London's dome goes for a song

By MARIE WOOLF

LONDON - The sorry saga of the Millennium Dome approached its final chapter yesterday, when the British Government handed over the failed attraction for nothing to private developers.

The dome was, in effect, given to an international consortium which plans to turn it into a 20,000-seat stadium for sports and concerts.

Opposition MPs expressed dismay that the Government would not see any cash from the profit-sharing deal until the end of 2004 and that one of the most valuable real-estate sites in Britain had been handed over without immediately returning a penny to public coffers.

The dome has drained £628 million ($2.2 billion) from National Lottery funds since it opened on New Year's Eve 2000.

It will be handed to the Meridian Delta consortium on a 999-year lease. The consortium will make phased payments to the Government for the rest of the 76.4ha Greenwich site.

Ministers have been anxious to offload the former attraction since two deals to sell it to private companies fell through.

The dome started with a lavish opening party and went steadily downhill, failing to reach its visitor targets and needing to be bailed out repeatedly with millions of pounds of taxpayers' money. It has cost the taxpayer more than £20 million since it closed.

Ministers said yesterday's deal was "new and exciting" and would lead to the regeneration of the Greenwich peninsula and new houses and commercial buildings.

Lord Falconer, the Minister for the Dome, predicted the deal could bring £500 million to the public purse during 20 years of an arrangement that could give the Government half the profits from the housing and commercial scheme on the site.

He predicted the joint venture would bring £4 billion of private investment into the dome site, including £200 million for the dome itself.

Opposition MPs accused ministers of selling the site too cheaply. Tim Yeo, the Conservative culture spokesman, said: "It's a measure of the way they have botched it that they are practically giving it away."

The Meridian Delta consortium, which is backed by Phil Anschutz, the United States billionaire who owns the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, will foot all the costs of regenerating the site and will assume all the risk if the project goes awry. The other members of the consortium are property company Quintain Estates and Lend Lease.

But there are still doubts about whether the Government may have to bail out the dome to improve transport links and infrastructure.

The Government will also face a £20 million bill from Lattice, formerly part of British Gas, which used to own the site and has a claim to a proportion of its sale proceeds.

Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, the former chief executive of the dome's operators, the New Millennium Experience Company, who once wanted to buy the dome, said he was "amused" by the deal. "Nine months ago, we came up with exactly the same proposals but we were written off as a bunch of madmen. I am not going to be bitter, I am happy that the dome has a future, but the past nine months have been a waste of time and public money."

- INDEPENDENT