OK, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that point. I think they are working towards the next major milestone in the project, the formal decision on whether to proceed or not. That doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen, but all the signs that we have seen so far are that the company are keen to proceed.
Universal Great Britain
- Thread starter AlexanderMBush
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- Dec 27, 2023
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Thought this might be interesting - Google at Kings Cross timeline according to ChatGPT:
Timeline and Delays:
- Initial Proposal (2013): Google first announced its plans to build a new headquarters at King’s Cross in 2013.
- First Design (2013-2015): The initial designs, developed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, were rejected by Google for not being ambitious enough.
- Redesign (2015-2017): Google hired Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Heatherwick Studio to create a more innovative design. The redesign process took time to meet Google’s vision and ambitions.
- Planning Permission (2017): The new designs were submitted for planning approval, which was granted in 2017 after extensive consultations and revisions.
- Construction Start (2018): Construction began in 2018, but the project faced various delays and challenges, including logistical issues and the complexity of the design.
- Expected Completion (2024): The headquarters is expected to be completed in 2024, over a decade after the initial proposal.
Just as an example from the world of visitor destinations where this point is just plain wrong, the MSG London Sphere project aimed to build a version of the Las Vegas Sphere in East London. It was proposed in 2018 and went through a tortuous planning process, and they eventually withdrew their proposal earlier this year, after working on it for at least six years. It's just not right to say that 'these people' get what ever they want.
Universal might want to build a new theme park in Bedford, and despite the extremely warm welcome from just about everybody there isn't a guarantee that the (new) government will give the go ahead. These things happen step by step.
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Also consider that something like a Resort like this with a massive Theme Park, Hotels, Retail & Dining, and who knows what else, is a lot more elaborate than those projects you mentioned
Personally, I'm not worrying. Thompson said they haven't made a decision one way or another yet, and I believe it. Just cuz it's been said the decision is being made in June, that doesn't mean it's being decided this early in June
Personally, I'm not worrying. Thompson said they haven't made a decision one way or another yet, and I believe it. Just cuz it's been said the decision is being made in June, that doesn't mean it's being decided this early in June
Even if they have decided, they are not obligated to tell someone that in an email. There's a very high chance that any decision will be kept quiet until Universal are ready to let the world know on their own terms. So unless it gets out via a leak or someone finds some sort of filing or document trail, they will let us know when they are good and ready.
I think that reply to @ProjectUniversalUK was genuine when they said no decision has been taken as of that date (5 June). If the decision had been taken but they wanted to schedule a public announcement it would have been easy to reply in a non-commital manner without having to actually lie, even if there were few consequences to being untruthful.
Every time I come back to this thread.
Ya'll need to chill and wait.
Ya'll need to chill and wait.
As soon as they “make a decision” they have to ask daddy Comcast for a whole lot of money. As with any family, you gotta wait till father is in a good mood before asking for a lot for something fun.
- Dec 28, 2023
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I am curious, should Comcast say sorry “no” wouldn’t it all have been a huge waste of time and money? Not so much on just the land, but everyone’s time involved from local council right up the chain.
For locals it changes nothing as it’s not here now so just wouldn’t be in the future, but wouldn’t Universal be slightly embarrassed to say the least?
I mean would Universal (when they do provide an announcement) actually say, “sorry our parent company won’t provide the money”… it’d look pretty odd to your average consumer right?
Would they come back in 10 years and say we’ve got the money now… people would have long memories and like someone else said “London resort says hi”..
The trick is to split the costs over many years to make the pill easier to swallow.
Comcast have plenty of experience of making significant investments over an extended period of time. They have $6.5Bn cash on hand and can easily raise debt by issuing bonds against a decent credit rating. I can’t see that right at the final decision point they will suddenly say “oops, we don’t have the money, everyone stand down”. The money will be there, they’ll need to be persuaded it’s a wise investment.
I would guess that Universal wouldn't really be going ahead with all of this without papa Comcast already greenlighting initial funds at least, the decision is again at a guess is down to is now the right time to pull the trigger.
Agreed. It’s not going to be a surprise to the Comcast Board when they get agenda papers asking them to approve a major investment in the UK. They have a broad strategy of building their theme park brand overseas, and they approved and reported last year $271M of land purchase in the UK for theme park development. The Board almost certainly will have already agreed in principle to a European or British theme park expansion. Now they need to be persuaded that the preparatory work on site selection, relations with local stakeholders, business case for a sensible return on investment, etc, etc, are all supportive of the major investment they are making on behalf of their shareholders. It sounds like that deal is not yet done, but barring major surprises or a last minute hiccup in relations with a new UK government I think it will be a Green Light when they have to decide, not least because everything so far seems to have lined up rather well.
If this was going to happen Universal and Comcast would have came out and said by now. They've done the testing and spoke to politicians and they haven't committed. This means it's not happening.
They are stringing this out so the value of the land increases then they can sell at a profit.
They are stringing this out so the value of the land increases then they can sell at a profit.
Are you new to how Universal works? Because they don't like to announce anything unless they have to. If this is approved, there will be no official announcement. It will be quietly updated on their website, government notified, and next steps will proceed.
Wow. About time we had some negative energy around here. Was getting too happy lately lol
Seriously though, if they're out their getting bore hole tests this week that means they're figuring out where the ground is best to build what where. At this point in the process Epic Universe had to switch the park plans from the east to the west side of the property after these tests... but you can bet that while this is happening design teams are drafting the plans for the park, concept art for attractions, and finalizing licensing deals... all while still only being budgeted for "exploratory" early phases of the overall process.
You want to milk this phase as much as possible, because once you're publicly committed to actually building a theme park, there's a lot more eyes on you, both publicly, and from within the company. So... let them cook.
