• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

London Entertainment Resort: All Discussion

They’ve now got a consultation portal online, but it does not currently seem to have anything in it: https://consultation.londonresort.info/

I’ll keep an eye on the page and see if anything of interest appears.
EDIT: A consultation is now online, which closes on 21st September 2020 at 11:59pm. Various different Q&As and webinars are being hosted on various dates, and telephone surgeries with various members of the team are also able to be held.

I also read the Guide to Consultation, which has a few intriguing details, including:
  • They have outlined a rough timeline of how they want things to go over the next few years leading up to the Resort’s opening. The DCO application is going to be submitted in Winter 2020, with contractors then being appointed in 2021-2022. The Secretary of State will make their final decision on the DCO application in Spring 2022, with construction then hopefully also starting in 2022 provided that approval is gained. The Resort is then expected to open in 2024.
  • The Resort’s current visitor target is 6.5 million with Gate 1 operating (I’m assuming they mean once it’s bedded in a little, as they said 4 million in the first year on BBC Southeast the other day). The previously cited 12.5 million figure is an ultimate target, however they do not expect to achieve this until 2038, when the whole Resort will have operated for a number of years. They state that they have revised the visitor targets to be lower than in the original proposal back in 2012, which I believe was shooting for 8-9 million with gate 1 and 15 million with the entire Resort open.
  • The theme parks (which are referred to as the Leisure Core in the guide) are only a very small part of the proposal. There will also be hotels built, as well as dwellings for staff, apartments and huge regeneration of the local area.
  • In terms of when the parks are due to open, Gate 1 is due to open in 2024 and Gate 2 is due to open in 2029.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for double posting, but here’s an interesting KentOnline article that includes a video interview with Pierre-Yves Gerbeau himself: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/news/theme-park-plans-revealed-231049/

Interestingly, he has said that they intend to submit the full planning application at “the end of November”, with a decision hopefully being made 15 months later (which would take us to approximately February 2022). If the Resort is approved, then he says “they will put shovels in the ground”.
 
I know it's only concept art, but the flying drone aside, this looks like a really uninspiring business park:

YSEOLPB354WF7NV0L1GU.jpg
 
KolonelKlink said:
I know it's only concept art, but the flying drone aside, this looks like a really uninspiring business park:

YSEOLPB354WF7NV0L1GU.jpg
Click to expand...
I think that's a rendering of the regeneration outside of the theme park area, including the 500 dwellings for park employees; if you look in the top right of the image, you can see an outline of the theme park area!
 
OilyWater said:
All a sudden this project is the most legitimate it has ever been. Very interesting
Click to expand...
I don’t know whether you’d agree, but I find it very ironic given the situation we currently find ourselves in! I was almost expecting it to be cancelled due to COVID, but the fact they’re pressing on with it at a faster rate only makes me more confident that it will happen!

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it, however, and as more comes out, I definitely think my faith in it coming to fruition grows! Bring on 2024, hopefully!
 
£80,000 for a baseline planning design
£30,000 for some concept art
£20,000 for planning support and application costs

These costs are small fry. This isn’t changing anything, it’s investor attracting, the logic being people might sign up if the outline planning application has been approved.

Don’t hold your breath.
 
This feels like a very final attempt to secure some funding to me. If they fail to attract investment with this current publicity push, I'd expect the project to finally be mothballed.
 
It will get delayed due to the current climate of covid induced financial uncertainty.

They will never say they have mothball it.

Sent from my SM-J600FN using Tapatalk
 
delta79 said:
It will get delayed due to the current climate of covid induced financial uncertainty.

They will never say they have mothball it.

Sent from my SM-J600FN using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
If they’d have wanted to do that, however, surely they would have done it towards the beginning of the pandemic, like April/May time?

With regard to investors, KEH have repeatedly said they will fund the project through to its completion if the DCO application is submitted by the end of 2020 (which it’s currently on course to be), and I could have sworn I read that some Chinese investor signed onto the project in May 2019. Someone may have to ask them the question about finance if they’re doing Q&As during these public consultations to end the debate once and for all...
 
Chinese investment will only impact this project if they actually secured Chinese investment. At the minute I can't see that being the case.

