Administrators instruct firm to market for sale Cliftonville Lido complex

Cliftonville Lido site Photo Visit England

The administration period for the company which bought two of the Cliftonville Lido sites, has been extended for yet another two years – with administrators taking the option to put the Lido on the market.

Stour Side Developments bought property including the Lido in 2014, the Kings Hall in Ramsgate and land at All Saints Industrial estate.

Administrators Duff & Phelps were brought in during July 2017 after concerns over business irregularities were highlighted.

In their latest progress report (August 2021) the administrators say: “(We) have consequently been considering and exploring the options available to the company to enhance the value of the Lido 1 and Lido 2 properties in order to maximise realisations.

“It has been determined that a sale of Lido 1 and Lido 2 properties together with Lido 3 and the Lido Pleasure Centre as a collective development opportunity would enhance their value as compared to piecemeal sales.

“The Joint Administrators have reached an agreement with the owners of Lido 3 and the Lido Pleasure Centre and are currently marketing these properties for sale.”

Photo Frank Leppard

The Joint Administrators also obtained from Court a further two-year extension to the term of the Administration which will now come to an end on 11 July 2023.

The report adds: “ The Joint Administrators contacted the owners of Lido 3 and the Lido Pleasure being Lido Views  and Lido Streetview respectively. Following discussions, the Joint Administrators reached an agreement and entered into an option agreement on 17 June 2021 which, in consideration of the Company paying £25,000 (which it has paid), grants the Company an exclusive option to purchase the Lido 3 and the Lido Pleasure Centre from Lido Views and Lido Streetview respectively for a set amount.

“The term of the agreement is 2 years, expiring on 16 June 2023. It was also agreed with Lido Streetview and Lido Views that, during the period of the option agreement, they be granted leases over both Lido 1 and Lido 2.

“As a consequence of entering the option agreement, the Joint Administrators are able to market for sale Lido 1 and Lido 2 properties together with Lido 3 and the Lido Pleasure Centre as a collective development opportunity.”

BroadSearch has been instructed to market the properties for sale and the administrators say there has been interest.

Photo Jools Moore

Today (November 2) part of the site is being cleared after the surface collapsed yesterday at the area closest to the sea facing wall along from the Cliff Bar building.

Stour Side Developments was owned by Russian businessman Alexander Andreev who acquired 100% of the share capital in the company in 2010 and was appointed its sole director. In 2014, Paul Eley was appointed as its second director.

That same year the company secured $750,000 in new loan capital from Singaporean Investors and together with Stour Side Investments (a connected party at the time) bought a business and assets in Torquay for circa £200,000. Due to sustained losses, trade ceased sometime in late 2015, early 2016.

Photo Frank Leppard

In 2014, the company (Stour Side Developments and Stour Side Investments)  acquired two plots at the Lido, including the car park, for £699,999. The purpose of the buy was to develop residential apartments or re-sell after having secured planning permission but no progress was ever made.

The third Lido site, of the snooker club, was bought by Lido Streetview Limited – run by long-time Lido manager Neville Borck and Martyn Buckley – for £100,000 in February 2017. Mr Borck is also a director of Lido Views.

Andreev and Eley mooted a sealife proposal for the site but this never came to fruition. An attempt to sell at auction also fell flat with the property being withdrawn.

In 2015 and early 2016, the company received additional cash from Evgueni Dogot and SIR Investments (a further connected company).

In 2017 Evgueni Dogot became sole director after the resignation of others including Andreev and Eley.

After discussions over concerns regarding transactions that were entered into by the company before Mr Dogot was in place it was concluded that it was unable to pay its debts and was insolvent.

Duff & Phelps were brought in as administrators with Stour Side Developments owing debts of £1,337,623. The aim has been to rescue the site as a going concern.

Full and final settlement has now been made regarding the Company’s claim over Lido site 1, The Rainbow Funhouse, King’s Theatre & All Saints Industrial Estate as well as an intercompany debt due from SSI in November 2020.

