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Londoners will not see the regeneration benefits of the Olympic Park for another decade, the new 2012 “legacy czar” warned today.
Andrew Altman, the £200,000-a-year urban development expert, sought to dampen expectations from the £9.3 billion project as he announced his timetable for converting the 600-acre site after the Games.
The former deputy mayor of Philadelphia is under pressure as City Hall and the Government seek to justify the vast public investment in the Games by promising to transform the East End.
The prospect of thousands of jobs and homes in a “Hyde Park for the east” was one of the key promises that swung the 2012 bid in London's favour.
But Mr Altman, 46, said there would be “no silver bullet” such as a major sports team moving into an Olympic venue soon after 2012 or any imminent deal with a property developer.
In his first interview since starting as the chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, Mr Altman told the Standard: “Often you make the mistake of the Big Bang theory in regeneration. You pin your hopes on one thing such as a museum. In Philadelphia they have been trying to develop the waterfront for 20 years. The city went through different economic cycles and it's still not developed.”
Mr Altman set out a five-year plan for the development of the park between 2014 and 2019. He said there would be almost 5,000 new homes by 2019, with 2,000 riverside apartments overlooking the stadium in addition to the 2,800 units in the athletes' village. Businesses would have moved into the media centre — the size of Canada Tower in Canary Wharf — and the parks and waterways would be open to the public.
The legacy company, owned by City Hall and the Department for Communities and Local Government, works to secure investment for the Olympic Park and officially opens later this year.
A funding package for the company is being put together in Whitehall. Mr Altman insists it cannot take on the £800 million debt incurred by the London Development Agency in buying the land as it would deter investors.
Reader views (8)
I cannot believe the unceasing stream of negative sentiment about the Olympics. The games are providing a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop what was an ugly, deprived and polluted part of the capital. I wouldn't mind if the crtics had any better ideas, but they don't. All they can do is complain in that mean spirited, mealy mouthed little Englander fashion that will always drag this country down.
- Gary, London
The games is a waste of time and money, why employ an american to come to london and decide what is best for us londoners and then have the cheek to tell us not to have high hopes for a legacy. the people of newham need jobs and homes but we have instead ended with a landscape which will alienate the original residents by being exclusive and will have any connection to their past or celebrate their diversity. we in newham have suffered years of neglect and under development, this was an opportunity to offer new hope and generate a postive image of east london and stratford. I agree with sally's comment, we should sponsor the atheletes more rather than waste anymore money on worthless advisors.
- Chubba Chunski, stratford
You would think so Sally..and then help the kids up and coming who are attracted to such sports by watching Olympic winners train and cover the costs but it seems like in most sports the people in suits want to make mostt money.
- Mark, Watford
Perhaps the legacy czar could prevent the 'legacy' from being any worse than it already is by advising LOCOG not to hold the equestrian events at Greenwich and by preventing the closure of any more sports facilities and swimming pools in the run up to the Olympics.
Otherwise I'm in support of the statement made by Mr Atkins: just save the £200,000 per annum and put it towards funding the GB Team now.
Isn't that the whole point of the Olympics - to fund the sports men and women and not the czars, quangoes, and consultants?
- Sally, Ipswich
A legacy of debt for a borough that had no money in the first place.Great.
- Steve, London
Tax payers will still be paying for fifty years hence - and all the "white elephants" now being built will have long since been vandalised and demolished unless the next government do the decent thing and cancel the whole thing.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
Hmnnn. From the truly inspiring, incisive, thought-povoking and far sighted analysis summarised here, I can see an opportunity for one action that could save £200,000 per year for a start...R A
- Richard Atkins, Worcester. England
A decade + inflation = never.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
