Everton move to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock next season and The Friedkin Group have ambitious plans.
Colin Chong has confirmed that The Friedkin Group (TFG) are keen to expand Everton’s footprint around their new stadium.
The club will move to the 52,888-seater ground at Bramley-More Dock for the start of next season. The state-of-the-art facility is expected to regenerate the northern area of Liverpool and will bring an estimated £1.3 billion of value to the economy.
But interim chief executive Chong, who is also chief stadium development officer, revealed that Everton’s owners TFG are exploring a purchase to buy the adjacent Nelson Dock. North West Place reports that negotiations have begun with The Peel Group.
Chong told delegates at the MIPIM property conference in France: “There was always an idea that we might be able to develop a complementary development to support the stadium’s development. Our new ownership has tasked me with looking for a sports-led redevelopment that could be accommodated on Nelson Dock, and maybe even further if we can get the right partners to invest. We are currently going through a fact-finding mission, carrying out surveys, and hopefully we will have some information back in the next month or two.
“Our owners are very keen to secure Nelson Dock because they believe they’ll do something good with it regardless – that’s their mindset, which is a breath of fresh air.
“If I was given a wish list, that would be on the top of it, secure Nelson Dock and protect the asset that we’ve just developed. We’re in a very unique position, there’s over £750 million of investment already, and that’s probably the hardest part about sports-led regeneration.”
Chong was peaking against the backdrop of Manchester United unveiling plans to build a new £2 billion stadium to move away from Old Trafford. The build of Everton’s new stadium went to the expected time frame and Chong believes choosing contractors Laing O’Rourke was pivotal.
He added: “It’s the way we approached the project from day one. We had a very simplistic, streamlined work plan.
“It’s also about being realistic with the quality of the development that we needed to place on that site and being realistic about the risk associated with that site while making sure our then-ownership was brought along on the journey. They were always honest with demands – we said it’s going to take this long.”
“We could have picked contractors that have gone bust, but we did our due diligence on the contractor, and it was heavily involved with the pre-construction activities. We allowed the contractor to influence the design without diluting our specifications.
“So it’s really about having a plan, having people around you to support the plan, and then sticking to the plan, we knew that as soon as we got planning approval, we could make a start within weeks of signing that off.”