CHELSEA have made a major breakthrough in its mission to transform Stamford Bridge.
BlueCo have completed the acquisition of a 1.9-acre site, which houses the Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions.
Chelsea and Stoll have been consulting with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council over the purchase and contracts have been exchanged.
However, the purchase will exclude the 400 block that will be retained by Stoll.
Chelsea’s chief operating officer, Jason Gannon, said: “We appreciate the opportunity to work with Stoll throughout a competitive tender process, and we are pleased to help ensure those veterans that wish to remain inside the Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham will be able to do so.
“Our thanks go to both Stoll and the local council, whose leadership has been essential to the process.”
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The land is believed to have cost the club £80million and will come under their ownership in 2025.
The purchase has been seen as controversial as around 100 military veterans and war widows live there and were keen to stay.
Fuming vets had applied for an injunction to stop the Stoll charity trustees from making the sale.
However, it was unsuccessful, with Chelsea now completing the acquisition.
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Hammersmith and Fulham Council Deputy Leader Ben Coleman has insisted that a suitable site has been found for the veterans so no one will be made homeless
He said: “When we found out about the plight of the Stoll veterans, I asked Chelsea to pause the sale until Stoll had agreed to make no one homeless and work with the council on finding a suitable site in Fulham that kept the community together.
“I’m extremely grateful to Chelsea for agreeing to do so and for the way they have worked with us to find a solution that puts the interests of the vets first.”
The Board of Trustees for Stoll has announced that it is concluding heads of terms with St William Homes to purchase 128 affordable housing properties in a major new housing development at King’s Road Park in Fulham.
Stoll chief executive, Will Campbell-Wroe, said: “The completion of the sale marks a transformational moment for Stoll and forms a central part of our long-standing mission to house and support many more veterans to lead fulfilling, independent lives both now and in the future.
“We understand that any transition to a new home will be challenging for many of our residents, and we are committed to providing every resident with an enhanced programme of financial, wellbeing and rehousing support – as we have been throughout this process.
“The properties at King’s Road Park will provide a higher standard of living along with being more comfortable, sustainable and energy efficient.
“For those residents who choose to move somewhere other than a Stoll property, we will provide them with 12 months of support, including helping them to find a new home.
“Those that move to another Stoll property will remain on the same tenancy they are on now and will continue to receive the same level of support that we have always provided.
“To be clear, no veteran at the Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions will be left without a home.
“We are also very grateful to Chelsea for its longstanding support for Stoll, through ongoing fundraising initiatives like its Big Stamford Bridge Sleep Out, and its support of the veterans throughout this process.
“We look forward to continuing to develop this positive partnership with the club.”
Chelsea want to build a new 55,000-capacity ground to keep up with their rivals commercially with the new owners hoping for a staged rebuild of the Bridge, with the stands replaced and upgraded one by one.
That transformation would also see the hotel behind the Shed End bulldozed.
Architect Janet Marie Smith, who has worked on a host of stadium renovations in America, has been hired to oversee the monumental task of rebuilding Chelsea’s famous ground.
Smith’s projects include Baltimore’s Oriole Park, Atlanta’s Olympic Stadium, the Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium in LA.
It is expected that the Blues will spend up to £2billion on the transformation of the 147-year-old ground.
The previous plans for the club included moving to a new site in London.
One plan was a shock move to a 60,000-seater stadium in Earl’s Court.
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Another was a relocation to Battersea Power Station as former owner Roman Abramovich made a bid to buy it in 2012 as he plotted to keep the building’s four chimneys as part of a design which included a 15,000-seat single-tier south stand.
But that plan ended when a Malaysian consortium bought the site for £400m.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
