London SnowWorld News

The plans to transform the old dryslope at Beckton Alps into London SnowWorld floundered back in 2003, leaving an indoor slope half complete within the M25. The last news on SnowWorld we posted was back in 2004, but we had an email from somebody close to the project today who offered to fill us in on what happened.

Our source, who wishes to remain anonymous, says:

The site was contaminated, which required all the operatives to wear full body hazard suits. This made things far slower and far more expensive. Whilst it was known that the site was heavily contaminated (former gas works slag heap so crystalline cyanide etc!) the client severely underestimated the cost and time involved.

Just because there was already a slope there doesn’t make it any easier to build another above it. Serious schoolboy error. Building it on a slope (especially one made of sh*t) probably added a million quid.

There were lots of other serial errors on the job, but the client was too over confident to listen to professional advice.

The budget for the whole scheme was wholly inadequate. Advisers kept telling the developer and he just wouldn’t listen. His Swiss investment partners did however and pulled out.

Once the equity investors pulled out the banks wouldn’t provide the development finance so game over player one!

Funnily, the majority of the tough work was completed, with all the piling and substructure mainly in place.

We found a snippet buried deep in the Newham Recorder's website from November 2003. It reads:

£35 million entertainment planned complex.

A state-of the-art indoor winter sports, entertainment and casino complex is set to create up to 1,000 jobs in Newham. Cresney Ltd, an international business consortium, has acquired the site of the former Beckton dry ski slope in Newham to develop an entertainment centre. The consortium hopes the project will create up to 500 jobs at the centre itself and a similar number of indirect jobs, e.g. through increased trade to local suppliers, and be a catalyst for the continued regeneration of Newham. It is also hoped the proposed development will see an increased range of leisure opportunities in the area. The proposed development includes the only dry ski slope in London.

Dry ski slope? Well it could be an indoor dryslope, there's one in Calshot, but surely not.

"Mr Paul" sent us an email. It says:

Beckton's London Snowworld is not dead. Newham Recorder, Wednesday 25th Feb 2004 reveals that fresh details have been revealed about a £40 million flagship entertainment venue complete with casino for the old Beckton Alps. International buisness consortium "Cresney" have revealed this week that after months working with Newham Council town hall planners, that a detailed redevelopement scheme should be put to councillors by June 2004. Cresney spokesman Chris Turner also revealed that Cresney hope to open by spring 2007.

There is no mention of any ski slope there, but we can only hope that the south east will have an indoor slope one day.

We have it on good authority that both parties bidding to resurrect the half built Beckton indoor slope have failed to make any progress. The last we heard was that the Cathedral Group were taking the development forward, but it seems they may have floundered. The original developer (Svein Olsen) is still trying, but has found it difficult to progress as the previous attempt went bankrupt owing several hundred thousand pounds to designers.

It looks like a slope is once again destined for the site of the old Beckton Alps. The Stratford Express (dated week ending 25th Oct 2003) reports:

£35 MILLION STATE OF THE ART INDOOR SPORTS COMPLEX FOR BECKTON!!!!!
A £35 million indoor winter sports entertainment and casino complex is set to transform Beckton ski slope. The state of the art development has been put foward by international business consortium Cresney Ltd. It would include a real snow slope together with bars, restuarants and a casino. The existing slope would become part of a possibly five story gallaried building with viewing galleries. The centre would also have alpine support facilities such as ski lessons including deals for schools and shops selling equipment and sportswear. The developer hopes to creat 500 jobs at the centre using a training program organised by Newham Council. Construction could start within a year and will take around 18 months. All is subject to detailed talks with Newham Council and the detailed planning applications. Councillor Conor McAuley says "this is excellent news for Newham in terms of jobs and for new leisure oppertunities, we will work with the developer to maximise the benefits for the local people". Chris Turner a spokesman for the developer Cresney Ltd goes on to say " The project will become one of Londons major entertainment attractions for both the domestic and international markets".

[From Mr Paul, who adds "May we all live in hope for snow in Beckton once again."]

A new £425m bridge is being planned to cross the Thames at Beckton. This would do the London Snow World no harm at all, assuming it eventually gets built.

The Evening Standard (London) reports:

Plans to build one of the country's largest indoor ski slopes in east London are back on, with two bidders battling it out to take over the 20 million London Snow World venture at "Beckton Alps".

