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Arsenal have announced that Sir Robert McAlpine are to build
the new Arsenal stadium at Ashburton Grove, after
the company beat Taylor Woodrow in a head-to-head tender process.
The contract will include the Lough Rd regeneration project,
new bridges and roads, offices, and all that other stuff, as well as
the new stadium itself. There's no mention of the Highbury
redevelopment in the Arsenal.com announcement, so we assume that that site will be handled separately at a later date (which makes sense given that it can't be started till everything else is finished).
McAlpine built the new Hampden Park stadium in Glasgow and the
Bobby Moore stand at West Ham's Boleyn Ground. Oh, and the Millennium Dome (if "built" isn't too strong a word).
But not the McAlpine stadium in Huddersfield, which is name after a totally different McAlpine.
Rupe adds...
James Dakin writes with some comments on the Highbury development:
"Arsenal won't be doing the residential development themselves - they will very likely flog the site to a specialist developer. The same
goes for the housing at Lough Road and Ashburton/Drayton Park - the Club will sell the right to build that to companies who do that sort
of thing for a living."
"There has been misreporting in the press about the cost of the stadium. They have added up the cost of the works
mentioned in today's announcement and the various residential projects and reached numbers of approx £400m."
"In fact so far as the
club is concerned they should have subtracted a big number for the residential developments since this is in fact cash coming to the
club from the companies that will acquire the sites from the club. The residential developers then have to fund the developments
themselves which has nothing to do with the club. (There are possible variations on this eg the club shares development profits with the
developers etc.)"
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