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Kent, England | The London Resort | Entertainment Complex

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
Whatever will they think of next...

Isn't this old news? Didn't know anything had happened regarding this recently. I can't help but notice it's always the Mirror that post negative things about theme parks.
 

toofpikk

Mega Poster
As previously mentioned here, old news back before this had any form of legitimacy about it.

The important day is February first. The planning documents must go live then, and there should be confirmation of whether or not it has had preliminary approval.

I would really encourage people who have the time to watch the blooloop interview with PY Gerbeau back from the V-expo they hosted in October.
Says some interesting bits. Once again highlighting that he is also the man behind saving DLP and the millenium dome (open to interpretation...). Talks less theme park, more resort, but still says some interesting stuff.

Whatever the case with this project, this time next week the picture will hopefully be clearer with where it stands.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Holy sh*t, one minute spiders the next this. Mission Ferrari, this what's next? Thorpe's RMC?
Anybody more knowledgeable on planning know what this actually means?
Now don’t quote me for exact details, but I think that this basically means that the process of the government examining the planning application, permitting locals to lodge objections and such has begun. All the relevant parties will examine the application in thorough detail and eventually come to a decision on whether it can be built.

It’s going to be a pretty slow process, though; 16 months according to the tweet above, so don’t expect any major news on a decision until May-June 2022.
 

toofpikk

Mega Poster
Documents have been all submitted to the link I posted on the previous page. Now there are over 500 multi page documents on this link. I don't expect anyone has time to go through them all properly but I have dipped into the documents that seemed interesting and typically contain the info we'd want as nerds.

Very little of interest really. Focus is on the infrastructure and the resort elements. If you want to have a look yourself, the design & access statements tend to be a bit juicy, and you can dip into the developers application section into sub sections plans, reports, and other documents for things that might be of interest.

Kinda expected considering what the CEO said in his blooloop interview in October last year, but a bit of a bummer we have no juicy bits to leech onto nonetheless.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Attraction Source (new name for TTSP) has done a bit of digging through the planning documents, and produced this incredibly helpful summary article: https://www.attractionsource.com/20...r-the-london-resort-accepted-for-examination/

Some of the stuff they go over is stuff we already know, but I’ll pick out a few highlights and things that interested me:
  • 6.5 million visitors anticipated per year with only Gate 1 & resort complex open, and 12.5 million per year once gate 2 is open too.
  • 35% of visitors projected to come from overseas.
  • Gate 1 will open in 2024 and take up 57 hectares, while Gate 2 will open in 2029 and take up 22.5 hectares. The areas will include IPs such as film, television and computer game IPs, as well as bespoke themes.
  • The proposed maximum height parameters (I’m guessing this means how high they can build) have been proposed to be 40-100m in Gate 1 (131ft-328ft) and 35-65m (115-213ft) in Gate 2. The upper limits will allow for the construction of “tall rides” and “centrepieces”.
  • At least 60% of the attractions will be indoors.
  • The entrance plaza area to the Resort will contain a “Foadarche” (I don’t actually know what this is, but I’m guessing some kind of arch) that will be 100m in diameter and 130m tall(!!!). Hedges and berms will be planted around the edge of the plaza to facilitate wildlife.
  • There will be a total of four hotels with up to 3,550 rooms. The first hotel (the London Resort Hotel) will have 800 rooms within two wings, one of which will house the waterpark. The second hotel will have 1,500 rooms, the third hotel will have 800 rooms and the fourth hotel will be a “boutique” offering with 400 rooms.
  • There will be a “Coliseum” dedicated to housing eSports events across three key levels. “Innovation City”, a hall demonstrating the best of technology, will occupy the ground floor, while the middle floor will house the “Gamers’ Level”, which will be focused on gaming with demonstrations of technology as well as TV studios. The upper level will be a 2500-3000 seat arena.
  • A “conferention” centre accommodating up to 4,000 visitors will be built.
  • Construction on gate 1 is set to start in Q3 of 2022 for a July/August 2024 opening, while construction on gate 2 is anticipated to start in Q3 of 2027 for a 2029 opening. There’s a more detailed construction schedule within the article if you’d like to read it.
  • One of the most interesting things the document mentions is funding. Now this has been the key reservation for many of you, but it would appear that investment has been secured. Investors have apparently been found, and this external investment is apparently sufficient for the project to go ahead fully funded by them. The investors currently wish to remain confidential as their commitment to funding the project is conditional based on it gaining approval. I don’t know if I’m reading too much into this, but that to me sounds as though they have secured the finances to pull this off.
  • LRCH have secured two thirds of the required land; the remaining land is estimated to cost £200m, with this being included in an overall £1.8bn cost to bring gate 1 into operation, followed by £0.7bn to bring gate 2 into operation and expand gate 1.
I apologise, as I may have missed a few details, and it is quite a lot to take in, but isn’t this interesting stuff! What are your thoughts?
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Still don't see any reason to think it will ever happen.
Fair enough! From having read your past posts, however, I notice that one of your key reservations with the project is around funding, and it would appear that they may now have gained some pretty substantial funding; enough to complete the project. Does this not allay your concerns somewhat, or am I reading too much into that part of the article?
 

