PROPERTY magnate Eddie Mitchell has changed the name of his well-known Sandbanks business.

The change was passed two days after the Daily Echo revealed that receivers had been called in to seize some of the company’s Poole homes.

Seven Developments, known for a host of luxury Poole properties including the Thunderbirds-themed house in Branksome Park, is now called Glassblock (Poole) Limited.

Mr Mitchell, a former chairman of AFC Bournemouth and Dorchester Town FC, has declined to comment on why a resolution was agreed to change the name on January 19.

The Echo reported on January 17 that Nationwide Building Society had stepped in to take back some properties owned by Seven Developments.

Mr Mitchell expressed “disappointment” that Nationwide had appointed receivers to sell two flats at The Clock in Sandbanks Road, Lilliput. He said the same situation applied to four more properties on which his company had loans.

He said the company had taken out loans on the properties with the Derbyshire Building Society seven years before.

It understood the loans could be renewed every five years, but Nationwide had taken over the loans and had demanded payment at the end of the term, he said. He stressed Seven Developments had never missed a payment.

Mr Mitchell said at the time that Seven Developments, which originally bought the properties in the 1990s, would continue but was inactive at the moment.

Earlier this month, the Daily Echo reported how Mr Mitchell was selling bespoke football training arenas as part-owner of Elite Skills Arena. He said at the time he was looking to get out of the property business.

The arena in the garden of the Thunderbird house was built without planning permission and Poole planners have voted to refuse a retrospective application. Mr Mitchell has said he will appeal the decision on behalf of the home’s new owner.

 

EDDIE Mitchell’s Seven Developments was established in 1992, when the property market had yet to emerge from a slump.
In that time, it has seen the market recover, boom extravagantly, crash again and begin another recovery.
Seven Developments built and traded properties in the upmarket parts of Poole.
It became particularly well-known for its Thunderbirds House in Branksome Park, which went on the market for £4m a decade ago.
It was reported that Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was among those viewing the property then, but it failed to sell until recently – and then for only £1.9m.
Other Seven Developments properties that attracted attention included two 16ft wide houses built just 10 inches apart on the site of a single property at Sandbanks. The asking price was £745,000 each.
Nationwide’s recent decision to call in the receivers involved properties that Seven Developments had bought in the distinctive apartment building The Clock, in Lilliput, in the 1990s.
Speaking earlier this month about his “disappointment” at Nationwide’s action, Mr Mitchell told the Daily Echo that the company was inactive.
“We’re not doing anything at the moment. We’re not building anywhere,” he said then.