Part of the Lido site was being cleared last year by a group of six friends, led by Kent Underground explorer Lynton Owen. They worked on clearance of the cavernous rooms, tunnels and spaces that run under the Ethelbert Terrace site.

Adrian Handley (left) with project leader Lynton Owen of Save Margate Lido

Margate resident Lynton, 34, set up the Save The Margate Lido limited company and the aim is to convert to Community Interest Company status to access funding and attract investors to help restore the Lido and baths to their former glory.

Laser mapping of the area has been completed by Thanet council and the authority  secured £44,000 from the Coastal Revival Fund for a feasibility study.

The site includes the Grade II listed Clifton Baths which were constructed between 1824 and 1828, making them one of the earliest surviving seawater bathing establishments in the country.

The historical inner harbour of the Clifton Baths Photo Thanet Hidden History

The baths are also unique in being dug out of the cliffs. From 1926 onwards the site was re-modelled under Dreamland owner John Henry Iles, who helped its transformation into a modern seaside complex with bars, cafes and restaurants on multiple levels and an open air swimming pool projecting into the sea.

It was finally closed to the public in the 1980s and has since suffered years of neglect. The Ethelbert Terrace complex also includes The Lido bar and snooker hall, owned and managed by Mr Borck.

The administrators say future startegy includes progressing with the marketing and subsequent sale of the Lido properties, to include exercising the option over Lido 3 and the Lido Pleasure Centre.

Surface collapse at Lido site leaves gaping hole by sea-facing wall

25 Comments

  1. looks like another thanet seaside racket , there must be people having a lovely rake off with all these properties , i doubt if we will ever know the truth , although someone does

  2. Why don’t we set up a Go Fund Me page so it can be bought by the people of Thanet to use as a community asset with investment backing? Surely there’s a way to get this back into hands of people who care and want to make a difference?! Does anyone know where it’s being advertised? I can’t find it online.

  3. We now await another planning application, for yet more seaside flats, which none of the locals will be able to afford.

    • Why is that a problem, it’ll leave the existing cheaper housing stock in cliftonville available for locals. However the cost of property in cliftonville has no historically been the areas main problem. There have always been cheap homes available in cliftonville, that people still didn’t want to buy them just goes to reinforce the fact that cliftonville had/has a poor reputation and it’s not a place that many people would ever consider living.
      But in more recent years people from other areas. ( most notably london) have cashed in on their london properties and moved to cliftonville , which in comparison to some of the areas in london they’ve come from is a haven of tranquility and safety. As one i spoke with put it

      “ if you think it’s bad round here , you should see where i’ve left” ( the actial language was far more colourful.
      Many of cliftonvilles issues arise from it having been a dumping ground for residents that social housing doesn’t want and who were also declined from thanets better private rented sector areas, fill an area with junkies, alcoholics, the largely benefit dependent, anti social and it was enough to deter people from wanting to move their from within thanet. The arrival of those with a bit of wealth and enthusiasm for the area can only be a good thing, hopefully over time they’ll displace a good percentage of the less desirables that currently live there and give the area a bit of balance again.

      Sticking 200 flats on the lido and filling it with people with a decent amount of disposable income is going to do the area far more good than the dream of saving something that’s been unwanted for the last 40 years and allowed to decay for many more. That said as in other comments i’ve made it’d be excellent if it could be saved and returned to its former glory, but in today’s world that’s really not going to happen, but something does so it’s time to move forward.

      • Well said, bravo!
        Surely modern flats, similar to those on Ramsgate seafront with a mix of sea front bars and restaurants will be much improved from the current wasteland which attracts antisocial behaviour. It’s a prime site that is crying out to be redeveloped, it’s only a matter of time.

