Luton Town remain “in charge of their own destiny,” ready to deliver their Power Court stadium, debt-free, by 2024, says the chief operating officer of the club’s property arm, Mike Moran.
This week, 2020 Developments’ new plans for the supporting buildings and facilities at the town centre site were unveiled, with an aim for detailed stadium plans to be revealed in the summer.
This east and west of the Power Court site will include an increase in homes from 550 to around 1,200, a reduced amount of retail, and the underground River Lea will not be re-routed, but will still be brought to life. While new proposals at the supporting Newlands Park development, will see leisure and retail “scaled back”.
“With something like this, there’ll always be bumps along the road,” said Moran, adding: “These schemes are not backed by a Russian or an Italian billionaire. We’re in charge of our own destiny.
“All we can try and do is to take small, determined steps in the right direction. The land is all bought, freehold, by Luton’s investors and the ultimate aim of delivering a stadium back to the community, debt-free, that’s still absolutely on the cards.”
Asked by BBC Three Counties when fans could see spades in the ground, he said: “I’d say the end of the year at Power Court, or very early next year. We’re focusing on getting that work underway, so that people can see the site becoming a reality.”
Moran confirmed that the coronavirus pandemic has “accelerated a few of these changes,” but added that the designs were frozen in 2015 prior to 2020’s original application.
“A lot has happened in that time. We’ve always had to keep them under review and we’re delighted to get to this stage,” he said.
Revised plans for 2020’s Newlands Park regeneration scheme at junction 10 of the M1 have also been announced, with the scheme also no longer being retail and leisure-led, but with an aspirational shopping element retained.
Moran said: “That’s also under been review and we’re fortunate with how great that location is, so we’ve got quite a lot of interest from companies wanting to work with us. We’ve scaled back the retail and leisure element there. That’ll be no surprise to anybody.
“It’s still got a key retail focus, but the majority of the site now is not retail. We could sit on our hands and wait to see what’s going to happen over the next few years, but we want to get on with delivery.
“It’s a mix of hi-tech business space, offices still, that can deliver a lot of jobs, as well as a retail element.
“Offices are an important part of it and we want to deliver quality jobs for the local area, but the majority of the site is more flexible business space that we do have a lot of demand for.”
Asked whether that meant Newlands Park could become a distribution site, the 2020 Developments chief said: “In the modern world it’s a pretty fluid definition of what business space is. It’s an absolutely prime location. It won’t be for some dirty shed, but it will be flexible space.
“There could be an element of distribution, but the enquiries we’ve had at the minute are more looking for an office element, some research and development and some type of hi-tech space which is hopefully befitting of that space.”
Luton Town and 2020 Developments are expecting the new applications for Power Court and Newlands Park to be determined by April/May, despite recent run-ins with Luton Council over the refusal of a lease for the club’s proposed domed academy training facility on Cutenhoe Road and the granting of permission for an Aldi on Gipsy Lane, which has now put in doubt the viability of a supermarket on Power Court.
“We’ve always been able to see a bigger picture with the council and to work with them on these big strategic aims,” said Moran.
“The two projects, (it’s over) 4,000 jobs and we’re working in line with council policy and I think we’ve always had a good working relationship with a vast majority of the council and that’s what we’re focusing on.
“We do definitely expect the council to support them. We hope they’ll support them. When we first reengaged with the council about making some tweaks to the plans, their first concern was that, in the middle of a pandemic, we had some issues, (and that) we were no longer able to deliver that football stadium.
“Their fundamental relief, let’s say, is that we’ve got some plans that are deliverable. We can still deliver the jobs and the aspiration that we’ve always fought for, but it ultimately pays for Power Court.”
Asked whether the plans will “save” Luton, Nigel Green, the chairman of the campaign group Save Our Town, who appeared on the show with Moran, said: “I think it will.”
