An overheard conversation Keith, and I can’t now remember the name clearly, it was something like the Sun Lee Corporation of Singapore, though I can’t track anything like that name on the web. But when I mentioned it to a friend in international business he recognised it instantly as a huge investment firm.You remember when the church and the adjacent ground was sold, and the agents said the buyer wished to remain anonymous? They were the buyers apparently.The following has to be recognised as pieced together bits of verbal information from all over, but the basic scenario behind Brentford Town Centre Ltd is:A couple of entrepreneurs, Rupin Vadera and Bhav Rhadia, saw the opportunity years ago, to make a killing out of the South of the High St scheme. Bhav Rhadia bought up quite a few properties in the western section, through one or more company names, including St Lawrence’s, the vacant land alongside, the coach station, what used to be called Gaines House, plus I suspect, hiding behind Alts Ltd, the Bennett’s yard and the titles to Ridgeways. Whether Rupin bought anything himself I don’t know, certainly others of his mates all chipped in to buy up other parcels in the eastern section once they were confident that Rupin had sewn up a deal with the Regeneration Partnership. As they are all under different names of assorted Pacific Island companies, it’s hard to discover who’s behind them!I was told that Bhav split from Rupin early on, though it seems that the properties were there for BTC to claim as included in their portfolio should the Town Centre scheme finally get off the ground. I’m sure that some financial deal would then have been worked out, but it seems that Bhav either became impatient or required liquidity, because last year he put St Lawrence and the vacant plot on the open market.What are “Sun Lee’s” (?) intentions? Who knows? BTC Ltd had suggested Wimpeys as the “preferred developer” for their scheme, and Wimpeys did have a meeting with the Council. They did however have their own ideas on the redevelopment, so the whole planning process would have to have started again from scratch. There was also a question mark over what resources would be necessary to relocate Twickenham Plating.Sun Lee (?) would apparently not have any such funding problem if they were to put themselves forward as preferred developer, but this presents its own problem, - the greater the investment level just in the land, the more pressure to develop as intensely and densely as can be forced through the Council’s Planning department! They may just wish to build on this spot independently, but unless that would dovetail with an overall scheme, the Council will be reluctant to approve.With fragmenting ownership, and dissolving bonds amongst BTC’s little coterie, no wonder that Councillor Ellar has been fuming at delays! He’ll have more than that with BTC disintegrating, and maybe, just maybe, this might demonstrate the dangers inherent in doing cosy little behind-closed-doors deals with such people.I am tempted to say, “serve them right”, but what has the community they supposedly were trying to boost done, to deserve years of stagnation, dereliction, and the attempted destruction of historic industry?
Nigel Moore ● 7303d