The bidding war is breathing new life into a two-year-old scheme to convert a former dry-ski centre into a state-of-the-art snowdome boasting a 200-metre run with sports shops, restaurants and bars.

Administrator Begbies Traynor was called in earlier this year when a consortium put together by Norwegian investor Svein Kjelstrup Olsen ran out of cash after beginning construction work. Property specialist Edward Symmons began marketing the 3.3-acre piece of land when the freeholder, Newham Borough Council, insisted that it still wanted a ski centre on its doorstep.

Olsen is now understood to have put together a new team to bid for the project but he faces stiff competition from Kent-based property developer Cathedral Group.

Creditors are meeting tomorrow to pore over the details of both bids.

Industry insiders say others may yet be made before a final decision is reached. A spokesman for Cathedral said: "We are interested in making a serious bid. Our intention would be to deliver the project and provide London with the world class snow sports centre it deserves."

Olsen unveiled his plans for London-Snow business: state-of-the-art dome like this one is on the cards Snow World in October 2001.

Backers boasted that 16 million people would be within a 90-minute drive of the slope, given its location on the A13 and proximity to the Docklands Light Railway.

But critics have questioned the venture's viability, given the costs involved, the difficulty in attracting enough visitors through the door, and potential environmental problems from contaminated land dating back to the site's days as a slagheap.

There is also the prospect of intense competition from Xscape, the Capital & Regional arm behind the three-year-old snowdome in Milton Keynes now headed by former Millennium Dome boss Pierre-Yves Gerbeau.

The group is currently developing domes in Castleford and Glasgow and has already stated its intention of considering a site in the M25 corridor closer to Essex, right in Beckton's target market.

A spokeswoman for the company, which has surrounded its Milton Keynes slope with shops and a cinema, said: "Beckton is not the right location for us. We would want to be closer to central London or further out."

The Evening Standard reports:

Plans to build one of the country's largest indoor ski slopes in east London are back on, with two bidders battling it out to take over the £20m London Snow World venture at 'Beckton Alps'.

The bidding war is breathing new life into a two-year-old scheme to convert a former dry-ski centre into a state-of-the-art snowdome boasting a 200-metre run with sports shops, restaurants and bars.

Administrator Begbies Traynor was called in earlier this year when a consortium put together by Norwegian investor Svein Kjelstrup Olsen ran out of cash after beginning construction work.

Property specialist Edward Symmons began marketing the 3.3-acre piece of land when the freeholder, Newham Borough Council, insisted that it still wanted a ski centre on its doorstep.

Olsen is now understood to have put together a new team to bid for the project but he faces stiff competition from Kent-based property developer Cathedral Group.

Creditors are meeting tomorrow to pore over the details of both bids. Industry insiders say others may yet be made before a final decision is reached. A spokesman for Cathedral said: 'We are interested in making a serious bid. Our intention would be to deliver the project and provide London with the world class snow sports centre it deserves.'

Olsen unveiled his plans for London Snow World in October 2001. Backers boasted that 16m people would be within a 90-minute drive of the slope, given its location on the A13 and proximity to the Docklands Light Railway.

But critics have questioned the venture's viability, given the costs involved, the difficulty in attracting enough visitors through the door, and potential environmental problems from contaminated land dating back to the site's days as a slagheap.

There is also the prospect of intense competition from Xscape, the Capital & Regional arm behind the three-year-old snowdome in Milton Keynes now headed by former Millennium Dome boss Pierre-Yves Gerbeau.

The group is currently developing domes in Castleford and Glasgow and has already stated its intention of considering a site in the M25 corridor closer to Essex, right in Beckton's target market.

A spokeswoman for the company, which has surrounded its Milton Keynes slope with shops and a cinema, said: 'Beckton is not the right location for us. We would want to be closer to central London or further out.'

Now that is good news. The last time we saw the place it looked like this.

AD has seen an advert in the Estates Gazette (a magazine for commercial property) advertising the Beckton Alps site for sale (1.3ha / 3.3 acres). The site is being sold on behalf of London Snoworld via the administrators (Jamie Taylor/Mary Fry of Begbies Taylor) via Edwards Symmons Surveyors. There is no price listed for the site.

We've now seen a copy of the Snow World insolvency notice (PDF format), so it looks like it's all officially down the pan. Whether anything will rise out of the ashes remains to be seen.

