Pop Brixton (formerly Grow Brixton) Pope's Road development

[Gramsci]

The idea of entrepreneurs as creators of employment is rather like re-grading social housing into "affordable" housing.

It enables the politicos to claim to be addressing an issue - and by redefining the issue they can avoid responsibility by and large.

PS I love the idea that Jeremy Hunt is going to forgive the students fees of those who become entrepreneurs. Sounds completely upside down thinking on a par with the Help to Buy scheme - scientifically proven only to help the best off.

Noticed even the Evening Standard said that the money that Hunt and Boris are promising to hand out makes Corbyns Labour party seem fiscally responsible.

One possible good thing about Brexit is that it may reduce the obsession with entrepreneurs.

The State is going to have to step in if Brexit really happens. Step in big time to avoid disaster.

 

[T & P]

One possible good thing about Brexit is that it may reduce the obsession with entrepreneurs.

I fear the opposite might come to be. In the shit times that lay ahead, every tax-dodging British millionaire businessman will be lauded and hailed as a shining example of what success Brits can achieve in the world thanks to their hard work, ingenuity and determination. Who needs the EU if people get on their bikes and work hard and all that...

 

[teuchter]

Pop currently advertising themselves to the folk of Loughborough Junction.

 

[T & P]

Oh dear...

 

[editor]

Another deserving local start-up given a chance thanks to Pop Brixton. Oh, wait....

 

[Ol Nick]

Another deserving local start-up given a chance thanks to Pop Brixton. Oh, wait....

Johnnie Walker I can take or leave but if they could get Tony Blackburn down...

 

[editor]

The Collective seem to be doing very nicely for themselves. Shame that they can't make Pop Brixton profitable when they're raking in hundreds of millions elsewhere.

“The Collective make similar claims about solving the housing crisis but it doesn’t stand up,” Stewart says. “Teige was talking about a mixture of different ages, generations, classes – it wasn’t targeted at a specific group. It was more about democratising housing, rather than just having these enclaves of millennials who are being charged a lot of money. ”

The Collective has received $800m to fund growth across the UK, US and Europe and now has 8,000 units operating or under development. It has just opened what it claims is the world’s biggest co-living development in Canary Wharf, with 705 rooms, a swimming pool on the 20th floor and a golf simulator. The smallest rooms are available from £100 a night (though a cursory glance at the booking system suggests rates are often £150 or more), £1863pm for a three month stay and £1430pm if you stay for 12 months. Its New York location (a converted hotel) is only available for short stays.

This focus on the higher end of the market might not be surprising given the Collective’s CEO is Reza Merchant, a 29-year-old who was educated at the £20,000-a-year Merchant Taylors’ School and was able to launch the Collective after borrowing £1.8m against his parent’s home.

Despite the lack of social tenancies or facilities for families, he maintains the Collective is a project rooted in providing community for average city dwellers.

Co-living: the end of urban loneliness – or cynical corporate dorms?

 

[editor]

Another year, another shitload of debt. A total liability to the community.
Disastrous Pop Brixton makes a loss for the fourth year in a row as the debts continue

 

[ricbake]

Another year, another shitload of debt. A total liability to the community.
Disastrous Pop Brixton makes a loss for the fourth year in a row as the debts continue

£32,000 paid to Lambeth council - that totals £666 per month for their chunk of vibrant, edgy, on trend central Brixton!

Works out at over £20 a day

 

[editor]

£32,000 paid to Lambeth council - that totals £666 per month for their chunk of vibrant, edgy, on trend central Brixton!

Works out at over £20 a day

Their report states that their operating costs are an eye watering £1.22 MILLION for a single year with an ADDITIONAL quarter of a million quid spent on marketing.

It's almost unfathomable that such a relatively small venue could accrue such sky-high costs. And why aren't the businesses promoting themselves?

 

[teuchter]

Pop Brixton's Fourth Birthday Annual Accounts | Pop Brixton

Pop Brixton's own explanation of the numbers

 

[Gramsci]

In Pops own report they are making a loss.

the same period, we depreciated the cost of building the project by a further £337,000 and paid interest on our loans of £52,000. In addition, we received a tax credit of £52,000. This means we returned a net loss of £171,000 for the period.

Pop Brixton's Fourth Birthday Annual Accounts | Pop Brixton

Given they got the land for free and a lot of support from the Council this isn't that great a success.

They are a meanwhlle project. If the Council hadn't extended the lease they would have been up shit creek.

I'm assuming Peckham levels finances are kept separate from Pop.

