Quintain Looks to Repeat Millennium Dome Coup With 44-Acre Wembley Purchase

LONDON-Quintain Estates has paid £48 million ($74 million) for Wembley London, operator of the Wembley Conference Centre, the Wembley Exhibition Hallsand Wembley Arena. The three attractions occupy 22 acres, and in addition the company owns another 22 acres of land to the east and north of Wembley Stadium.

The company does not own or operate Wembley Stadium itself, which is the subject of a £750 million ($1.1 billion) redevelopment proposal by the Football Association.

Quintain is now preparing its proposals for a major mixed-use scheme masterplanned by the Richard Rogers Partnership on its 44 acres which will integrate with the proposed new national stadium, designed by Foster & Partners. Its aim will be to take advantage of the strong public transport network, which incorporates two railway stations and one London Underground station. Quintain expects to submit a planning application within the next twelve months and that the development will take between five and 10 years to complete.

Quintain has already demonstrated the benefits of leveraging landholdings alongside major public projects: originally it bought a patch of land beside the Millennium Dome in Greenwich and it subsequently emerged as the leader of the Millennium Delta consortium that owns and will operate the entire 190-acre complex on the Greenwich Peninsula.

Nick Shattock, Quintain’s Property Director, said: “This is the second landmark regeneration deal we have signed in three months. This 44 acre site represents a major strategic project with great potential to create a ‘new’ location capable of significant redevelopment and powerful branding, whilst providing benefits to the wider Wembley communities.”