We've also found out what the "good news" we were promised for early 2003 was. It seems the developers had changed their estimate for the amount of parking required and had applied to have their plans for a 360 place multi-storey car park replaced with a part open and part covered car park for 197 places. It looked like the Council would have granted the changes early in 2003.

[From info supplied by Simon Abel] who goes on to say:

There might still be hope that the project will get restarted but re-financing will be required, Technically the company is under administration (a la Leicester City Football Club) and administration can be used to protect the company from creditors seeking repayment of debts and allow it to re-structure its finances.

"An administration order is an order made by a court to administer the management of a company that is (or is likely to become) insolvent, or to administer the payment of debts by an individual.
For a company, an administration order follows a petition by a company, its directors or a creditor. A court must be persuaded that it is better to keep the company in administration rather than liquidate it. The purpose of an order is to keep the company's business going, allowing some time for its reorganisation and for the best use of its assets. Once under an order, the company is protected from creditors, who cannot influence the running of the business or recover any assets without the permission of the court.
An administration may result in the company becoming solvent and returning to the control of its directors, or in its liquidation."

Let's hope this is what is going on rather than the first steps to liquidation. Unfortunately we can only guess what is going on rather than knowing what the full story is until the company/developers come out with something definitive.

We're now hearing from a reader who's contacted the receivers that they know nothing about handling the insolvency of the London SnowWorld. We'll try to contact them tomorrow and see what's what, but if this turns out to be a joke then somebody could be in some serious legal trouble from the developers and investors.

The Newham Recorder today holds a small notice on page 42 column 3 that the London SnowWorld was put into the hands of the receivers on 21st March 2003.

The company details match those from Companies House. It could be a late April Fool of course, but given the fact that this is a tiny ad in the back of a local paper, that's fairly unlikely.

We're trying to contact the developers to get something from them, especially after recent signs that the development was about to restart, but it doesn't look good.

If it's true then there's always a possibility that Xscape could pick up the development. After all, Capital and Regional Properties (the parent company) already own the adjacent plot. The site is current ready for construction to begin on the actual building, so it's sort of part complete already.

More as we get it.

[Thanks to Jason for his eagle eyes.]

Although the developers don't have any information for us, they have been in contact. They realise it's dragging on, but it is still moving forwards. As soon as they have a re-start date for construction they will let us know. They haven't forgotten about us all.

Paul Barrett has been at it again! He's managed to trace the contractors responsible for the installation of the London Snow World internal lift systems and other internal construction installations. They are very sure that the project was about to re-commence and are currently waiting to hear from the developers regarding re-commencement of construction works.

When asked about the projected opening date of Sept 2003 they said the new date would be Sept 2004.

We had news from Paul Barrett, a local at Beckton. He's been "snooping" around the London Snow World site and to his amazement found two workman at the site repairing the internal fencing. It turns out these two builders work for Newham council and they have been asked to secure the site for the land owners. Development works are due to re-commence on Friday of this week.

They also said that the works dried up due to financial reasons, but the development had now been re-financed and Beckton will have its new slope soon. When asked about the September 2003 opening the builder were not sure, but that date is still possible from experience with other developments.

We've not had anything official from the developers, although they had hinted at good news earlier in the year. We'll pester them again.

We've received a copy of a what seems to be part of a Confidential document concerning the London SnowWorld. It's really just a re-hash of the press release from 18 months ago and seems to be available on the web anyway.

From the document properties, it seem like this was written in July 2002 and the document itself is suggesting an opening date of September 2003. Whether the July date is correct I have no idea, but the September opening date would be optimistic indeed.

We've yet to have any official word from LSW, so here's the document for you to drool over in the meantime:

1. SNOWWORLD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

· The SnowWorld is located on a site within London Borough of Newham existing dry ski slope at Beckton.

· Detailed planning consent has been granted for a building 15,000 sq m with 7,533 sq m of snow area along with associated leisure and retail facilities.

· There are over 16 million people within 90 minutes drive-time of the site

· We have based the projections on three alternative numbers of visitors; 550,000 and 650,000 and 750,000 for skiing and snowboarding or accompanied.

· The site is located on the A13 dual carriageway close to A406 North Circular ensuring easy access to the centre.

· The site is also located within walking distance of the nearest bus stop and near the DLR (Docklands Light railway).

· Experience has shown that the mixture of active and passive leisure facilities will ensure regular repeat visits.

· London SnowWorld has entered into a 100 year lease for the total site.