 

[editor]

Damning piece on Pop fucking Brixton

POP Brixton is still owned by The Collective, a property company with flat complexes in the Isle of Dogs and west London, with a combined property portfolio of £2.7 billion. A redacted name on the lease agreement for POP Brixton is registered "c/o The Collective" as the guarantor, viewed as part of a Freedom of Information Act request made by VICE. The Collective also has a seat on Make Shift's board of directors, and provides guidance and support for the running of POP Brixton.

A commercial food market owned by a multi-billion pound property company? It’s a long way from the original Grow: Brixton bid.

And what I've been saying from day one:

But for many locals, POP Brixton does not seem to have been designed with them in mind. “When POP Brixton opened, I remember going there and not even feeling welcome, even though I'd lived [in Brixton] my whole life,” local baker Rose Whyte told me when I spoke to her earlier this year.

Cash-Strapped Councils and Gentrification: The Problem with POP Brixton

 

[editor]

Interesting follow up from Vice

Our original reporting found that, after four-and-a-half years, POP Brixton had made a profit and given half of this to Lambeth Council, as per their profit-share agreement, outlined in the SLAs. This was in part based on information sent to VICE by Lambeth Council in an email, which stated: "Profit share was received in the 18/19 financial year only and was in the amount of £53,750" [sic].

However, following the publication of our piece, Lambeth Council has disclosed to VICE that this information is incorrect.

It says that the £53,750 was actually "pre-profit share", which was agreed as part of the lease extension in 2017. This agreement stated that a "base rent" would be paid to the council from the project before a profit was made. According to the council, when it was clear the project would not be making a profit any time soon, these payments stopped (in April of 2019) and the council received no further money.

A spokesperson for Make Shift – the management company behind POP Brixton, owned by property firm The Collective – told VICE that the venture had "broken even in 2018" but "not yet made a profit", and that Lambeth Council had received an "early profit share".

The original way Lambeth Council was set to make money off POP Brixton was through a "profit share agreement". Once the project made a profit, 50 percent (a profit share) would go to the council and 50 to POP Brixton. A pre-profit share, or early profit share, is money given to the council before it has made a profit.

VICE asked Lambeth Council why it provided incorrect information about POP Brixton’s profitability. A spokesperson said they did not understand why the distinction between profit share and pre-profit share was "hugely significant".

If the figure is a pre-profit share, this means Lambeth council's risky regeneration project has still not made a profit, despite its original prediction of this happening by 2018.

A council spokesperson told VICE: "As Lambeth and Pop are in negotiations for an extension of the lease until 2022 it is likely that a fixed rent amount will become payable in lieu of profit share."

POP Brixton Is Yet to Make a Profit

 

[Gramsci]

Interesting follow up from Vice



POP Brixton Is Yet to Make a Profit

I'm not a businessman but looks to me that Carl Turner is doing alright with Peckham Levels.

I don't understand how running a business with no profit to share with Lambeth Council is able to have bigger project with Southwark Council .

 

[Gramsci]

Interesting follow up from Vice



POP Brixton Is Yet to Make a Profit

I pity journalists who have to deal with Lambeth communication team.

Bit like having to deal with senior officers.

"When I said this at previous meeting I didn't mean what it said I meant something else. Why are you being so hostile towards me."

 

[editor]

I took a look yesterday. Nothing there to interest me at all.

In photos: Pop Brixton on a very quiet Monday evening, November 2019

 

[Paul Hill]

The Collective seem to be doing very nicely for themselves. Shame that they can't make Pop Brixton profitable when they're raking in hundreds of millions elsewhere.




Co-living: the end of urban loneliness – or cynical corporate dorms?

I remember when the Markets wanted to use Pop Brixton site as a traders' car park. The plan showed very clearly that a traders' car park could easily earn £250,000 a year to the great advantage of both traders and Lambeth. So we got this stupid loser of a Pop Brixton instead. That was Lambeth Council trying hard to be businesslike. Pshaw!

 

[Rushy]

Does anyone know how much the Pop site generates in business rates?

 

[editor]

Word is that Makeshift's accounts are now 2 months late. Funny, that.