      • Just look at what has happened, land owners and landlords have decided it was a better income to close their hotels, and bed & breakfast lodges, and let the property to the overwhelming amount of migrants, this in turn brings people who have no respect to the area, and removes tourists from staying in the original lodges, and spending money at the Lido, Dreamland, and local shops. The area then results in people with very little money, and the only investment is in junk shops, charity shops, second-hand dealers, betting shops, and tattoo or barbers (because a licence or qualification is not required).

        Then the council steps in to also help destroy what is left, by charging silly prices for parking, in competition with free parking at Westwood.

        • Yes, also lack of places to stay, results in lack of people to the area, and in turn effecting The Winter Gardens, and also Theatre Royal.

          • Not everyone wants to stay in the larger hotels, which there are now few to choose from. Some people prefer the smaller, family run bed and breakfast hosts, but these no longer exist in Thanet.

      • thats not a bad idea– although, the area would have to be flattened first–problem then with the legacy tunnels–to allow construction from the promenade up to avoid new buildings obstructing the current roadside view–still, could be done. Something needs to be done, its, as we see now, crumbling away.

      • So pray where do these so called undesirable go, all this will do is raise the house prices even more so it will be the DFL’s who will snap up these properties. We need to start this king about the local populations issues and please don’t tell me that will bring in investment, just more arty farty projects for the wealthy

  4. No one is going to plough enough money into the site to restore it to its former glory. Anyone that thinks that someone will is living in cloud cuckoo land.
    Time to demolish the whole site.

  5. I’m beginning to work it all out.
    What I should have done all those years ago was to buy a derelict site with money I didn’t have. Let it deteriorate so that it loses even more of it’s appeal. (There is a wildlife element to this sort of plan. It’s now fashionable to buy overgrown patches of land, scrape all the wildlife off it with bulldozers and then claim that there is no wildlife on the site worth protecting and getting permission to build houses.) Anyway, in the case of the Lido, the site loses its heritage aspect rather than the wildlife.
    Eventually, somebody smells a rat (the only wildlife left alive, perhaps) and the pressure grows to “do something” about the site. At that point, the owners put in an application to demolish and build houses or flats and the value of the site rockets.
    To think that I worked all those years when I could have just bought some site of dereliction and then sat back and waited. After a bit, once the cash started rolling in, I could have been awarded an OBE for services to hard work!

  6. I agree with LC! When I first visited cliftonville was a no go area so the improvement is welcomed.

    For sale: Primark for instance belongs to the Sands Group I believe (correct me if I’m wrong)? Sold for a stupid amount left to rot and be a target for the bad graffiti gang, on the market for a massive sum would need another massive sum spent on it. Why are we not making the owners do what they promised on out adding. It blights the esplanade. The Nayland Rock, the Shakespeare probably owned by same company. It’s a free for all for the morally bankrupt ffs.

    The Winter Gardens and the Theatre must be saved!!

  7. It’s not very often that I agree with all the comments on here but most of you could have taken the words out of my mouth!
    When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, Cliftonville was a lovely place and the Lido was right at it’s heart.
    It is disgraceful that successive councils over more than 40 years have not only allowed the destruction of this wonderful place but actively contributed to it. Not without a few backhanders I don’t doubt.
    It’s nice to see money being invested in the regeneration of Margate and the mini revival that’s taking place but Cliftonville is still just being left to rot.

  8. Take the opportunity to clear out the slums and ex b&b, hotels rebuild from scratch turn the place into a decent place to live.rather than survive. Or leave it for another 100 years I know what I would choose. I am of course talking about the lido and the streets opposite.

  9. TDC officers and councillors are a hopeless bunch with no imagnation or sense of a realistic strategy for transforming Thanet into a genuinely desirable destination for visitors and business.
    Led by a hapless CEO and her inner circle of pals who have enjoyed years of ineffective challenge by elected members Thanet has slipped further and further down the prosperity ladder (snake?). Instead of navel gazing and closing public utilities (toilets, Winter Gardens, Theatre Royal etc), creating a hostile environment for visitors and business and neglecting every public asset they should be out of their cosy offices and accounting for their failed actions directly to the public.

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