· The Acer Snowmec snowmaking technology is widely recognised as creating the best quality snow, thus facilitating the widest range of activities and hence attracts the largest number of visitors.

· Its unique thermal storage capability provides great energy benefits in operation and to other users.

· SnowWorld will be responsible for the operations of the snow activities within the snow demise.

· The initial design incorporates the snow centre with the rest of the development typically containing leisure activities such as:-

1,850 sq m Entertainment
2,500 sq m Bars & Restaurants
800 sq m Retail

· Funding for the snow operations amounts to £20million

· The centre is planned to be opened in September 2003

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE LONDON SNOWWORLD

Introduction

The LSW is an entirely new leisure concept offering a unique winter wonderland experience with the fun and thrills of a full range of winter based leisure activities throughout the year together with excellent commercial and other leisure opportunities on a site at Beckton, London Borough of Newham.

The centre is well placed with easy and rapid access to substantial catchments in the highly populated East London, North Kent and Essex incorporating several large and very prosperous towns and cities.

The indoor real snow centre will become the unique selling point of this major attraction, adding value to a multi activity leisure and retail complex featuring the following advantages:

· Participation in the next generation of indoor leisure development at a stage where commercial evaluation is complete and the technology is proven
· The growing market of leisure users and latent winter sports market

The SnowWorld

The building of 15,000 sq m will house a 7,500 sq m indoor real snow centre will comprise of a main slope and a beginner’s slope ensuring that the centre will appeal to all standards of skier and snowboarder. Its full commercial potential however, lies in the promotion of active leisure though the unique winter wonderland atmosphere created by the ability to ‘theme’ Acer Snowmec snow through the inclusion of Alpine style bars and restaurants offering gluhwein, strudel, hot chocolate and other meals accompanied by appropriate music.

These food and beverage outlets, as well as associated retail areas within the snow area, will enhance the commercial potential of this unique opportunity.

Other Activities to be included on the Site

In addition to the indoor winter wonderland with its themed bars, restaurants, retail area and health & fitness the development will not be just for active leisure activities but also passive visitors.

Associated retail, food and beverage outlets complete the package and make the centre a day out for the whole family.

These tried and tested activities will attract short stay visitors but also increase the dwell time of visitors as the centre becomes a whole day experience.

3. SNOWWORLD MARKETING

The Market

The Post Office Scenario Area Profile Report shows a catchment population around Beckton as follows:

Ninety Minutes 16,045,985
Thirty Minutes 10,304,284
Fifteen Minutes 6,005,282

The main target market will be the 16.0million inhabitant within a 90-minutes catchment area of the centre but research has shown that such integrated leisure destinations with a snow centre as the anchor attraction can attract visitors from up to 2 hours drive time.

The LSW indoor real snow centre is the unique ingredient in this imaginative mix of high quality leisure facilities. Snow will be provided all year round and should open up totally new markets, appealing to all ages and socio-economic groups, regardless of whether they have been able to participate previously in winter based activities. Winter based activities will become a regular leisure attraction rather than a ‘major spend annual vacation’ activity.

The opportunity for visitors to take part in a wide range of leisure activities will enable the total development to create extended market opportunities. Inclusion of the other listed activities supported facilities will ensure the widest possible appeal. The specialist retail opportunities on the site will create a true destination for all ages and for all members of the family.

SnowWorld Market Opportunity

The market for indoor snow slopes can be compared with the growth of the UK indoor tennis and health & fitness market during the past ten years.

It is likely that the SnowWorld will attract more than a million visitors per year of which 400-500k will be skiing. The other visitors will be to the fitness centre, retail shopping and the restaurants. All the restaurants are overlooking the ski slope which adds to the après ski feeling.

With the City of London and Canary Wharf 15-20 minutes away corporate marketing will be of importance. Special corporate marketing will be given high priority.

London SnowWorld will have its own ski and snowboard school. A team of professional instructors will give courses to skiers and snowboarders at different levels.

We've had an email from Paul who says:

I live in Beckton and am happy to say that someone has actually been to the site and fixed all the boarding around the site leaving the possibilties open more more work soon, hopefully!

We've still not heard from the developers about the news they hinted at back in December, but this small movement at the construction site would suggest that the development may be starting to ramp up again.

We had an email from FG who's been doing some digging around. He's contacted MACE, the company doing the actual construction, who say that things are still moving forward.