 

[nick]

Not sure that "word is" is quite accurate - it appears to be a fact

Make shift Community Ltd? Company number 09709012?

next accounts were due 30 Sept 2019. So that is a £100 fine FWIW

Accounting year extended from 31 July 18 to 31 Dec 18 in Sept `18. Meaning no published accounts available for periods after July 2017

MAKE SHIFT COMMUNITY LTD - Filing history (free information from Companies House)


HTH

Ps someone with time on their hands may wish to pick apart the 27 page pdf detailing the outstanding charge that is also freely accessible from companies house website

 

[CH1]

Not sure that "word is" is quite accurate - it appears to be a fact
Make shift Community Ltd? Company number 09709012?
next accounts were due 30 Sept 2019. So that is a £100 fine FWIW
Accounting year extended from 31 July 18 to 31 Dec 18 in Sept `18. Meaning no published accounts available for periods after July 2017
MAKE SHIFT COMMUNITY LTD - Filing history (free information from Companies House)
Ps someone with time on their hands may wish to pick apart the 27 page pdf detailing the outstanding charge that is also freely accessible from companies house website

The charge is a 27 page legal mystery to me.
However the company which has issued the charge is registered in Jersey (where else?).
https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-...ncome-fund-limited-ordina/company-information

So how did Lambeth Council get itself into providing a subsidised entertainment complex for the benefit of Hargreaves Lansdowne investors investing through Jersey? This is a scandal.

 

[CH1]

As it hasn't been mentioned for 5½ years on this thread, Carl Turner, the éminence grise of Pop Brixton first achieved notoriety in Brixton via Channel 4's Grand Designs, which featured his modernist machine for living in Lytham Road.

There is an article here
or for connoisseurs of such things the TV programme is currently on recycle

Just for fun: much was made of Mr Turner's zero carbon aspirations and solar cell roof garden in the Lytham Road house

Does anyone know if there are solar cells deployed at Pop Brixton?
That upstairs communal area is baking hot in summer - but presumably that is just a greenhouse effect (for planting that never happened).

 

[editor]

As it hasn't been mentioned for 5½ years on this thread, Carl Turner, the éminence grise of Pop Brixton first achieved notoriety in Brixton via Channel 4's Grand Designs, which featured his modernist machine for living in Lytham Road..

What a lovely man

Search Results for: carl turner

 

[editor]

This is well worth a read

Owners of Pop Brixton reveal another massive loss in company accounts filed three months late

Make Shift Community, the owners of loss-making Pop Brixton, have just filed their annual accounts, which show them again making a massive loss.

www.brixtonbuzz.com

 

[CH1]

This is well worth a read

Owners of Pop Brixton reveal another massive loss in company accounts filed three months late

Make Shift Community, the owners of loss-making Pop Brixton, have just filed their annual accounts, which show them again making a massive loss.

www.brixtonbuzz.com

What or earth is going on? We were sold the line that this was some sort of community venture which would pay its way. Instead of that we seem to have some sort of white kids Hedonism 3 with added icicles and no sex.

It does employ a quota of security workers though - of all sexes. But do we want to foster a society where white (employed) youth go carousing in shipping containers "protected" by uniformed men and women of a different race?

I used to greatly enjoy the film of HG Wells Time Machine formerly shown a Christmas time in the days before everything on TV was a game show. Maybe the Pop Brixton users and promoters should take note of this admirably crisp description of HG Wells's characters in the time machine. If evolution is true they could be in for a bumpy ride!

"The Eloi are happy, carefree people who live above the earth's surface, eating fruit and basking in the sun, while the Morlocks lurk in the underground and shadows, hiding from light and only venturing out of their dark habitats to capture and feed on the Eloi race."

 

[Gramsci]

This is well worth a read

Owners of Pop Brixton reveal another massive loss in company accounts filed three months late

Make Shift Community, the owners of loss-making Pop Brixton, have just filed their annual accounts, which show them again making a massive loss.

www.brixtonbuzz.com

As the overall company "Makeshift" run two other projects ( Peckham and the Olympic site) I don't understand how the Council is going to ascertain its much vaunted profit share from Pop.

From reading the article looks like the different projects are all linked financially. With some of them debtors or creditors of the other projects.

Sounds to me like some creative accounting is going on.

Why the Council didn't insist that Pop be a stand alone company for that site only is a mystery to me.

Looks like profitability is also now linked to what is happening on the other two sites.

 

[equationgirl]

I can look at the charge document if it will help?

Also, companies house didn't just threaten to strike Make Shift off, they actually started the process for doing so. So not an idle threat at all.

The strike off process has now been discontinued.

 

[equationgirl]

Standalone companies means filing paperwork such as accounts for each one, which can be a pain in arse. Three separate companies is three times the hassle, three times the work to make sure deadlines aren't missed etc. So I would expect it's something like that.

That said, the council should have asked for a stand alone company for the sake of transparency. Much harder to hide things if there's no linked companies/accounts.

 

[Gramsci]

That said, the council should have asked for a stand alone company for the sake of transparency. Much harder to hide things if there's no linked companies/accounts.

As the Council opted for a rent free land model with a profit share one would have thought this was obvious.

Its obvious to me and I'm not a businessman.