Last week there was a joint meeting between King’s Arms and Frontiers Estates (the Vendors) and our respective solicitors. This was a very positive meeting, which resolved a lot of issues that the two sets of solicitors had been discussing for some weeks, and led to the agreement that we would work towards the goal of enabling the signing and exchange of contract to take place on Friday 17th April. Since the meeting we have had the Easter holidays and I am still waiting to see if the goal set for the 17th April is going to be met; but if we do miss it then I anticipate it will only be by a few days.
The building has been valued once again. The first valuation was in September 08 and Unity Trust Bank, the bank providing us with a loan, required that we had another valuation undertaken by a different company. Fortunately the result of the exercise was the same valuation as previously, but sadly it cost us £1,900 plus VAT to learn this.
We have recently distributed a survey to 1,250 homes in the area around the Crayola Building to introduce ourselves and also to determine the needs of the community. The final response date for survey is the 24th April and we already have around 50 responses. In order to get a good response we have offered a free ipod nano to be won in a prize draw by one of the folks that completes the survey.
A potential problem emerged a few weeks ago when we learned that Bedford College were no longer buying the rear portion of the building. However a new buyer has now been identified but for business reasons they want a detached building and thus Frontier Estates (the Vendors) have agreed to demolish one span of the current building to create two detached buildings. This change will have no effect on the size of the building that we are buying and could be to our advantage.
So once again I am able to report slow, but continuing and steady progress. Apologies that this blog is not more exciting – maybe next time!!
Roydon