The local council are all in favour of the project moving forward.

The developers have promised us some good news, so we'll get on to them now and see what it is!

We're getting several emails every day asking about the current state of the London Snow World development in Beckton, London. At the current time the project remains stalled, but developers have said they should have some good news for us very soon, probably this month.

Despite the rumours flying around about the London Snow World project in Beckton, the latest from the developers is that slope is still moving slowly forward. This is what they have to say:

There are times when it is best to say nothing... this is one of them. Lot's going on and you will be the first to know, when I know. Something to say... pilings are down... planning permission for the revised car parks is anticipated within the next few weeks.

Sprezzatura sent us his musings on the London Snow World development at Beckton.

I would hate to see that the best views of the City of London from the East are gone forever, in that at least 50 feet of the top of the Alp have been pared away for...? Who knows? The longer the weeds grow, the hoarding dilapidates and the scaffold rusts, the greater I feel that Beckton has been sorely let-down. I shall only feel happy about the new and proposed, Snow World, when it is actually up and running.

SN has sent us some history of the London Snow World site. What with little activity over the last three months we thought we'd post something up.

The Beckton Alp is an old slag heap from John Beck's Gas Works. As such, it has two dangers - noxious tars, oils and other byproducts of the Gas works and it has no structure, so it would have been liable to collapse, as per Aberfan.

The capping seals the nasties in and then covers them with lots of soil. Trees etc give structure.

In the early 1990's, when Winsor Park Estate was being built, various noxious items were found in dust from the Gasworks site including cyanide compounds in the dust that settled on the DLR trains.

The Alp itself was a bone of contention between LDDC and LBN when it came to de-designating the LDDC and handing paths and parks back to LBN. The LBN insisted that the de-designation package should include something to help maintain the high maintenance Docklands facilities, eg the Alp and the paths that are liable to move and crack and need frequent repairing.

Fortunately, the London Health & Safety Exective say the site is safe and the earthworks have not penetrated the capping.

Other major local facilities are taking far longer than envisaged namely:

Royal Albert Dock Waterski Tow
Victoria Dock Watersports Centre
Even their wonderful 2,000 meter rowing course that had the Albert Dock extended and new bridge built to North Woolwich is too short - apparently the minimum required length got changed recently.
Even ExCel is having problems getting from the set up stage to the fully operational level due to the time to build up business.

No doubt all these things and SnowDome will happen as and when all the housing, business and hotel developments get established over the next ten years but the short and medium term economic climate and other factors are affecting everything.

As usual everything takes much longer than planned. What is it about
project management that is so over-ambitious?

At least the A13 roadworks are going surprisingly well so we'll all be able to get there when it does open.

There are a few rumours floating our way at the moment concerning the Beckton "London Snow World". We have an excellent source close to the development, who assures us that all is moving forward to the latest schedule - a planned opening for July 2003.

As you'll be aware, we have rumours of many, many indoor ski halls for the UK and the odds are that the vast majority of these will not even get to the planning stage, let alone construction. The London Snow World will not be one of these and the construction of the slope is effectively complete. The next stage is to start constructing the building to sit on the slope. At the site, they appear to be between these two phases, with the place pretty much deserted.

The main investors behind the project include a Swiss skiing operation and Ellis-Brigham. These are not property developers looking to replace cinemas with snow hills in order to attract consumers to retail developments or to push through planning permission. Instead, they are people involved in the ski industry and looking to promote skiing and snowboarding in the UK. With many similar projects in the UK and around the world, the developers have found that with the new busines of indoor ski hills, venture financing has not been as straight forward as they'd originally hoped.

So ignore any rumours. The facts are that it's been a little tougher than they expected, but the London Snow World should be with us in little over a year.

Our man in the field, JB, has said that the construction of the London Snow World seems to have slowed considerably recently. Whether they've hit any problems or whether this is just going as planned, we don't know, but the recent announcement of a delay to opening would indicate that things aren't quite going to plan.

The London Snow World in Beckton will see a pretty big lump of snow right in Docklands and there's already a sizable queue of people clamouring to get in. We should have some new photos of the building site soon.

The London SnowWorld at Beckton, London has delayed opening until July 2003. The board felt that trying to open by Christmas this
year was just too fast to complete all proper commissioning, procurement, head hunting for staff, etc. They say:

SnowWorld is going to be a top notch venue and better to go a little slower on the opening and get it perfect.