Lots Road power station owner Circadian is suing neighbour Chelsea Harbour (CH) for holding up its £500m redevelopment.
Circadian, a subsidiary of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing’s telecoms-to-property group Hutchison Whampoa, claims that the owner of Chelsea Harbour has “unreasonably withheld its consent” to the Terry Farrell-designed development in Chelsea, London SW10.
The developer, which bought the site from P&O Developments in December 2001, wants the High Court to give it permission to carry out the scheme without CH’s consent.
CH is refusing to allow the redevelopment of the power station because it claims the underground car park proposed by Circadian was not “high class residential housing nor a use ancillary to that”.
CH alleges that this is in breach of a 2000 agreement it had with P&O, which said that only luxury development would take place.
CH’s refusal to give consent is the latest in a long line of delays for the project, which will see the power station transformed into a residential-led, mixed-use scheme comprising 435 private and 382 affordable flats, and 105,000 sq ft of shops and offices.
The redevelopment was first proposed in 2000 and was expected to be completed in 2006.
However, following a lengthy dispute with Kensington & Chelsea Council and local campaigners, it was not given consent until 2006. This was then challenged by the local campaigners, led by Lady Dido Berkeley, who lost their high court battle in March 2007.
A spokesperson for Hutchison Whampoa said: “We have nothing to add to what is already in the public domain.”
No one at CH was available for comment.
