More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A property developer from Thanet is the new owner of the derelict Pleasurama seafront site.
Documents lodged with Companies House last week reveal Martin Rigden is now the majority shareholder of Ramsgate Development Company (RDC).
The company is the freehold landowner of the former funfair and seaside attraction.
Mr Rigden was appointed as a director on February 8 but papers published on Thursday show he is now the 75% shareholder of the development company.
The 69-year-old businessman, who runs several development companies including Broadstairs-based Blueberry Homes, is listed as the sole director of RDC.
It is not yet known what Mr Rigden's intentions are for the site and whether he aims to continue with a project granted permission in 2004 or go back to the drawing board and come up with an entirely new plan for the land.
Pleasurama was destroyed in a fire in 1998 and has sat empty ever since despite planning permission for a 60-bedroom hotel and 107 luxury apartments being granted 15 years ago.
Mr Rigden takes over from previous director Anthony Hollis, who resigned on March 19, and Colin Hill who relinquished his stake in the company as a "person with significant control" on the same day.
Mr Hill is a director of Mintal Group, which holds a £3 million charge over RDC.
It was taken on by RDC when the company formed in September 2016, taking over from Cardy Ramsgate, which collapsed less than a week after the deal was signed in July 2016 when its parent company, Canterbury-based developers Cardy Construction, went into administration.
It was later revealed Cardy paid Thanet District Council £3m just days before the firm called in the administrators to take over the freehold of the site from the council.
RDC's address is now registered at Cliff Street in Ramsgate, moving from a previous address in Essex.
Ownership issues have hampered development ever since with developers
Piling started last year but work on the Royal Sands project stopped months later and is still sitting disused and overgrown.
But despite groundwork being laid with dozens of concrete pillars driven into the sands, the site has been neglected and left alone once again.
The issue of years of inaction was raised by independent candidate Gary Perkins, who is standing for election to Thanet council in May, when he staged a toy construction site on Sunday.
TDC received £730,000 from developers in 2017 to fund affordable housing provision elsewhere in the district.
A cabinet report in November revealed the money will buy three or four houses for families on the council’s housing list.
