HD One bosses will get another loan from Kirklees Council.
Some £200,000 of taxpayers’ cash is to be borrowed by Kirklees Stadium Development Limited (KDSL) after its bank threatened to cut its overdraft limit from £300,000 to £100,000.
KSDL – a joint venture between Huddersfield Town, the Giants and Kirklees Council – has already received two loans from the council for its huge HD One scheme, set to feature restaurants, shops and other leisure facilities on the 20-acre site around the John Smith’s Stadium.
A sum of £9m has been handed over to fund the planned Radisson hotel and a further £4m for the artificial ski slope plan.
KSDL boss Gareth Davies said the £200,000 was to make up for the reduced overdraft limit.
He said the council could have acted as guarantor for the full £300,000 but instead all parties had agreed a 12-month loan would provide more stability following the “surprise” decision of the bank to change its terms.
Kirklees Council has said it will make “commercial rates” of interest returns on the short term loan – more than it would make through saving the cash in a bank account.
“The bank’s decision was a surprise to me and to the council,” said Mr Davies.
“We’ve had a £300,000 overdraft since 2014 and we could have renewed it.
“But we agreed to not jump through that hoop and do it in a different way.”
Mr Davies said KSDL’s need for a six-figure overdraft was in no way an indication that the HD One plan was in trouble.
“HD One is happening,” he said. “The timescale is for construction to start next May. This short term loan is to make up the difference.
“KSDL has never missed a single bank payment, it’s an extremely stable business.
“HD One will be a game changer for diversifying revenue streams for us, so to say we’re in trouble couldn’t be further from the truth.
“The reality is for a good number of years KSDL has carried the burden of development costs and we’re not a development company.
“It’s not vast sums of money, but we had to raise the overdraft when the costs of the HD One project went up.”
Mr Davies said the money was needed to pay for some of the minor development costs ahead of other firms taking over the funding of the £100m project next year.
KSDL has signed a joint venture agreement with Elland-based Commercial Development Projects Ltd (CDP), setting up a new company, The HD One Kirklees Ltd, in the process.
CDP’s sister company, Marshall Construction, is also involved in the project, earmarked for completion in 2020.
Responding to questions of why taxpayers should offer the firm a third loan, Mr Davies said: “HD One will kick start the regeneration of Kirklees and bring over 500 jobs on the site, not including the hundreds of jobs constructing it over two years.
“That’s exactly why HD One is important.”