Tonkso

Hyper Poster
Crossrail extension to Ebbsfleet is now under serious consideration, with this project being the keystone justification.


Funding seems to be less of an issue as well now, and with the public consultation now a thing, I think this project is now very much alive. We just need to see what happens next spring when the consultations end.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
The proposed maximum height parameters (I’m guessing this means how high they can build) have been proposed to be 40-100m in Gate 1 (131ft-328ft)and 35-65m (115-213ft) in Gate 2. The upper limits will allow for the construction of “tall rides” and “centrepieces”.

Giga coaster confirmed, then. 😁
328ft - just enough to pinch Fury's crown. Get in!
 
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roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Fair enough! From having read your past posts, however, I notice that one of your key reservations with the project is around funding, and it would appear that they may now have gained some pretty substantial funding; enough to complete the project. Does this not allay your concerns somewhat, or am I reading too much into that part of the article?

9 times out of 10 these projects don't happen. And I'd say 9/10 is being generous.

Even when they have funding to start with. And some even when they've started construction. There's still a universal studios arch in the middle of the desert in Dubai as well as 2 failed SF parks and an abandoned Orca shaped island for Seaworld. Then there's the numerous failed Paramount parks projects around the world such as Spain and Osaka.

The odds are just that this won't happen. It may eventually get through but if it does it will be one of the very very lucky few.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Fair enough! From having read your past posts, however, I notice that one of your key reservations with the project is around funding, and it would appear that they may now have gained some pretty substantial funding; enough to complete the project. Does this not allay your concerns somewhat, or am I reading too much into that part of the article?
Over the years, I have seen too many "fully funded" projects strand, and this projects has many similarities with them. The whole project appears to move at an absolutely glacial pace, and investors typically like to see a return on their investment before they are too old to enjoy it. They can pull out if things get too delayed, and this project has been a conga line of delays, spending money like a high roller all the time. How many hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent already, doing very close to absolutely nothing?

That's the big issue I have so far. The wild spending despite a lack of anything substantial happening for years. It's as if the people behind the project would much rather bait investors and collect "consultancy fees" than actually building anything. But as the years go by and the lack of progress continues, the promises just get loftier and more unrealistic.

Take for instance the "foadarche" they say they will build in the entrance plaza (whatever that is - a Google search for the term only leads back to the planning documents themselves). 100 m in diameter and 130 m tall. That's twice the dimensions of the Magic Kingdom castle. About the size of the Orbit Tower built for the Olympics in London. Pretty much identical stats to the London Eye (which is 135 meters tall and 120 meters in diameter). For a setpiece for the entrance plaza. How the heck is that a sensible use of money? And for that matter, it took three years for the Orbit Tower to be designed and built. About six years for the London Eye. Those things are heckishly expensive and not something you just throw up on a whim as part of a larger project.

Further, they're aiming for an attendance three times that of Thorpe Park when the first gate opens - in 2024. Does it seem realistic to get that ready in three years, when it has taken them eight years to submit the planning documents? For the record, Universal Studios Beijing broke ground in 2016. That park is 54 hectares, versus 57 for this proposed first gate. It's still a construction site four and a half years later.

They're talking about 3550 hotel rooms. Again, let's look to Universal Studios Beijing. They're planning about 1200 rooms.

Or what about the IPs? If they want to be ready in three years, and build something that will draw millions of visitors, they better start construction by next year, which means the design process needs to start pretty much immediately. But they still don't seem to know which IPs will be involved, and that's kind of essential to know what they will be building. Three years from the projected opening date, there should at least be an active construction site, or at the very least, detail design should be well underway. Pandora - The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom broke ground in early 2014 and was opened in mid-2017. Design began in 2011. These things take a lot of time.

All in all, there are just so many red flags here. The proposed project is unrealistically large with an unrealistically short time frame, the track record so far is abysmal, and wherever you look for details there just seems to be "we haven't thought about that yet". There just doesn't seem to be any commitment, only pie-in-the-sky promises and calls for investment despite nothing being delivered for eight years and counting. I just don't see this getting anywhere close to what they are currently presenting. Maybe there will be a shopping mall with a cinema and a few escape rooms opening at some point in the late 2030s.
 
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