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Search the Public Notice PortalHaringey Council's opposition leader says that a developer selling a historic town hall for £44 million more than it paid the council for it is a "huge embarrassment".
It emerged last week that Far East Consortium (FEC) has sold Hornsey Town Hall, in Crouch End, to the Cayman Islands-based AMTD Group for £47 million.
Haringey Council says it has yet to receive official notification of a sale.
The council sold the town hall and land behind it on a long lease to FEC for £3.5 million in 2016, for the listed building to be restored and developed as a hotel, housing and community arts centre.
Liberal Democrat councillor Luke Cawley-Harrison, who represents Crouch End, said: “The confirmed figures for this sale are a huge embarrassment for Haringey Council which sold off this iconic building, and premium land to the rear for a paltry £3.5 million less than 10 years ago."
He said council leader Cllr Peray Ahmet had last month assured the public that talk of a sale was “purely speculative” after initial rumours it had been sold, indicating the council was unaware.
Cllr Cawley-Harrison said FEC’s 2017 viability study into the site, which included land behind the town hall including Hornsey Library car park, since developed into 146 private flats, indicated the town hall alone would be worth £27 million upon completion.
FEC has now sold the building for £47 million without having completed any community spaces, including the arts centre.
Cllr Cawley-Harrison said the projected value was one of the reasons that just 11 social housing units were included, with FEC citing viability as the reason it could not build more.
He added the estimated combined value of the private flats and development behind the town hall is now "well over £100 million".
Cllr Cawley-Harrison said the sale took place "without any engagement with the local community".
He added: "Labour councillors promoted it as a great deal at the time - while Lib Dem opposition councillors and local residents fought it knowing the opposite was true - and they have been proved right.
"FEC has cashed in mightily on what was a prized public asset, and so far the residents of Haringey have nothing to show for it."
He said it was also "deeply concerning" that FEC had seemingly completed the sale without any awareness from Haringey Council.
He added: “FEC, which has overrun the development by a number of years now, and has had a history of poor communication and a total lack of engagement with the community during the development, must explain itself and say exactly what is going on with the future of this building.
"The council must also spell out how this appears to have happened without its knowledge and hold the new owners to account in delivering the community and arts centre everyone was promised.
"The community in Hornsey and Crouch End needs reassurance from all parties involved about the future of this historic building.”
A Haringey Council spokesman said the council had not received official notification that there had been a sale, but there has been an announcement of a new working partnership.
The council's leader Cllr Peray Ahmet said last week: “I have already arranged a meeting with Wendy Chiu, executive director and joint managing director of FEC, to seek assurances that their new strategic partnership will deliver on the objectives that were set out for the long-term future of Hornsey Town hall and that the community benefits will be brought forward.”
