike Hussey of Almacantar was selected as preferred developer. His bid ended in rejection, then acrimony when the MCC refused to pay his bid costs.