It needs to be made clear again though that KEH are financing the current company only, who are essentially a vehicle to find investment to actually build the resort at present. They have not stated publicly what they are providing in terms of any sort of finance for the tangible, finished product at present.

I have to agree with @Harv this is make or break now. Unless they have solid, confirmed and secured investment **For the resort itself** if this planning permission progresses then this project is dead in the water.
 
Dave said:
This isn’t changing anything, it’s investor attracting, the logic being people might sign up if the outline planning application has been approved.
Click to expand...
That makes all the difference though if planning is approved, it's a huge step forward to legitimise the project and like you say will make backers so much more willing to fund it.

Also the amount of planning and research that has to be done to get a full planning application in is enormous.

It's a heck of a lot more legitimate now that that's been submitted, than back when it was just concepts and pretty promo art.

Still doesnt mean it's close to happening.

Harv said:
This feels like a very final attempt to secure some funding to me. If they fail to attract investment with this current publicity push, I'd expect the project to finally be mothballed.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree
 
With regard to KEH’s involvement in the project, Abdulla Al-Humaidi, the CEO of KEH, was interviewed a year or two back, and he said that he “couldn’t wait to personally open this amazing facility in 2024”, so that to me implies that they have intentions of providing something towards the finished product, at very least: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent-b...resort-plans-pushed-back-another-year-193015/

Apologies that the article is somewhat outdated, but my point still stands.

Also, rather interestingly, someone on CoasterForce said that some of their loans began to be repaid a year or so back, after sitting there unpaid since 2012. Does this imply that they might have more financial integrity now than some might expect?

If this isn’t good enough to prove that they have financing, then I’m very tempted to ask the question about finance when they have Q&A sessions as part of the consultations...
 
Sorry for double posting, but I have found the article about the Chinese funding they apparently received: http://www.asiaattractions.net/index.php?s=/web/land/detail.html&id=998

It’s in Chinese, but roomraider over on CoasterForce very helpfully translated it into English:
Chinese company invested 3.2 billion pounds in London theme park
Source: Theme Park | Time: April 4, 2019
c9e1011ea77b51c8cee3db0d72dfea8e.jpg


On October 21, 2018, China Zhongfu Group announced that it will invest 3.2 billion pounds to participate in the development of the London Paramount Entertainment Resort project. This is another major project after Zhongfu announced that it will invest 250 million pounds to build a UK Cornish resort project and invest 2 billion pounds to build a British biomass power station.


It is understood that the project began construction in 2017 and is scheduled to be completed in 2021. Covering an area of 872 acres (approximately 3.53 million square meters), the theme park project is located on the banks of the River Thames in Kent, East London, close to the London Outer Ring Road M25 and will create 27,000 jobs locally. At the same time, the project also signed a landmark cooperation agreement with BBC Universal: the park will set up rides designed according to BBC programs, such as Doctor Who and Top Gear. After the project is completed, it is expected to attract 15 million tourists to visit.


In addition to the theme park, festival facilities, hotels and other supporting facilities will be built.
Click to expand...
Take from this what you will.

I admit that the article is not overly recent, and there are a few inaccuracies & outdated stats in there (for example, it says that the park will open in 2021 with construction having started in 2017, which definitely isn't true), but it is dated 4th April 2019 with the deal allegedly being signed on 21st October 2018. Since then, the project timeline has stayed fairly consistent at 2024, as far as I'm aware, and I don't think that was too long before PY Gerbeau took the reins.

If the article is to be believed, then we may have had a pretty major investor, as this article states that China Zhongfu Group have invested £3.2bn towards the project. Is this the answer to the finance debate?
 
Matt N said:
If this isn’t good enough to prove that they have financing
Click to expand...
The only public proof will be when they open the finished thing!

Don't forget John Broome kept saying the Battersea project was all going to plan even after he was forced to sell Alton Towers. Don't take any quote from a CEO somewhere to be proof, he's hardly going to tell the press "Yup can't see it happening" about their own project.
 
So an out of date article, translated from chinese, full of false statements and innacuracies, is a positive sign of progress.
Good job they started building in 2017, and with £3,200,000,000 already invested, this might actually be open in 2021...thats only six months away now.
All excited.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top